HOW TO OPEN MAP DOCUMENT

Launch ArcMap

On the Windows taskbar, click Start, then All Programs > ArcGIS > ArcMap 10. Depending on your operating system and how ArcGIS and ArcMap have been installed, you may have a different navigation menu. If you did not have ArcGIS software download it HERE.

In the resulting ArcMap - Getting Started window, click Existing Maps > Browse for more.

Open an existing map document

In the Open ArcMap Document dialog box, browse to the drive where you installed the file, you can download the tutorial file HERE. Unzip it in your C:// drive. (for further training, create a new folder to save all tutorial datas). You can now click on tutorial.1 map document and click open or you double click

The Tutorial1 map document opens in ArcMap (see image below) showing a map consisting of the US States layer. The US Cities layer is the subset of cities with population greater than 300,000. The left panel of the ArcMap window is the table of contents. It serves as a legend for the map plus has several other uses you will learn about. Note that the Tools toolbar, which is floating on the bottom of the screen on the next figure, may be docked somewhere in the interface. If you wish, you can anchor it by clicking in its top area, dragging it to a side or top of the map display window, and releasing when you see a thin rectangle materialize. If you do not see the Tools toolbar at all, click Customize > Toolbars > Tools to make it visible.

Save the map document to a new location

   You will save all files that you modify or create while working through the tutorials map document to a new location, you will save all files that you modify or create while working through the tutorials.

 On the Menu bar, click File > Save As.

 Save your map document as Tutorial1 to new folder, you may call it (MyExercises).

Working with map layers

  Map layers are references to vector data sources such as points, lines, and polygons, raster images, and so forth representing spatial features that can be displayed on a map. ArcMap displays map layers from a map document such as Tutorial 1, but the map document does not contain copies of the map layers. The map layer files remain external to the map document wherever they exist on computer storage media, whether on your computer, a local area network, or on an Internet server. 

  Next, you will use the map document’s table of contents to display the map layers in the document.

Turn a layer on and off

  Before GIS existed, mapmakers drew separate layers on clear plastic sheets and then carefully stacked the sheets to make a map composition. Now with GIS, working with layers is much easier.

  In the table of contents, select the small check box to the left of the US Cities layer. A check mark appears if the layer is turned on. Note that if the table of contents accidentally closes, you can click Windows > Table of Contents to reopen it

In the table of contents, clear the check box to the left of the US Cities layer to turn the layer off.

 Add and remove map layers

  You can add map layers to the table of contents from their storage locations.

  

Click the Add Data button      

In the Add Data dialog box, click the Connect to Folder button     .

 In the Connect to Folder dialog box, browse to Computer, click the drive where you installed the unzip the data (for example, C:\), and click OK 

Open the tutorial folder you open and click the ‘uscities’ and click add folder, the data will display on the map. 

 

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