Spatial Analysis Laboratory Logo
Intro to Arcview 101

ArcView GIS is a full-fledged power tool, able to do a wide array of mapping and analysis functions. The magic of GIS is its capacity to help the user explore data in innumerable ways. There are so many options for working with GIS that it is impossible to show more than a brief set of examples.

Below is a sequence of animated GIF images created using ArcView GIS. They show the process of creating from scratch maps and tables and charts from data that is available on this Site. It is not so important that you understand exactly what is being portrayed in each image. Rather, what you need to see is that, with GIS, the user creates and constantly refines the map. Making these decisions, and being able to do so over and over again in seconds, the user can learn more about the topic than is possible with just static maps.


Part 1 A picture linking to an Arcview tutorial When you begin a project in ArcView GIS, you get to design the map from scratch, but it's easy with pre-constructed data.
Part 2 A picture linking to an Arcview tutorial Using GIS, you design the map as you see fit, selecting the colors and ways of classifying data.
Part 3 A picture linking to an Arcview tutorial With GIS, you control the map projection and the scale to which you are zoomed in or out.
Part 4 A picture linking to an Arcview tutorial GIS allows you to add new data sets at any time, and to control which layers are lowest and which ones are topmost on the map.
Part 5 A picture linking to an Arcview tutorial GIS makes it easy to change the way a set of data is classified, and you can see the results immediately. And when it's time to save, ArcView GIS lets you preserve the work in the current state.
Part 6 A picture linking to an Arcview tutorial On the fly, you can change the field being mapped, create custom classifications, and apply new colors as desired.
Part 7 A picture linking to an Arcview tutorial You control all the characteristics of a map display, including what the legends look like and how much information can be seen.
Part 8 A picture linking to an Arcview tutorial Even more powerful than the ability to visualize data is the power to analyze it. ArcView GIS lets you ask questions and explore the results in both map and table form.
Part 9 A picture linking to an Arcview tutorial You can create these queries in the map and see the results in the table, or you can query the table and see the results in the map.
Part 10 A picture linking to an Arcview tutorial Of course, at any time, you can zoom in and out, change the selection set, identify a feature and its characteristics, or ask the computer to help find a feature.
Part 11 A picture linking to an Arcview tutorial Because you can sort tables by names or numbers, from bottom to top or top to bottom, new patterns can emerge all the time.
Part 12 A picture linking to an Arcview tutorial Powerful as they are, maps and tables can be enhanced even more by creating charts to emphasize just certain characteristics of geographic features.


Get more information about ArcView from ESRI