The easiest way to learn how to edit in ArcMap is to complete the exercises in this tutorial. Most of these exercises can be completed with an ArcGIS Desktop Basic license—the exception is the geodatabase topology exercise, which requires an ArcGIS Desktop Standard or ArcGIS Desktop Advanced license.
The first portion of the tutorial (Exercises 1–3) uses data from Utah's Zion National Park, which contains such geologic wonders as red and tan sandstone rocks, steep cliffs, and multitudes of canyons. You will use the editing environment in ArcMap to create and modify spatial features to represent various natural and human-made phenomena in the park. After completing these exercises, you are able to create different types of new features, including points, lines, polygons, and text; assign attribute values; edit shapes; and build and use feature templates. You will also become familiar with many of the tools and parts of the user interface available to you when editing.
The remaining exercises (Exercises 4–5) show you how to edit data. You will learn how to maintain spatial integrity through topology and how to integrate new data with existing datasets using spatial adjustment.
You should complete the tutorial in sequence, since the software methods build on those introduced in earlier exercises and assume you understand those concepts. For exercises 1–3, you should complete the all subparts (such as a, b, c, and d) at the same time, then only stop after completing a whole exercise. For exercises 4–5, you can restart the tutorial again on either the next exercise or subpart without any difficulty since the maps and data are independent in these exercises.
Overview of the tutorial exercises
The tutorial is divided into a series of exercises and subparts:
- Exercise 1 introduces the editing environment, including the terminology and ArcMap user interface. You learn how to create new points, digitize lines and polygons on the map, change editing tools, utilize snapping while creating features, and use feature templates.
- Exercise 2 builds on these skills. You learn how to create features from existing features and how to edit existing features.
- Exercise 3 is all about text on your map. You convert labels to geodatabase annotation, place the text on the map, and create new annotation features using the editing tools.
- Exercise 4 shows you how to edit features to maintain spatial integrity. You use map topology to edit shared features and geodatabase topology to ensure that your line features connect properly. An ArcGIS Desktop Standard or ArcGIS Desktop Advanced license is required to complete exercise 4b on geodatabase topology.
- Exercise 5 uses spatial adjustment to transform and align your spatial data and transfer attributes among features.
Data credits
Zion National Park datasets are courtesy of the National Park Service and the United States Geological Survey.
Map topology datasets are courtesy of the United States Geological Survey.
The world imagery is a web-based layer being served from ArcGIS.com.