Using ArcCatalog

Using the ISO metadata editor
This wizard-style editor guides you through the process of
creating ISO-compliant metadata by asking for information in
plain language. You can navigate through the wizard from start to
finish by clicking the Next button. You can stop paging through
the wizard at any time and pick up where you left off later. To
move directly to a specific page, select it in the editor’s table of
contents.
On each page you can easily see which pieces of information are
mandatory. If a page is missing some mandatory information, the
page is marked in the table of contents. When the required
information has been added, the mark is removed. At any time a
quick scan of the table of contents will let you know if any
mandatory information is missing. You can stop editing metadata
at any time even if some mandatory information hasn’t been
provided.
Some pages that let you add optional information aren’t initially
shown in the editor. Only when you choose to add keywords or
scale information will those pages appear. Within an optional
section some metadata elements may be mandatory. For example,
if you decide you want to add theme keywords, the keywords
themselves are mandatory, but a description of the thesaurus that
the keywords are derived from is optional. When the keyword
page appears in the editor, it will have a mark in the table of
contents until a keyword has been provided.
This editor comes with a personal contacts database. On the
Metadata author, Point of contact, and Distributor pages, you can
get contact information from the database rather than typing it in
each time. You can add new contacts to the database by clicking
Save, and you can add, update, and delete contact information
from the database by clicking Edit Contacts. You can also run the
Edit Contacts application outside of ArcCatalog. If you are
authoring several metadata documents, you can have the editor
add you as the author every time by clicking Make Default on the
Metadata author page.
The ISO standard defines a core set of elements that includes a
few mandatory elements and an additional set of highly recommended
ones. Beyond the core set of elements, the ISO standard
defines a large number of elements that can be used to thoroughly
document GIS resources.
The ISO Metadata Wizard lets you define documentation for an
item. When ArcCatalog automatically creates metadata, the item’s
properties are added to the appropriate ISO metadata elements,
many of which belong to the core set. Default values will also be
added to some documentation elements. For example, the item’s
name will be added as a default title. The ISO Metadata Wizard
supports the documentation elements that comprise the rest of
the core elements. Properties of the item generally don’t appear in
the editor; if ArcCatalog can calculate the item’s extent in decimal
degrees, the extent page won’t appear. Over time, additional
pages will be added to the editor to support other elements in the
ISO standard.
WORKING WITH METADATA 137