Using ArcCatalog

Quick-start tutorial
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IN THIS CHAPTER
• Exercise 1: Building a catalog of
geographic data
• Exercise 2: Exploring data and
adding it to a map
• Exercise 3: Managing shapefiles
ArcCatalog lets you explore and manage your data. After connecting to
your data, use the Catalog to explore its contents. When you find the data
you want to use, you can add it to a map. Often, when you get data for a
project, you can’t use it right away; you may need to change its projection
or format, modify its attributes, or link geographic features to attributes
stored in another table. When the data is finally ready, you should document
its contents and the changes you have made. These data management
tasks can all be accomplished using tools that are available in the Catalog.
The easiest way to find out what you can do with ArcCatalog is to complete
the exercises in this tutorial.
• Exercise 1 shows you how to build your own catalog of geographic data
by adding data to and removing data from the Catalog.
• Exercise 2 illustrates how to explore and search for data and how to add
it to a map.
• Exercise 3 shows you how to define a data source’s coordinate system,
modify its contents, join attributes in another table to the data, and
symbolize features based on the joined attributes.
This tutorial is designed to let you work at your own pace. You’ll need
between two and four hours of focused time to complete the tutorial.
However, you can also perform the exercises one at a time if you wish.
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