Centre de recherche géographique

Walter Hitschfeld
Geographic Information Centre

Using ArcGIS 9.x: Quickstart Tutorial

ArcGIS is a program which allows the user to view and manipulate spatial data. It is
useful in creating maps and displaying data spatially. This tutorial explains the basics of
using ArcGIS, how to open and view a shapefile, and some simple ways to represent
information spatially.

Requirements:
• ArcGIS
• Spatial data

There are two major types of data that can be displayed in a GIS: raster and vector data.
Vector data displays information as points, lines, and polygons. Raster data is stored as a
continuous series of pixels. Vector data is stored with the file extensions .jpg, .tif, .gif.,
or bmp. Raster data is commonly stored as a shapefile (.shp), a format specific to
ArcGIS.

If you do not already have spatial data you want to use, the shapefiles of Canada used in
this tutorial are available here
http://www.edrs.mcgill.ca/GIS/dmti/censusboun/webpage/census_2001.html#canada
These data can only be downloaded with a McGill IP address, either on campus or using
a VPN. These filed will need to be unzipped. Click on each file you want to unzip,
choose Open, and click on “Extract all Files” from the left-hand side of the box
displaying the zipped files. A wizard will take you through the steps to unzip the files.
Choose the same destination folder for each set of files.

Procedure:
Loading data
1. Follow the link above and download provincial boundaries (CANprv), national
coarse water (CANwat), and capital cities (CANcap). Unzip the files to the
same folder.
2. In the start menu, select ArcGIS from the programs folder. Several options
will appear. Choose ArcMap.
3. Once the program loads, a dialog box will appear:

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Select “A new empty map” and click OK.

4. Go to File→Add data. You can also click directly on this symbol .

5. Navigate to where your data is stored using the drop-down menu at the top of
the box.

The .shp suffix indicates that these are “shapefiles”, the format used by ArcGIS for raster
data. Layer files have the suffix .lyr. These files contain specified colors and
representations, whereas the shapefiles contain the actual data. In this exercise (and for
most ArcGIS work), shapefiles are the best format to use.

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The symbols preceding the name of the file shows which format the file is in. Cities will
appear as points. Provinces and water will appear as polygons. Drainage, rivers, and
roads, if these files were available, will appear as lines. Hold down the shift button and
select all of the shapefiles. Click Add.

You now have a map of Canada:

Ordering Layers
The column on the left-hand side is called the Table of Contents and it displays a list of
the layers in the map. The layers can be turned on or off by checking or unchecking the
box next to the name. The order of the layers can also be changed by dragging the files
up or down within the index.

The map looks strange because the land file does not include the water, and the water file
is behind the land file. First, make sure the “Display” tab is selected at the bottom of the
Table of Contents. Click on the CANwat file (the water file) in the left hand column and
drag it so that it is listed above the CANprv (the province file) layer. The points which
represent the capital cities can remain on top. This is the result:

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Changing colors and symbols
ArcGIS randomly chooses colors for its layers. Your map will probably have different
colors than this example, but the pink and orange in this map are difficult to look at.
Click on the box just below the CANwat layer. The Symbol Selector menu will appear.
You can change the color by selecting a box from the left hand side of the menu, or by
clicking on down arrow next to the Fill Color box. A menu of colors will appear from
which you can select.

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Turn the water blue and the land mass green or brown (or whatever you choose). The
symbol for the cities can also be changed using the same menu. The result is a better
map than the pink and orange image seen previously.

Moving around the map

The following tools are used to change which portion of the map you want to see:

Zoom in—use this tool to click on or draw a box around an area you want enlarged
Zoom out—use this tool to click on or draw a box around an area you want reduced
Fixed zoom in—zooms in toward the center of the screen
Fixed zoom out—zooms out from the center of the screen
Pan—“pulls” the image without changing the scale
Full extent—shows the full image of all the layers in the map
Go to Previous extent—changes the map back to the last view of the map
Go to Next extent—allows you to navigate forward to a different view
Select features—highlights a feature on the map and in the table
Select element—allows you to move elements such as text boxes, pictures, etc.
Identify—reveals information “hidden” in the data file
Find—finds a location and will zoom to it or mark it with a point
Measure—measures the distance between two points
Hyperlink—this button is usually not activated unless there is a link associated with a
layer

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Any further manipulation of the map depends on the data within each shapefile. Right
click on the name of a layer and select Open Attribute Table.

A table like this will appear:

In this file, there is data for the population in 2001, the number of dwellings, area in
square miles, the population per square mile, and the name of each province. The
information in the attribute table can be represented and visually on the map.

Identifying map features

Click on the Identify tool . Clicking with this tool on any part of the map will open a
box with information about the shape or point you chose. For example, clicking on the
red star in the western-most part of the country brings up this box:

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Try clicking on other parts of the map. Changing the settings in the top of the box will
allow you pinpoint exactly which layers you want to identify. For example, by choosing
the province layer, you will not accidentally bring up any information about bodies or
water or capital cities. The identify results for Saskatchewan show all the information
listed in the table for that province, such as the population in 2001 and the area in square
kilometers:

The information in the tables can also be displayed graphically. This is one of the most
popular and useful applications of a GIS. To do so, right-click on a layer and select
“Properties…”. This menu will appear:

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The symbology tab allows you to change the display of each layer, just as you did before
by clicking on the symbol for each layer. Under Features→Single Symbol, the color and
representation of points, lines, or polygons can be changed. For example, you might
want to change the colors so that rivers are blue, cities are represented by stars, and roads
are black.

By selecting Categories→Unique values, you can give each category within a file a
different color or representation. Choose the field you want to represent from the Value
Field menu and click Add All Values.

In this example, each province will be given a unique color. The colors can be changed
by choosing a different scheme from the drop-down menu, or by individually clicking on
each box to the left of the heading name.

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By choosing Quantities→Graduated colors you can display the quantitative data
associated with the file. In the Value field, select the data you want represented. In the
Normalize By, you can select any other variable available to make a simple ratio. In this
example, Population is normalized by Dwellings to reveal the average number of people
to a dwelling in each province. The classification/natural breaks box allows you to
choose how many categories (i.e., shades of brown) you want to display.

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This is the result:

This reveals that there are more people living in each dwelling in Nunavut than in any
other part of Canada.

Labeling Features
Also in the properties menu is the Labels tab. Select this tab. In the upper lefthand
corner, select “Label features in this layer”. This box will allow you change the font and
font size and the label style. The “Other Options” box allows you to set parameters for
whether labels will overlap or not.

After choosing Label Styles→Properties→Symbol Properties→Properties→Mask (quite

a long way to go), there is the Halo option which allows you to put a halo of color around
the label. There are many other options available. Explore the various menu options and
have fun making a unique map.

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There are many more ways in which data can be displayed spatially. Recommended
resources for learning more about the ArcGIS software are:

Getting to know ArcGIS desktop : basics of ArcView, ArcEditor, and ArcInfo. Tim
Ormsby ... [et al.]. Redlands, Calif.: ESRI Press, 2004.Gorr, WL and Kurland, KS.

GIS tutorial : workbook for ArcView 9. Wilpen L. Gorr, Kristen S. Kurland. Redlands,
Calif.: ESRI Press, 2005.

Both books are available on a three-hour loan at the GIC.

© Walter Hitschfeld Burnside Hall, 5th Floor

805 Sherbrooke Street West Montreal, Quebec H3A 2K6
Tel: (514) 398-7453 Fax: (514) 398-7437
Email: [email protected]

Prepared by GIC staff: Amy Kimball

Last Updated: Nov 2006

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