1 In the table of contents, click the Breast Cancer Deaths by County layer to turn it on.
2 On the Tools toolbar, click the Identify button.
3 Click any state or county polygon feature.
4 In the Identify dialog box, click the “Identify from” arrow and select Breast Cancer Deaths by County. This restricts the identify selection to features in this layer only, ignoring the features in other layers.
5 Zoom to the state of Texas. Use your spatial bookmark if you created one.
6 Click any county polygon feature in Texas. Observe the attribute values in the Identify dialog box. Notice that another date range (1990 – 1994) for breast cancer counts and rates is available for counties.
7 Close the Identify dialog box.
YOUR TURN
Practice using the Identify tool in a geographic area that interests you. Restrict the layers to state, county, and major US cities, and observe the data in each feature class. Are you able to observe any health-care trends for breast cancer?
Use advanced Identify tool capabilities
You can use the Identify tool to navigate and create spatial bookmarks.
1 Zoom to the full extent and turn off all layers except Breast Cancer Deaths by State.
2 Click the Identify button, click inside any feature, and in the “Identify from” list, click Breast Cancer Deaths by State.
3 Click inside the state of Illinois.
4 In the Identify dialog box, right-click the state abbreviation name (IL) and click Zoom To. The map display zooms to the extent of the state of Illinois.
5 Right-click the state abbreviation name again and click Create Bookmark.
6 Close the Identify dialog box.
7 Click Full Extent.
8 Click Bookmarks > IL.
Save the map document
1 On the Menu bar, click File > Save As.
2 Save your map document as Tutorial2-4YourName.mxd to your Chapter2 folder in MyExercises. Do not close ArcMap.
Tutorial 2-5
Selecting map features
GIS links graphic features of a map layer to associated attribute records in a table. When you select features on a map, you can correlate them with the records in the table. That way, you can perform functions on a subset of features and records, including generating statistics, making new layers, or doing analysis.
Select a single feature
1 In the table of contents, turn on the Major U.S. Cities layer.
2 Click Full Extent.
3 On the Tools toolbar, click the Select Features button .
4 Click inside Texas. The selected state feature is highlighted on the map.
Select multiple features
1 To make multiple selections, hold the SHIFT key and click inside each of the states surrounding Texas.
Change the selection color and clear a selection
Sometimes you will want to produce a map that has certain features selected. Then you’ll want to be able to change the selection color for the purpose at hand. For example, a bright red color might be better for drawing attention to map features.
1 On the Menu bar, click Selection > Selection Options.
2 In the Selection Options dialog box, click the color box under Selection Tools Settings.
3 Select Mars Red as the new selection color and click OK.
The selection color for map features is now bright red.
4 On the Selection menu, click Selection > Clear Selected Features.
Set selectable layers
When there are many layers in a map document, you may want to restrict which ones are selectable. This simplifies the selection process.
1 In the table of contents, turn on all three map layers.
2 At the top of the table of contents, click the List By Selection button .
3 Click to clear the check boxes for Breast Cancer Deaths by State and Breast Cancer Deaths by County to make only Major U.S. Cities selectable. Now only cities will be selected.
4 Click the Select Features button and click a city. The selected city gets the selection color you chose previously and is listed in the table of contents. The name of the city is also displayed in the table of contents.
5 On the Tools toolbar, click the Clear Selected Features button .
Select features by graphic
Selecting features by using graphics is a faster way to select multiple features.
1 Click Bookmarks > Florida.
2 Click the Select Features arrow and then Select by Circle.
3 Click inside the state of Florida and drag the pointer to draw a circle that includes five cities in the central and northern parts of Florida. The resulting map shows multiple cities selected and the resulting names included in the table of contents.