Own Your Own Map

PART III: Process Summary Description

1)      To find the Metadata for each of the layers, I added the layers to ArcGis and then I right-clicked on the layer, went to Data, then went to View Item Description to view some of the Metadata.  The rest of the data I utilized the ArcCatalog Window in viewer ArcGIS to right-click on the layer to view Properties.

2)      The following steps were used to produce my own map

a)      Copied data from the S drive to R drive and unzipped the file

b)      Opened ArcGIS in eDesktop

c)       Added both layers to the map with cities_feb04 on top

d)      Change the symbol for cities_feb04 to Circle 1 size 7

e)      Change the color of cntbnd to some tan color

f)       Selected Layout View to begin making my map

g)      Changed from Portrait to Landscape

h)      Added a neatline.  Not used to doing this.  New to me, so I had to redo a couple of times to fully understand it.

i)        Used the zoom tool to get the data to the view I wanted.

j)        Added the title.  Couldn’t come up with anything snappy here. Just played around with the font and got bored. Stuck to the basics.

k)      Added the Legend after ensuring the titles I wanted would show by renaming the layer names. Had already renamed them when I read the advised way to do it.

l)        I then added a north arrow.  That took a while deciding which one.

m)    Next was the Scale Bar, so folks could get an idea of the actual size of the object on the map.

n)      Finished up with Data Source and Prepared By. And changed the background for a little splash of color.

o)      Now the map is saved and exported as a JPEG to the S drive and backed up on the H drive.

p)      Time to post to my Blog and upload to Dropbox.

q)      Finished.