ArcView Tools
Lab
Open a view and take note of the view tool and button bars
Set measurements: View Menu/Properties: enter map measurements in meters and distance measurement in miles (or kilometers) [Do this every time you make a new view: make it a mater of habit.
Find a feature in a theme: make the theme active and
click on the binoculars to open the find dialogue. Enter the feature name.
The found feature is now selected.
Label the found feature: Theme/autolabel will label the selected feature.
Use the find to locate another feature, then use autolabel to label this second feature. This process can be continued.
Find a feature in the Table view. Open the table of the active them; use
the promote icon 
to see the
currently selected feature.
Locate and select a feature using the
visual selection tool
: locate the
feature of interest and select it, using a click for points, or click and drag
to enclose a number of features.
Use the autolabel function to label the feature(s) selected.
Label tool. Click on pull out icon, the place cursor
on a feature with a name (a census registration district, for example) and
click and drag the cursor to the position where you want the label to be
displayed.
Text tool.
Activate the text tool, then go to a location on the view and enter the text
you wish to display. Use SHIFT-ENTER to
begin a new line in the text window.
Relocate the entered text: Using the black arrow cursor 
place the cursor on the text and click to
select it. Four handles will appear. Now you can drag the selected text to a
new location. GENERAL NOTE: the text is a GRAPIC set, just as other graphic
elements that can be created with the drawing tool 
, as we’ll
see below.
To delete text or graphics: highlight the text or graphic and press the delete key. To select several items, hold down the SHIFT key and successively select the graphics you wish to delete. To select all graphics, go to the Graphics menu and choose Select all graphics
The measure distance tool: Activate the icon, then click and drag
to the point wanted. The distance of
the line is displayed in the status bar at the bottom left of the view window.
Double click to end the line, or single click to start another line segment.
After a final double click, the measured distance remains in the status bar
until you activate another function or feature.
Creating zones with the drawing tools T
The drawing tools
allow you to do create simple shapes on your view: point, lines, rectangles,
and circles.
The circle tool can be used to create
zones of specific radii. Activate the tool, then click and drag to desired
radius, then release. The radius of the circle is displayed in the status bar.
If you wish, you can now use the text tool to label the zone you have created. [NOTE: A rectangular or free hand zone can
also be created using the appropriate drawing tool.]
Change the zone: use the black arrow cursor to enlarge or diminish the circle: note how the radius changes in the status bar. Any time you use the black cursor to select the graphic, the distance will again be displayed.
Change the zone in another way: use the Graphics/Size and Position function to make very precise changes.
Selecting features in your zone: use the Select Features 
icon. All of the features within the zone
will be selected. You can then label them or examine their values by opening
the theme table and using the promote button to bring the selected features to
the top of the table for viewing.
Use autolable to label your selected features.
To de-select, click on the blank page icon 
to the immediate left.
Remove one or more labels by selecting them and then hit delete. Or use the Remove Labels under the Theme menu: only the currently selected labels will be removed.
Locate a central location in your region, use the circle tool to make concentric rings. Re-examine the pattern of net migration.
Preserving your maps in Layout. Once you have a map completed to your satisfaction, you can preserve it by disconnecting it with the view that you are currently working on.
In layout view, click somewhere in the map to open the View Frame Properties: View1 should be highlighted as opposed to Empty View because your view is not empty.
Use the cursor to remove the check mark in LIVE LINK. Now your layout will not change when you return to the View window and make changes in that window.
To redraw your map in layout after making revisions in the view window, follow the same steps and click on Live Link to reactivate it. The layout will then update your map.
Give your layout a name so you will be able to identify it in the future from the Program window under “Layouts.”
In the layout window
Go to Layout/properties and enter a meaningful new name.
Saving Images from ArcView
Maps and their associated graphics (titles, legends, labels, etc.) can be saved using the Export function on the ArcView File menu. You can export from a View or from a Layout.
For use in MS Word or use in a web page, the JPEG image format should be used.
Use the Export function in ArcView to export your image in this format.
Controlling image size and quality in Export. Use the options button on the Export window to set the size of the image in dpi (dots per inch) and the quality of the image (15 to 100, with 100 being the best).
Rule of thumb: the greater the dpi setting, the larger the image. Choose 120 or 96 dpi normally, or 72 dpi for a smaller image.
Quality: if your image is going to be placed in a Word document, you can use a high quality image by setting quality to, say, 75. Images intended for the web should be more compressed: try 50 or lower.
Image size for the WEB: you will need to balance image size and quality against the need in the WWW environment for images that are as small as possible so they appear quickly in a browser. A good rule of thumb is to shoot for images of 10-12 KB for modem connections, with 50 to 60 KB workable on a very fast connection such as the MHC service (when it’s not bogged down)..
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