Intro to ArcMap (LAB2B)

I enjoyed the ArcMap tutorial. I have had some limited experience with ArcMap before, so I thought it might be too easy. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the tutorial because it introduced a lot of GIS functionality quickly. It was definitely worth while and I learned some new tricks.
The aspect of the tutorial that I found most interesting was ArcMap’s ability to select data based on its proximity to features on the map. I’m sure this function could be useful in many situations where one needs to know what is going on in a certain area. An obvious example of this is in the tutorial, where we had to use this function to determine what land uses are near the airport.
Another thing I found useful in this exercise was the section on formatting and layout. Although it is very simple, the align tool saves me a lot of time now that I know how to use it. Furthermore, the section on layout view was very helpful. I hadn’t worked with multiple data frames before. Now that I’ve been introduced to multiple data frames it opens up new possibilities.
ArcMap makes it very easy to put a lot of features on the map very quickly. I think a major challenge with GIS and ArcMap is having enough understanding to know what tool to use out of all of the options. We shouldn’t let the ArcMap tools dictate how we make our maps. Rather, we should first think about what we want to do, and then find the tool to do that specific function.