Keyboard Shortcuts - Built in and Assigned

Shortcuts are very beneficial if you use the same command a lot and don't want to type in a repetitive command in the command prompt. Esri has created built in shortcuts but you can also create your own. In the ArcGIS you can find the built in shortcuts which I have copied and pasted from there here for you.

I have also assigned shortcuts for 11 of my most used buttons/commands. To accomplish this, you will navigate to customize in ArcGIS and click Keyboard.

You can search the command that you want. In the "Press new shortcut key" box actually press the command you are assigning it to, e.g. press the F12 button. Then click assign.

Tip: you can only assign the function keys and if you want a letter assigned to something you have to put control in front. You can't assign P for perpendicular command it must be Ctrl +P.

Using the Right Angle Tool

Problem: You are creating a polygon with many right angles and right clicking and then clicking deflection takes too much time.

Solution: Use the Right Angle Tool in the Editor Toolbar.

1. You will need to click the first two points before clicking this button, but after that you are just clicking on the points you want!

Keyboard shortcut to temporarily not snap to edges

Problem: You are editing some data and most of the time you want to snap to edges. When you do not want to snap to edges it is quick and you want a keyboard shortcut instead of moving your mouse to click on the icon.

Solution: Hold shift when you don't want to snap! It is that easy.


I learned this while listening to the ESRI editing videos from Summer 2013 UC and I have already started using this shortcut.

Temporary Break

As you can tell, I have taken a break from this blog for almost 2 months. Since then, I have gotten a new job several states away. I am still looking for a place to live so it might be another month or two before I get back to this blog. I have several ideas ready ( I even have one post in drafts for an update to my data driven pages post ) with cartography topics.

My new position is more data editing so my post will move more in that direction. If you have questions or a topic you would like me to discuss let me know.

Tiffany

Poorly Designed Infographics

I found this site from a post in the forum of the MOOC class, Geospatial Revolution I am taking.

16 useless infographics . This gives you examples of poorly designed maps.  I have placed below the worst of the worst.

This map is 3 maps on top of each other. Sometimes you can overlay data, but not in this case. 

This map has four people representing roughly 43,000 nurses and then jumps by 28 more people for only a 3,000 increase in nurses!

This is showing when the Android is released. The long the color block the more usage? It does not explain much here. 

This map is showing two different thing one for child poverty and the other for schools needing improvement. It looks like the left is subcounties and the right is of counties. 

This could have been a interesting map if the slices corresponded with the amount of time people spend on the site. This makes it look like we all use each website for the same amount of time. 

Using Shift for Cartography

Problem: You want to slightly move your legend or another element in your map.

Solution: Hold the shift down while using the arrow keys to move your intended element.

I know this is a short and easy post today, but while using this trick today I thought some people might not know how to do this. This can save some headache when doing tedious work to your maps.

Smoothing Tool in Advanced Editor

Problem:
You have many polygons that are not smoothing and for aesthetics they need to be smoothed.

Solution:

1. Start an Edit session for the shapefile that needs to be smoothed. 
2. Select the individual polygon or multiple polygons that need to be smoothed.
   
3. Add the Advanced Editor toolbar.
4. Select the last icon, Smooth. 
   
5. A dialog box will appear and you will choose a positive number for the offset. This number will depend on the polygon. For this example I choose 1, but I have also done 10 to make the polygon smooth. 
   
6. Your final result should look smooth. If you select too high of an offset, this can drastically change the shape of your polygon. As you can see below the shape is still the same but the rough edges are gone.