Working with the console

Along the left side of the ArcGIS Explorer application window you'll see a set of horizontal bars and panels that form its control center, or console. Here's where you'll be able to get tools to interact with the map, find out more about what is on it, perform actions that will create reference locations or supply additional visual information, and determine the visual characteristics of the map. At the top of this area of the application is the Task Center. The Task Center is the area of the application in which you'll work with tasks. Tasks yield results. The output of a task will appear in the Results window, preceded by an icon that has the same icon as the task that created it. In addition, the console contains a window named Contents where you'll be able to see the names of the content that is currently being displayed. You can also use the Contents window to control the visibility of layers.

Each group has a set of elements beneath it. You can hide or show all the components of a group by clicking its title or clicking Hide item in the menu at its right; for example, the Tasks group looks like this when closed:



In the Tasks group, each component has an icon and a title and additional controls at its right:



While the behavior of the container aspect of the Results and Contents windows are similar to the Tasks window, the elements within them represent different kinds of objects. Interactions with them are unique to each group. See each section below for more information on the specific group.

The Task Center is the area of the ArcGIS Explorer user interface in which you carry out actions on the map using tasks. To activate a task, simply click its name; the Task Center will display the parameters or tools required to do the job. Notice that when you click a task, its name appears at the top of the Task Center and the parameters it requires display beneath the Task Center heading:



In this state, the task you selected is said to be the active task and appears highlighted:



Once you've completed the information a task requires, click its action button, for example, the action button of the Driving Directions task is labeled Get Directions. The result of the task appears in the Results window.

The Window's context menu lets you hide, show, or float the window on the desktop.

In addition to inspecting the map visually as you navigate over it, you can carry out tasks that will help you find out other things about the geographic area before you. Each map you open has a set of tasks relevant to the current map you are exploring. For this reason, some of the tasks you see in one map may differ from those of another. Each task has a help topic specific to it that you can access from the Task Center.

Generally, each task requires some information that you supply. In some cases, this information might be a location; in another, it might be an exclusive choice from a set of options such as whether you want directions for the fastest or shortest route; in addition, you may be presented with a list of nonexclusive options that you supply. In some cases, you can supply additional parameters, such as a search radius in the units of your choosing.

Each task performs a unique operation, but you'll see that there are some common ways to supply information. For example, if the task you are working with requires one or more coordinate pairs from the map, you can use a location tool that's displayed with the other task parameters in the Task Center:



To use this tool and others like it, for example, a line or polygon tool, select it in the Task Center and then move it over the map and click the location you want; the coordinate points will be placed in the appropriate text area or sketched on the map.

For some tasks, you may want to use its associated tool repeatedly; for example the Identify task. To do so without having to select the tool each time, hold down the Ctrl key while using the tool.

In addition to using the location tools, you may want to use the coordinates that are associated with a location you already know about or have used another tool to find. These locations may be in the Results window. No matter where these elements are in the Task Center, you can drag and drop a result to the appropriate part of the task that requires a location. When the mouse pointer rests on a target that can accept the content of your drag operation, ArcGIS Explorer will highlight it; for example: here's the Starting Location of the Driving Directions task prior to receiving content:

The plus sign next to the pointer indicates that the dragged element can be dropped on the highlighted area.

Still another way to supply a location parameter is to make use of a result's context menu Send To item. For more information about this technique, see the Results section immediately following this one.

Depending on the task performed, you will see an entry in the Results window during execution and on completion of the task. Next to the result's name, where appropriate you'll see a check box which, when toggled, will hide or show the result on the display. Next to the check box, you'll see the icon of the result — it matches the icon at the left of the task bar. For example, if you search for a place by name, you will see the text you entered; if there are several results, you can click the small plus sign to the left of this entry and expand it to see all the matches. If one location is found, the map will navigate to the result automatically. Double-clicking a result of a place finding or locating task like Find Address will navigate to the location. Some tasks return more complex results; for example, when you get driving directions, there are several items under the driving directions result; you can expand each one in turn to reveal its contents.

Note that depending on the result type, a context menu will appear if you right-click the result. Here's where you can find additional actions you can perform on the result, such as flashing its location or moving to it.

As mentioned above, a result that represents a place can be the source of a drag or Send To operation. That is, you can click the result and drag it to another task that can accept a location as input to one of the pieces of information it requires or you can right-click the result and the context menu that appears will include a command, Send To, that has a submenu items that represent task parameters for which the result is valid input:



Selecting the menu item supplies the result as the parameter for the indicated task. If the task is not already active, it is activated. Note that this functionality is present for tasks that you've added to the map and are available on a local machine or network location or from a server (see the My Tasks area of the Manage Tasks dialog box.)

While a task is executing, you'll see an informational entry in the Results window for that task. The message will vary depending on the task type. Also when a task takes longer than 5 seconds to complete, you'll be notified by a popup window when it has finished.

Results remain part of the map when you save. To delete a result, select it and press the Delete key or use its context menu to choose Delete.

The Result window's context menu lets you hide, show, or float the window on the desktop.

The Contents window provides you with a way to see what's on the map, including both data from a server and any local data you've added to the map with the Open Content dialog box. You can use it to turn layers on and off and change the visual characteristics of layers.

You can add data to the map from several sources, including ArcGIS servers, ArcIMS servers, WMS servers, and KML. As you add this content it appears at the top of the Contents list and reflects the order in which layers are drawn, the bottommost layer draws first. You can use the Manage Layers dialog box to rearrange the drawing order of the map.

  Layer that’s visible
  Layer that’s marked to not be visible
  Layer that’s marked as visible but is not in the current view
  Layer that’s marked as visible only at certain altitudes
  Broken layer whose data cannot be located and is not displayed

The graphic directly below illustrates a typical scenario. It shows the Contents window and a relevant portion of the map:

You'll see that there are seven layers within the current extent of the map. The top five layers are all visible and can be seen; two layers of imagery are marked as visible but can't be seen since the layers above them are all set to have no transparency. Two other imagery layers appear in the Out of View group since they are visible at altitudes other than that of the current view.

The next illustration shows the effect of turning off the streams layer:

Notice the effect of panning the map as shown in the next illustration. Layers no longer in the current extent, rivers, lakes, and streams, now appear in the Out of View group:

The Contents window can display layers and group layers. Group layers typically contain two or more layers whose visibility you can control collectively by toggling the check box of the group layer item or individually by toggling the check box of a specific layer. Place names is a group layer that has been expanded to show its members, one of which, Places 4M, is visible:

Right-clicking each layer in the Contents window displays a context menu specific to the layer:

Learn more about controlling a layer's appearance with its context menu commands

If you are working with KML or KMZ files only the topmost element in the file appears in the Contents window. You can see and manage the entire KML contents by right-clicking the node representing the KML content you added and then selecting KML Contents on the context menu that appears:



Learn more about working with KML and KMZ