Easily Paste ArcGIS Maps into Documents

Placing maps into documents such as Microsoft Word, Excel, Publisher, and PowerPoint can become a pain at times.  The usual process involves exporting the map into some type of image file.  The file is then inserted into your desired document.  For some projects this is fine and may even be necessary; however for those quick put-together projects there is an easier way.  ArcMap has a menu item that allows your current extent (data view) or page layout to be copied to the clipboard.  The image can then be pasted into your desired documents.  This goes beyond the Microsoft Suite and can even be imported into a graphics programs.  The benefits that this tip provides includes a savings in time and storage space.

To copy the map to the clipboard:

1. Click Edit -> Copy Map to Clipboard

2. See map image on clipboard

3. Paste image into document.  Click image on clipboard or press Ctrl-V.

East Carolina University GIS Program

East Carolina University is located in Greenville, NC and is the third largest college in the North Carolina System. ECU has a strong geography department with several degree opportunities. When it comes to GIS, they have one Undergraduate Certificate Program in Geographic Information Science.

The program is designed to provide students from a variety of disciplines both the theoretical and practical competencies to be able to develop and manage Geographic Information projects.   Students should also be able to interpret and implement GIS as a decision support system.

Students from a variety of majors who have enrolled in this program include:

• Geography
• Geology
• Biology
• Planning
• Marketing and management
• Political science
• History
• Coastal studies

This certificate program requires a minimum of 15 s.h. and is composed of the following courses:

Core Courses:

• Fundamentals of GIS
• Fundamentals of GIS
• Geographic Information
• Systems I
• Introduction to GPS

Plus One Additional Course:

• GIS Applications Programming
• Advanced Cartographic Design & Production
• Remote Sensing II
• Geographic Information
• Systems II
• Introduction to GIS in Planning

The Center for Geographic Information Science facility is composed of 25 PC workstations.  These workstations provided a variety of mapping software including:

• Applied Imagery’s Quick Terrain Modeler
• ArcGIS Desktop 9.3
• ArcInfo Workstation 9.3
• ERDAS Imagine 9.1
• FRAGSTATS 3.3
• Interactive Visualization Systems’ (IVS 3D) Fledermaus & Dmagic
• Visual Nature Studio 2 w/ Scene Express

Scholarships

The two main scholarships that are advertised are the ASPRS NC Chapter Scholarship and the NCGITA Scholarship.  Students can apply for thse scholarships through the individual organization and are awarded at thier discresion.

You can find additional information about the GIS Certificate Program at http://www.ecu.edu/cs-cas/geog/GISCertificate.cfm

Note: The information within this article has been thoroughly researched but should be verified with the college.  Publication of this article was not initiated by the college but is the sole work of GIS Pathway.

GeoMentor Program to Help Improve Geographic Literacy

The GeoMentor Program is being sponsored by ESRI and the National Geographic Society.  It is a way to get GIS professionals involved in education.   A recent ArcNews article (Get Involved with Geo-Education Reform) by Daniel C. Edelson, Vice President for Education, National Geographic Society helped set the stage for the program.  He stated that there is a lack of geographic literacy.  An estimate of 18 year olds in the United States shows that approximately 50% are unready in the area of geography with about 25% geographically competent and 25% geographically proficient.  The National Geograhic Society has made it a goal to achieving a 50 percent rate of geographic fluency among 18-year-olds by 2025.  Several actions were presented to making this possible, and one of the action items was the GeoMentor Program.

The ESRI Education Community has laid out a great site for learning more about this program.  ESRI is also introducing the GeoMentor program at the 2009 ESRI International User Conference.  There are several sessions being presented as well as an easy sign up method for those attending the confernece.  I am sure there will be more information to come, but I would suggest becoming apart of this great opprtunity today and help increase the geographic literacy among our youth today!

You can be as involved as much as you desire with for basic stages:

“Learning” (Stage 1) means you agree to receive periodic emails about the GeoMentor program. You will be publicly visible simply as a dot on the map.

“Seeking” (Stage 2) means that you are interested in a partnership and agree to make some characteristics visible to people who are logged in at the “Seeking” level or higher, though they cannot directly identify you, nor directly contact you without your approval.

“Working” (Stage 3) means that you are participating in one or more GeoMentor partnerships.

“Reporting” (Stage 4) means that you have entered information about your activities in order to share that with others.

Find participants who are apart of the program through a GeoMentor Program interactive map.

Search for all the talk about the GeoMentor Program on Twitter.

10 Tips for Those Not Attending the ESRI User Conference

The keys to having a successful career rely heavily around networking and staying up on technology. In the GIS industry there is no better opportunity to accomplish this than at the ESRI International User Conference. GIS professionals from all across the world come to San Diego, CA for the ultimate GIS conference experience. You can have the opportunity to meet people from every industry imaginable that use GIS. Hear them present their work and see their map presentations. Learn from the best of the best. In addition to this fabulous exposure, hear from ESRI on the latest and greatest in GIS technology. Learn how to better apply this technology and what to expect for the future.

Because of the economy, the pure lack of funding, and several other reasons; many GIS users are unable to attend this conference.  Although you may not be able to attend, you can still benefit in many ways.  Here are ten excellent things you can do without leaving your office.

1. Watch the plenary session online.

2. Follow the Twitter action

• Search for the #ESRIUC tag
• Follow those on this Twitter List from GISUser.com

3. Browse Flickr for User Conference pictures

4. Listen to the VerySpatial live podcast from the User Conference and follow up podcasts from throughout the week.

5. Follow the ESRI Insider Blog

6. Follow all of the geospatial/gis blogs at the GIS Forum Community Mashup

7. Read through the official ESRI International User Conference Agenda Digital Magazine (PDF)

• Find Special Interest Groups
• Follow up with presenters for topics of interest
• Find out what you are really missing

8. Watch videos on youtube – esritv

9. Visit the ESRI Resource Centers

10. Mark your calendar for next year’s conference

• July 12-16, 2010
• Insert into budget and begin fund raising efforts

Using the Layers Overview Window in ArcMap

A valuable tool in ArcMap that sometimes goes unnoticed is the Layers Overview Window.  When working on a map while zoomed in it is very easy to loose perspective of the actual location as compared to the overall map.  This can also be true when analyzing a feature class by zooming to selected records from the attribute table.  You usually have to stop and zoom out a significant amount to determine the location.  However, with the Layers Overview Window you can always know the area for which you are working.

This tool can be easily found and utilized with just a few simple steps.

1. Click Overview from Window Menu.

2. Next change the properties by right clicking on the Overview Window header to open the properties window.  Then change the desired settings.

Here you can change your reference layer, extent symbol and background color.

Here is an example of the Layer Overview window in use.  The Overview window can also be resized as well.