General Helpful Hints

Updated 06/05/2007

The Washington State "Geo Tech" team has prepared the following helpful hints to assist you in your Customer Service Tool Kit activities.

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Tabular Toolkit

	Helpful Hint	Description	File Size	Issue Date
	Customize Narratives	How to add additional text to a practice narrative.	154 KB	2/28/2007
	Delete plans and folders	Many users have created extra "plans" as the result of learning ArcMap and adding new planned land unit layers there. This hint describes how to delete plans and remove folders.	1.7 MB	6/21/2005
	Reporting tab	Business rules for progress reporting from Toolkit.	102 KB	3/14/2006
	Toolkit Contract Wizard	Suggestions for sorting the practice schedule and selecting practices prior to starting the contract wizard.	138 KB	3/10/2006

Toolkit ArcGIS-General

	Helpful Hint	Description	File Size	Issue Date
	Adding an ArcMap County Template	How to add a customized Toolkit ArcGIS County template into a customer's ArcGIS folder.	3.0 MB	1/17/2005
	Add Buttons to ArcGIS Toolbar	How to add selection buttons to the ArcGIS toolbar for ArcMap when using the Advanced Toolkit GIS User Level.	150 KB	5/7/2007
	Adding Geodata	How to add geospatial data to an ArcMap project from the 'Server' or other location on the Local Area Network.	2.8 MB	11/27/2004
	Changing UTM zones	How to change the UTM zone of the data frame in ArcMap.	3.7 MB	12/29/2004
	Determine Lat/Long and UTM Coordinates	This describes a procedure to set ArcMap so that it displays both the latitude and longitude or UTM coordinates on the location where the mouse is pointing on the map.	247 KB	4/3/2006
	Geodata and templates for laptops	How to load geodata on the hard drive of a laptop and make a county template pointing to these layers.	2.3 MB	6/15/2005
	New Users checklist	Provides new toolkit users with a checklist of things to do to get started.	1.5 MB	rev 10/18/2006
	Redirect ArcGIS layers	What to do when the ArcMap table contents displays a red exclamation mark beside a grayed-out check mark next to the name  of a layer.	173 KB	9/11/2006
	Transparent Topo maps	How to use topographic map contours with a transparent ortho-mosic.	2.1 MB	12/3/2004
	Using "Find" in ArcMap	How to use the "find" button on ArcMap to locate a specific feature within a layer.	6.1 MB	1/14/2006

 

Layout

	Helpful Hint	Description	File Size	Issue Date
	Change Labels and Adjust Legend	How to make and change map labels and adjust the legend in the layout.	.3 MB	11/22/04
	Cultural Resources ArcMap products	How to create map products for the Cultural Resources Specialist.	5.9 MB	1/17/2005
	Soil legends	How to give unique symbols to the clipped soil map units and make them transparent.	7.5 MB	1/17/2005
	Export an ArcGIS Map	How to export the Conservation Plan or Soils map to at .jpg or .PDF document.	3.5 MB	rev 10/19/2006

 

Practice Layers

	Helpful Hint	Description	File Size	Issue Date
	Buffer into polygon practices	How to incorporate a buffer into a Practice (polygon) layer.	1.9 MB	2/4/2005
	Cattle Guard	A cattle guard is a component of the Fence (382) practice. Fence is measured in feet and is best represented as a line. The cattle guard component is by number. This hint describes a way to display a cattle guard on the plan map.	1.9 MB	5/16/2005
	Document Existing Practices	This hint describes a method of displaying and attributing existing conservation practices without adding them to the practice schedule.	163 KB	6/13/2006
	Mask Practice Symbols	How to make practice symbols easier to see by putting a mask around it.	150 KB	5/12/2007
	Move Points	How to move a point that is in the wrong location.	150 KB	2/20/2007
	NRCS Toolkit Practice Styles	The practice stylesheet developed by Sean Browning, Ohio NRCS, is a quick and easy method for symbolizing planned practices after they have been attributed. This hint tells where to go to download t he stylesheet and how to use it.	175 KB	9/11/2006

 

Planned Land Unit Layer

	Helpful Hint	Description	File Size	Issue Date
	CRP FSA Shapefiles	How to copy the CRP shapefiles created by Farm Service Agency during CRP sign-up into a Planned Land Unit layer for the CRP plan.	366 KB	6/16/2006
	Holes in PLU	Occasionally, a Planned Land Unit layer copied from the Common Land Unit map will have a hole in it. This hint tells how to recognize and fix it.	267 KB	9/22/2006
	Insert a field within a field	This procedure explains how to copy and paste a shapefile from another source (e.g. DNR Garmin) into a Planned Land Unit layer an make the result two distinct fields.	1.1 MB	9/6/2006
	Use copy-paste	Explains how to copy a Planned Land Unit layer from one plan to another within the same Customer's folder.	147 KB	1/10/2006
	Use copy-paste from one customer to another	This describes the process for copying the Planned Land Unit layer from one customer file and placing it into another customer file.	1.6 MB	5/16/2005

 

Labeling

	Helpful Hint	Description	File Size	Issue Date
	Adding Practice Note to map	How to add custom note for a practice and have it print on map.	154 KB	5/12/2007
	Geographic Names	How to select and label points in the gnis populated and non-populated places layer.	341 KB	10/10/2006
	Change appearance of Callout labels	How to use the drawing toolbar to change the look of callout labels.	154 KB	5/10/2007

 

Soil Data Viewer

	Helpful Hint	Description	File Size	Issue Date
	Prepare to use the Soil Data Viewer	How to display the soil Data View icon in ArcMap	93 KB	2/8/2006
	Save SDV Maps	How to save the temporary layer created by the Soil Data Viewer as a shapefile.	150 KB	4/24/2007
	SDV Acres of Interpretations by field	How to add an acres column to the shapefile exported from a Soil Data Viewer layer and to calculate the acres.	150 KB	4/24/2007
	Soil Data Viewer instructions	Once the Soil Data Viewer icon is loaded, this hint explains how to use the Soil Data Viewer to generate maps and reports.	143 KB	9/7/2006

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