Week 1 Lab- ArcGIS Overview

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 I've had the opportunity to work with ArcGIS software before, but not in a remote environment setting. Fortunately everything seems to run smoothly!

The purpose of this week's lab is to create our first map. We were given two data sets to add to a blank document in ArcMap: Cities and one for World Countries. I found this to be a really good introduction, or re-introduction for some, exercise to ArcGIS software. The lab document seemed intimidating at first, but with good reason. It did a great job in mentioning alternative ways to find certain tools or do things. It's very helpful. What I probably enjoyed most was going through metadata and looking over how the information within an attribute table affects the outcome. This exercise also presented a good opportunity in visual customization of one's map through a layer's Properties. The map's focus is to show Countries by Population. I decided to go with light blue for background, so as to not leave so much empty space in the background, then chose a preset color pattern I thought stood out enough to highlight countries and cities layers. I am curious to learn how this map fares and have an idea of where I may improve upon next time.




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