exporting data ArcMap9 - GIS in Education & Creative ...barbareeduke.com/downloads/HOWTO Export data ArcMap9.pdfExporting Data: Creating New Shapefiles from Existing Data STEP 1 Open

Exporting Data: Creating New Shapefiles from Existing Data

STEP1

Open ArcMap and Add your background data. I have cities, rivers, interstates and states inmy map view…all located on the hard drive in the pre-installed data folders.

STEP2

Next, you need to select the point, line or polygon that you want to have in a separate shapefile.Remember that you can select features in many ways:

You can use the select tool . You can open the attribute table and select a row or rows of data. You can query the attribute table by attribute or

location.Also, you can give ArcMap more selection parameters byclicking the selection menu and then choose options.I find myself opening the attribute table or querying more oftento select items.

STEP3

Let’s open the attribute table for cities.shp.Right-click cities in the Table of Contents and choose Open Attribute Table. You shouldhave a window like this one.

Exporting Data: Creating New Shapefiles from Existing Data

STEP4

Now we can begin selecting data. I find it helpful to organize the data. Perhaps by State orCity name in this case is best. To do that, click once on the column name (the part in grayat the top of the column). The column will turn turquoise. Now right-click the name of thehighlighted column. Choosethe method you’d like it tosort, ascending or descending.I’m partial to alphabetical orderso I chose ascending. Then, itwas easy for me to find my city.

Now select your feature(s).Click the far left column in therow of the item you want to export. It will highlight in turquoise. (If you want to selectmultiple item, hold the CTRL key down and as you click additional items.)In the example, I chose Birmingham, AL. You can see it highlighted dynamically on the mapview as it’s selected in the attribute table.

STEP5

Close the attribute table.Right-click cities in the Table of Contents.Select Data, then Export data…Click the yellow folder icon in the Export Datawindow. Navigate to the folder where you want tosave your shapefile. Name your shapefile.Click Save. Then back in the Export Data window,Click OK.ArcMap will ask you if you want to add this file toyour view, click Yes.

It’s now added to your TOC as an individual file!

Exporting Data: Creating New Shapefiles from Existing Data

STEP6

Turn off cities.Symbolize your new file and zoom it to start your analysis!

That’s all there is to it!