Getting to Know ArcGIS Desktop

It walks through the aspects of software.

I had to use this book for my college class, but I now recommend it to everyone I know that's interested in teaching themselves the basics. Its a great book to give you a good "jumping off point" to move forward from.

All exercises! the tips, and clear explanation! If you really wish to know the power of ArcMap data analysis this is the book! Look fundamental but in my opinion it goes beyond 7 stars!

Getting to Know ArcGIS Desktop Updated for ArcGIS Desktop 10.6 Edition, fifth edition by Michael Law and Amy Collins is an above average Software intro. I have taken a number of ESRI classes and never liked the ESRI Class room manuals. This one was required for a graduate level Intro To Mapping with ESRI and served my needs much better. Getting to know ARC GIS is like all such software training manuals very expensive. I strongly suggest that you do not go for a rental, or a used copy. The book comes with a one-time installation code that allows you a time limited use of a more advanced version (what ESRI calls Extensions enabled) or Arc GIS Desktop. With the one-time code and an awkward installation process your licensed copy will prove critical to completing the exercises. There are copies of the exercise data which can also be downloaded. Other things to consider. First, this text is built around version 10.6. The latest edition is 10.8, Until the last couple of chapters, I had no problem completing the exercises. Second, ArcGis 10.8 is either the last or one of the last updates to the Desk Top versions of ArcGIS. For several years ESRI has been moving clients into ARC Pro. This means that at some point the entire Desktop family will become legacy software. From my various sources I would not expect ESRI to end product support before 2024 and a better guess would be a few years later. I have several years working with the Pro Platform. It has some advantages. The latest version of Pro has some very interesting new tools for a more advanced user. The smartest users have kept some version of both Desktop and Pro and have learned which is the better at which specific task. The problem I have had with most ESRI training manuals is that the start with very tight “hand-holding”. Tiny steps, careful sequenced. The, abruptly the student is tosses into the deep end with very little support. With one excepting I never had this problem with Getting to Know ARC GIS. Each set of exercises were in a reasonable order from less to more complex. It was always possible to go back and find what I had missed. In general topics progresses through things a starting user might need and if some tool were emphasized over others, that may just reflect the experience of the authors rather than any absolute failure to train on valuable tools. I have heard that there are over 500 tools in Desktop and I have no reason to doubt that number. I do not think I want to meet the person who has all of them in memory with a perfect recall of all associated settings or options. A user should expect a lot more about what a tool is about rather than much cartographic theory. This is training for a beginning user. Not a background text designed to explain map making as an academic topic. One problem I have found in almost every similar software training manual is about the limited appreciation of a training manual from the POV of the trainee. Getting to Know, like most such manuals is an over sized book on expensive paper. So far so good and all the better if you plan to keep it as a ready reference. BUT font colors are not chosen to emphasize high contrast. Come to this book with any form of color blindness and you will have problems. Font sizes can get very small. There is lots of white space on most pages, screen shots should never include such small print size. Further arrows and other guides layered atop example screen shot can cover exactly the information the illustration is intended to demonstrate. My biggest personal gripe was about the extremely small sized pictures of particular buttons one is to press. On a page with over 3 inches of blanks space there is no reason to illustrate a button with a image about 1/8th inch square. A particular problem I have seen in virtually every ESRI how to book or class is when the student is introduced to the programing of Work Flow routines. Work flows are intended to allow a user to automat processes unique to their needs. With work flows you can string together tools such that the output of one in an input to another and with one click the user can accomplish very complex processes and store them for future projects. This is a form pf programing, very visual and over the years more powerful and more intuitive. Unfortunately the examples used to introduce the student to what cam be a very advanced a capability always uses an example oh how to built a processes that takes one or as in this book 5 inputs and yield usable outputs. So far so good, but the completed process only takes one is rarely created to iterate through more than one table. Thus, you are taking time to build a tool designed to use once. I have seen examples that only work on a single line of input; at least in this book the example work flow works an entire table. Unfortunately, it was at this point that the text became very complex, describing unlikely desired outputs and via steps that were not mirrored in the choices to be found in GIS Release 10.7.

The book was delivered same day, in perfect condition, and exactly what I ordered. There are a bunch of pictures and examples in the book, so it is also a helpful tool for ArcGIS 10.6

Fast shipping and well packaged. Brand new book and no issues whatsoever with the seller.

I bought the Kindle Cloud version and so far, I'm very happy with the purchase. No errors, no out of date content, all systems go, you can trust it. The step by steps are good, pictures great..no probs.. Go for it!!

I think that this book is very good BUT the process of downloading the software for the "free" 180 day trial is a mess. I was able to get a bunch of stuff that I don't want but I can't get ArcMap downloaded and activated. It should download with ArcGIS Desktop but I am unable to activate that portion of the software, which is what I really want and need. The whole point of this was to have the software at home so that I could practice. And the interface with ArcGIS Desktop looks very different from my work version of ArcMap. So far I'm very disappointed about this. I've wasted about 6 hours today trying to get things downloaded. Don't know what else to say. My husband is an IT guy and if he can't figure it out, no one can. ESRI needs to coordinate better with their authors to make sure that this works seamlessly.

I bought this for a course at university. Great explanations. Esri always does a great job. Much cheaper than at the main bookstore at school.

Very good learning book for beginners. Detailed guides and the pictures are not fuzzy like in other books, so you can clearly see everything. Explains all there is to know from the basic stuff to the more advanced. Book comes with a trial code for ArcGis Desktop (180 days) so you can do the exercises yourself. Thank you!

Needed it for my course and almost read it cover to cover, great resource to later as well.

Instructions need to be clearer on how to access the 180 day trial. I'm still waiting to see if Esri Press can help me resolve this issue!

Very helpful at learning GIS!