Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Gain familiarity with common tasks in a new interface and use ArcGIS Pro's greater integration with ArcGIS Online.
Duration
1hr(s)
Many ArcMap users are making the switch to ArcGIS Pro for the advantages it offers for modern GIS desktop
workflows. ArcGIS Pro is tightly integrated with the rest of the ArcGIS platform, allowing you to share and
consume content more efficiently. It also combines 2D and 3D into a single application, allowing you to work with
multiple maps and multiple layouts in the same project. ArcGIS Pro is the future of desktop GIS and it is where
new ideas and enhancement requests will appear.
In this lesson, you'll migrate an ArcMap map document into an ArcGIS Pro project. Along the way, you'll gain
familiarity with common features and tasks in a new environment. You'll also gain exposure to new tools and
techniques that can speed up your work.
This lesson was last tested on June 4, 2021, using ArcGIS Pro 2.8. If you're using a different version of ArcGIS Pro, you
may encounter different functionality and results.
Requirements
Lesson Plan
Note:
If you don't have an organizational account, you can sign up for an ArcGIS free trial.
2. Open the Mali Language Groups Map item page and click Download.
3. Open the MaliLanguageGroups.zip file and extract the contents of the ZIP file to a location of your choice
and open the new MaliLanguageGroups folder.
The downloaded folder includes an ArcMap map document (.mxd), a geodatabase (.gdb), and shapefiles.
The data for this map was provided by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and the Food
and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
Note:
If you want to explore the project in ArcMap before diving into ArcGIS Pro, double-click
MaliLanguageGroups.mxd to open it in ArcMap.
If prompted, sign in using your licensed ArcGIS account or an ArcGIS Enterprise named user account.
ArcGIS Pro opens to the splash screen. Project templates are listed under the New heading. Each template
will create a project, already configured with resources. For example, the Map template creates a blank
map, geodatabase, and toolbox. If you want to start working without creating a project first, you can
choose to start without a template.
The Contents pane is similar to the table of contents in ArcMap, and the Catalog pane is similar to the
Catalog window in ArcMap. There are other panes in ArcGIS Pro that can be opened and repositioned as
needed. The middle area is currently blank; this is where maps, tables, layouts, models, and other views will
appear.
7. In the Import window, browse to and select MaliLanguageGroups.mxd from the extracted folder you
downloaded.
Tip:
You can use the Import Map command to bring different kinds of documents into ArcGIS Pro. Expand
the Default drop-down menu to view the file types that can be imported.
8. Click OK.
The ArcMap document is imported. The Contents pane is now populated with items, and a layout view
appears in the middle of the application. The layout shows a map of language groups in Mali, a landlocked
country in West Africa.
Note:
If a project was saved in Data View in ArcMap, ArcGIS Pro will open the .mxd file in Map view. If the
project was saved in Layout View in ArcMap, ArcGIS Pro will open the .mxd file in layout view, which is
the case in this example.
Explore the project structure
The Catalog pane is used for data management and provides a quick way to access all the resources available to a
project.
1. In the Catalog pane, expand Layouts.
The layout in an ArcMap document becomes a layout item in ArcGIS Pro. Many projects in ArcGIS Pro may
have no layout at all.
The project contains two maps corresponding to the two data frames in the map document. Both can be
seen in the layout; one is the map of language groups in Mali, and the other is the locator map of Africa.
Although you changed the name in Catalog, the name of the map frame within the layout remains
unchanged. Next, you will update the data frame names in the Contents pane.
6. In the Contents pane, click on New Data Frame Map Frame two times.
7. Rename the data frame Mali Language Groups and press Enter. Do the same for New Data Frame Map
Frame 1 and rename it Locator Map.
8. At the top of ArcGIS Pro, on the Quick Access Toolbar, click Save.
Because you started without a template and have not previously saved this project, you are presented with
the Save Project As window.
ArcGIS Pro stores work in project folders. This structure allows you to assemble all the resources needed for
your work in one place. A project can contain maps, scenes, layouts, data, tasks, toolboxes, and styles, as
well as connections to servers and folders.
12. In your file explorer, browse to the new Mali Language Groups folder.
Inside, you will find a geodatabase (.gdb) and a toolbox (.tbx). Any new data or scripts that you create while
working in the project will be stored here by default. The .aprx file is the ArcGIS Pro project file and is
equivalent to an .mxd file.
13. In ArcGIS Pro, in the Catalog pane, expand Folders and expand Mali Language Groups.
This is a folder connection to the project folder that you just viewed in your file explorer. However, the data
for your map is stored in the folder you downloaded.
In ArcGIS Pro, you can add data without first creating a folder connection. However, creating folder
connections for access to project data is still a useful practice.
14. In the Catalog pane, right-click Folders and choose Add Folder Connection.
15. Browse to and select the MaliLanguageGroups folder that you previously downloaded. Click OK.
The geodatabase and shapefile data referenced by the Mali maps are all stored here.
Note:
In ArcGIS Pro, data sources on the same hard drive are linked to the project folder as relative paths.
Links to data sources on a network drive are saved using absolute paths. Links to data sources on a
GIS server are stored using universal locator paths. See more information on referencing data in maps.
Explore a map
Next, you'll explore the map of language diversity in Mali.
The original ArcMap data frame was saved at a small scale to accommodate the layout, so the map will be
very small.
2. In the Contents pane, right-click District Boundary, then choose Zoom To Layer.
The scale updates and the map of Mali comes into view. In ArcGIS Pro, you can zoom and pan a map freely
without affecting the scale of the layout.
The clicked feature flashes and a pop-up window appears, displaying attribute information.
5. Close the pop-up.
6. If necessary, on the ribbon, click the Map tab.
Another way you can navigate the map is to use the Explore tool.
7. In the Navigate group, click the Explore button to pan the map.
Note:
The Explore tool is similar to the Identify tool in ArcMap and is how you access pop-ups. You can
change how the Explore tool function by clicking the bottom half of the Explore button to view more
options.
The Symbology pane appears. The top of the pane displays the name of the currently selected layer. Under
Primary symbology, you can see that this layer is symbolized using the Unique Values method and the
Language Family field.
The tabs at the top of the pane give you access to advanced symbology properties, which won't be covered
in this lesson.
2. In the bottom half of the Symbology pane, click the symbol next to Berber and Atlantic.
The Symbology pane now displays properties for the Berber and Atlantic symbol class only.
Note:
ArcGIS Pro and ArcMap use different methods to construct symbols, but the appearance of imported
symbols will remain the same. In ArcGIS Pro, complex symbols are built with symbol layers.
4. In the Symbology pane, click the Back arrow to return to the symbology settings for the entire layer.
The Symbology pane updates to display settings for the selected layer. By keeping the Symbology pane
open, you can easily switch to display settings for another layer by selecting the layer on the Contents
pane.
7. In the Layer group, switch the Label button off and on again.
The most common labeling tasks can be found on the ribbon, while more advanced features are available in
a pane.
8. On the Labeling tab of the ribbon, in the corner of the Label Placement group, click the Label Placement
Properties button.
The Label Class pane appears.
9. If necessary, in the Label Class pane, click the Position tab and the other Position button.
The white labels on the map expand to better fill the areas that they represent.
The labeling engine for ArcGIS Pro is more advanced and intuitive than in ArcMap and includes all the
Maplex Label Engine functionality.
12. Close the Label Class pane and the Symbology pane
13. On the Quick Access Toolbar, click Save.
Note:
Learn more about Symbology and Labeling in ArcGIS Pro.
You've now imported a map to ArcGIS Pro and explored some basic functionality.
You may recognize the place-name Timbuktu on the map, both for the region and the city. The French spelling of
this ancient city is Tombouctou. Next, you'll learn how to edit data in ArcGIS Pro, you'll update the map data to the
French spelling of Timbuktu.
Edit features
In ArcGIS Pro, it is not necessary to start an editing session before making changes to your data.
1. In the Contents pane, right-click District Boundary and choose Attribute Table.
4. On the ribbon, click the Edit tab. In the Manage Edits group, click Save.
In the Layer group, the Label button is turned off, but the major cities appear to be labeled.
This is because the labels are coming from an Annotation feature class instead, the layer named
Mali_MajorCitiesAnno.
Annotation feature classes have a different data structure in ArcGIS Pro than in ArcMap. If you have
annotation feature classes created in ArcMap, you can display and query them in ArcGIS Pro. However, to
edit them or modify them, they must first be upgraded.
9. On the ribbon, click the Analysis tab. In the Geoprocessing group, click Tools.
The Geoprocessing pane appears. This is where you will find all geoprocessing tools, including common
tools such as Buffer and Project, as well as some functions that had their own commands in ArcMap, such
as Calculate Field and Select Layer by Attribute.
10. In the search bar, type upgrade dataset and press Enter.
11. In the search results, click the Upgrade Dataset tool.
12. For Dataset to upgrade, click the drop-down arrow and choose Mali_MajorCitiesAnno.
Tip:
Once upgraded, annotation feature classes are no longer usable in ArcMap. You may want to make a
copy of the feature class using the Copy Features tool before upgrading.
When the tool has finished running, a message appears at the bottom of the pane indicating success or
failure.
The option to view details is particularly helpful for diagnosing problems when a tool fails.
Now that the annotation feature class has been updated, you are able to edit it.
18. On the ribbon, click the Edit tab, in the Tools group, click Annotation.
19. In the Map, zoom to and select the TIMBUKTU annotation feature.
23. At the bottom of the map viewer, on the editing toolbar at the bottom of the map view, click Finish to
complete the edit.
Now when you click the map, you will not accidentally move or edit features.
Note:
Learn more about Editing in ArcGIS Pro.
The map of Mali contains a layer for water bodies that helps give context to the story of language diversity in the
country by relating it to physical geography. The Mali_WaterBodies layer was created at a smaller scale and has
extra details, like fluctuating rivers and lakes, that may not be necessary for the scale of your map. To demonstrate
the integration of ArcGIS Pro with ArcGIS Online, you will search ArcGIS Online and add a simpler map of water
bodies in Mali.
1. If necessary, in the Contents pane, click the List By Drawing Order tab.
Next, you will search ArcGIS Online for another map that only shows the major river that runs through Mali,
the Niger River.
Tip:
If you can't find the Catalog pane, on the ribbon, click View tab and click Catalog Pane.
5. In the Catalog pane, click the Portal tab and click ArcGIS Online.
6. In the search bar, type World Major Rivers owner:esri_dm and press Enter.
Note:
The owner esri_dm is the name of the Data and Maps for ArcGIS account on ArcGIS Online.
7. In the search results, point to the first item named World Major Rivers.
Note:
The World Major Rivers item is a layer package. A layer package includes both the layer properties
and the data. If you add a layer package to your map, it will be downloaded to your local machine and
the map will reference the local data. In contrast, if you add a hosted feature layer to your map, it will
reference an online service.
8. In the Catalog pane, right-click the World Major Rivers layer package and choose Add To Current Map.
The World Major Rivers layer appears on the map. You can see the Niger River passing through Mali, but
the symbology is difficult to see. Next, you will update the symbology to make the river more visible.
1. In the Contents pane, right-click World Major Rivers and choose Symbology.
The Symbology pane appears, and you can see that the Primary symbology method is set to Single
Symbol.
2. In the Symbology pane, forLabel, change the text to Niger River.
The label next to the symbol in the Contents pane updates. This is the label that will appear on the map
legend later.
3. In the Symbology pane, click the turquoise symbol to access symbol properties.
The symbol gallery contains common symbols that can be employed as is or adapted.
The World Major Rivers layer package also includes a label, which you don't need.
7. In the Contents pane, right-click World Major Rivers and click Label to turn labeling off.
This has the same effect as disabling labels from the ribbon.
Note:
Using Clip Layers in the Map Properties simply limits the extent of data displayed and does not alter the
original data file. Using the Geoprocessing Clip Tool removes data outside of the clip and does alter the
original data file.
The outline of Mali appears in the Selected shape preview. No map content will be displayed outside of
this clipping shape.
The map updates and the World Major Rivers layer is now clipped to the borders of Mali.
6. Save the project.
1. At the top of the map view, click the MaliLanguageGroups tab to view the layout.
In ArcMap, panning and zooming in the data view impacts the layout view. This is different in ArcGIS Pro. In
the previous steps, you zoomed in and out of the map several times, but the scale and extent in the layout
view has remained the same.
You will notice this layout has two legends, one for language groups and one for reference layers. An item
named Niger River was added to each of them when you added the World Major Rivers layer from
ArcGIS Online.
LANGUAGE FAMILY
Mali_Railroads_NGA
Mali_Roads
DistrictBoundary
World Major Rivers
Tip:
In the layout view, you can double-click any item in the Contents pane to access its properties.
Tip:
Point to a color to reveal its name.
11. Click and drag the corners of the legend to adjust the size.
Note:
Learn more about working with Layouts in ArcGIS Pro.
1. Click the Mali Language Groups Map map view to make it active.
This ribbon tab includes commands for sharing maps, data, tools, and other items. For example, you can
share web layers to ArcGIS Online, or export PDF files of static maps.
A project package (.ppkx) file consolidates all of the maps, data, folder connections, toolboxes, and
geoprocessing history reports from a project into a single file. You can additionally include attachments for
other file types.
4. In the Package Project pane, under Start Packaging, choose Upload package to Online account.
You are going to share the project package as an item on ArcGIS Online or your portal. That way you can
send your colleague an email with a link to where they can view the project's metadata and download the
.ppkx file. If you prefer to save the package to your local machine, you would choose Save package to file.
5. In the Package Project pane, enter the following:
For Name, type Mali Language Groups Project and append it with your initials.
For Summary, type Mali Language Groups mapping project.
For Tags, type Mali, Mali districts, Mali Cities, Language groups.
For Share with, check Everyone.
This will ensure that no matter who you send the item link to, they will be able to access it. Sometimes you
may prefer to only share within your organization.
Note:
Learn more about Sharing with ArcGIS Pro.
Analyzing helps identify performance delays and errors that you need to address before you can share your
project as a package. If there are yellow warnings, you may still proceed with sharing. If you receive a red
error, you can point to it to receive tips on how to resolve the issue.
No issues were identified.
When packaging has completed, a green success message appears at the bottom of the Package Project
pane.
10. A browser window appears, displaying the item details page of your project on ArcGIS Online.
You can now share the URL for this page with your colleague so they can download the project package or
open it directly in ArcGIS Pro.
Tip:
Consider updating the description and other metadata information on the item details page before
sharing.
Congratulations, you have successfully imported an ArcMap project into ArcGIS Pro. You converted data frames
into maps, replaced a layer with data from ArcGIS Online, edited features, and modified symbology and labeling
properties. You modified a legend on a layout and shared the map as a project package that can now be easily
accessed by others.