Setting map document properties
The Map Document Properties dialog box contains fields and options that help you make your map document more usable. This dialog box also displays times when the document was last saved, last printed, or last exported.
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You can access this dialog box in two ways. From ArcMap, click File > Map Document Properties. From ArcCatalog or the Catalog window, right-click the map document in the tree view and click Properties.
Note:All the settings in this dialog box only apply to your current document.
Entering information about your map document
This dialog box includes fields where you can enter information describing your map. This includes
- Title—In ArcMap, the contents of this field are used when you choose Insert > Title to add a title to your map layout, and if you update this field, it is automatically reflected in the title of your map the next time the map layout is redrawn. If this field is empty when you choose Insert > Title, you'll be prompted by ArcMap to enter a title, and this field is automatically populated with the title you enter.
- Summary—Contains brief information about your map document. When you share your map as a package or as a service, the text entered here will automatically be used by the Summary in the Item Description tab.
Caution:You can change this text when setting the item descriptions for a map package or a map service. However, any changes you make will not be reflected in the map document properties. The changes you make will only be for the map package or for the map service.
A summary is required when sharing a map as a package, publishing to ArcGIS Online or sharing a service with ArcGIS Online.
- Description—Can contain more detailed information about your map document. When you share your map as a package or as a service, the text entered here will automatically be used by the Description in the Item Description tab.Caution:
You can change this text when setting the item descriptions for a map package or a map service. However, any changes you make will not be reflected in the map document properties. The changes you make will only be for the map package or for the map service.
- Author—Acknowledgment indicating who authored the map document.
- Credits—Acknowledgment indicating who contributed to the map document. When you share your map as a package or as a service, the text entered here will automatically be used by the Credits in the Item Description tab.Caution:
You can change this text when setting the item descriptions for a map package or a map service. However, any changes you make will not be reflected in the map document properties. The changes you make will only be for the map package or for the map service.
- Tags—Separate tags with a single comma (,). Tags make it easier to find this document when you or someone else searches for it. Caution:
You can change this text when setting the item descriptions for a map package or a map service. However, any changes you make will not be reflected in the map document properties. The changes you make will only be for the map package or for the map service.
Tags are required when sharing a map as a package, publishing to or sharing a service with ArcGIS Online.
Setting a hyperlink base
Paths or URLs for field-based hyperlinks accessed from this document will be preceded by this base. For example, if the hyperlink base is set to D:\Data, then the values in the field or fields used as hyperlinks to documents don't have to contain D:\Data. They can just contain the name of the file.
Using this property makes it easier to manage hyperlinks, because if the location of the targets changes, you can simply edit this one setting instead of having to edit each value of the field providing the hyperlink targets. The Hyperlink Base setting has no effect on dynamic hyperlinks or on field-based hyperlinks to macros.
You don't need to add a slash separator to the end of the hyperlink base you specify. By default, ArcGIS automatically adds a slash to the end of the hyperlink base—a forward slash (/) in the case of a hyperlink to a URL and a backward slash (\) in the case of a hyperlink to a document.
Setting a default geodatabase
Each map document has a default geodatabase, which is the home location for the spatial content of your map. This location is used for adding datasets and for saving resultant datasets created by various editing and geoprocessing operations. For example, when you export features from a layer, the data will be saved in the map's default geodatabase unless specified otherwise. The default geodatabase is synchronized with Current Workspace of Geoprocessing Environments; therefore, all output from tools or models will be saved to this default location.
This property can't be changed if you accessed this dialog box by right-clicking a document in the Catalog window (unless the document you right-clicked is the current document you have open in the application) or in ArcCatalog.
Legacy:If no default geodatabase is shown when you access this dialog box in the Catalog window or ArcCatalog, you are looking at the properties of an 8.x or 9.x document. Once that document has been saved using ArcGIS 10.0 or later, the default geodatabase that it uses will be shown here.
Changing how the document references data
You can define how path references are maintained in your document by checking or unchecking Store relative pathnames to data source. If this box is checked, paths are stored as incomplete paths that are relative to the current location of this document on disk. Using relative paths makes the map document more easily portable because ArcGIS will resolve the paths to the document's data sources relative to the document's current location in the file system rather than by full paths that include a drive letter or machine name.
Using relative paths doesn't mean that the layers in your document will never need repairing. Even with relative paths, it is still possible for a document to be unable to find its data sources if the document or the data sources are moved to a different location relative to each other, such as to a different part of the folder hierarchy or to a different disk.
This setting only applies to how the document references file-based data (such as file geodatabases, shapefiles, coverages, and raster files) and data in personal geodatabases. It has no effect on how the document references data on servers. Layers representing data and services on these servers reference them directly by server name rather than via paths.
This property can't be changed if you accessed this dialog box by right-clicking a document in the Catalog window (unless the document you right-clicked is the current document you have open in the application) or in ArcCatalog.
Learn more about referencing data in the map
Tip:If you want all your new maps to be stored with relative paths, you will need to specify relative paths as the default. Click Customize > ArcMap Options to open the ArcMap Options dialog box, then click the General tab. Check the option to Make relative paths the default for new map documents. This setting is stored in the registry.
Making a thumbnail of your map
A thumbnail is a graphic illustrating the data an item contains. Thumbnails can be particularly helpful when you are evaluating the items you've found with a search, especially when you are searching a geoportal or metadata catalog where you might not have access to the actual item and can't preview its data.
The thumbnail is captured at the time you press the button, so changes you make to the contents of the document after you have pressed this button are not reflected. In ArcMap the thumbnail snapshot is a picture of your map's full layout page.
Thumbnails are not dynamic, so once you create a thumbnail it won't reflect any changes you make in your map until you delete it and re-create it. To re-create the thumbnail for the document, click Delete Thumbnail and click Make Thumbnail.
This property can't be changed if you accessed this dialog box by right-clicking a document in the Catalog window (unless the document you right-clicked is the current document you have open in the application) or in ArcCatalog.