Understanding the new interface terminology

Anyone who has worked in GIS will know that it has its own language. You will hear fellow GIS users using terms such as topology, shapefiles, networks, geodatabase, feature class, and more. As your experience with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) grows, this new language will become second nature. You will find yourself using those words in conversations without realizing you are doing it. While you may completely understand what you are saying, non-GIS users may not. Consequently, the new ArcGIS Pro ribbon interface will require you to expand your GIS dictionary.

In this section, you will begin to learn many of the new words and terms associated with the ribbon. This will allow you to navigatemore easily within the interface and follow the instructions in the exercises. Understanding this will also help you better communicate with other users and Esri tech support should the need ever arise.

ArcGIS Pro interface terminology

The new interface used by ArcGIS Pro has a whole new set of words and phrases associated with it. To successfully use, navigate, and understand this interface, you need to make sure you know what some of these are and what they mean. Let's take a look at this in the following table:

These are some of the key terms you will need to understand as you begin to use ArcGIS Pro and navigate through its interface. As you start to use the interface, and if you used the older ArcMap application, I believe you will find it much more intuitive than the one used by ArcMap, which hides much of its functionality through a myriad of toolbars and menus.

Introducing the user interface

Now that you understand the key terminology associated with the new interface, it is time to see where these items actually are within ArcGIS Pro. You may ask yourself how the new ribbon-style interface makes accessing tools and functionality quicker. The answer to this question is two-fold:

• First, the new interface is smart. It will present you with the tools and information relevant to your current operation. For example, when working in a layout, tools associated with creating and printing a layout are presented. If you switch your focus by selecting a layer in a map, then a new series of options will be presented automatically that allows you to control and configure various layer properties, such as symbology and labeling.
• Second, the new ribbon interface is similar to that found in many commonly used applications, such as those mentioned in the first paragraph. This greatly reduces the learning curve and make users feel much more comfortable when working with ArcGIS Pro.

This automatic behavior in the ribbon is referred to as ContextualMenus or Tabs. The smart ribbon presents you with the tools when you need them. As you move on to other items or tasks, the ribbon automatically updates accordingly.

This not only puts the tools you need at your fingertips, but it also removes the need to have a large number of toolbars and windows open at the same time, thereby reducing screen clutter and opening up screen real-estate for other uses.

Let's take a quick look at the interface and see where some of these components and functions are located:

The preceding screenshot shows the location of several key components of the ArcGIS Pro interface. Starting at the top left-hand side, you will find the Quick Access Toolbar. This contains buttons that allow you to open an existing project, create a new project, save your project, undo, and redo. Located below that is the ribbon. This is where you access much of the ArcGIS Pro functionality through the various tabs. Below that you will find different panes and views. These will change depending on what your project contains and what you have open. The first time you open ArcGIS Pro, you will see the Contents pane on the left-hand side, the main view in the middle and the Catalog pane on the right-hand side.

As you progress through the book, you will see that you can dock and undock the various views and panes to best support your workflows and system. This provides great flexibility and increased efficiency when working in ArcGIS Pro.