Customer Reviews

GIS Tutorial: Workbook for ArcView 9

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Be careful buying this used, or even in a bookstore! At my university bookstore this title is unwrapped and you can open the back cover and see the registration code that cannot be used twice, the code could easily be stolen by another student.

Buy it at Amazon(new only, not from 'other sellers') or directly from ESRI(as my Geography professor always recommends due to hearing stories about students not being able to use the software after someone stole the code). Best price at Amazon though. This title takes longer to get than many Amazon titles, so plan ahead by about a week and a half at least.

I used this book to learn the GIS software 4 years ago and found it so useful that I continue to keep it at my desk as a reference book. I agree that it is extremely well written, easy to follow, and contains loads of helpful hints. The tutorials start off basic enough for any novice, but cover the most advanced GIS analysis topics by the end of the book. The book emphasizes both pragmatic data collection and analysis, as well as creating attractive presentable maps. I recently upgraded to ArcMap 9.3 and bought the accompanying tutorial workbook, which has some valuable upgrades of its own. I would strongly recommend this series to anyone interested in learning the ArcMap GIS software (and let's face it, ESRI is the only GIS software developer for all intents and purposes), whether it is for classroom or personal use!

This is probably one of the most best written software documents I've encountered. Descriptions of procedures are written in painful clear detail. Definitely well worth it for the new Arc View user.

I found this to be an excellent book to teach the Arc family of products. I have learned a lot. The work assignments in Chapter 5 are confusing because the author doesn't tell the reader what projections are to be used. Took about four hours to decipher the intent that could have been resolved with two words. The ESRI web site has changed since the book was written and there are other minor frustrations. I hope that in the next edition someone who is new to the GIS field goes through the book and provides feedback to the author on what doesn't work. However, all in all, it is an excellent, though slightly flawed resource.

A clear step-by-step guide to GIS. The tutorials are very clear, however, the instructions for the assignments at the end of the tutorial is not so clear. If your professor using the book's rubric to grade the paper, be careful because the rubric is so detailed and specific, but the instruction for the assignments are not--just remember to label your maps and label where the data source is from--e.g. Census 2000 from Pittsburg, Pennsyvlania.

This workbook is well organized and very easy to follow. It would serve as an excellent resource for those just learning to use GIS, and an excellent refresher for those upgrading to the 9.3 version of the software. However the utility of this book begins to wane as you approach an intermediate level of proficiency with the software. An index would have been a nice addition to the text, so that specific commands could be referenced and found easily within the text. You will not become an expert with ArcGIS simply by using this book, but it will set you up to get there.

The GIS Tutorial Workbook for Arcview 9 is very helpful. You can learn at your own pace, granted it does take a while to learn (a few hours per section - including the exercises). Everything is layed out including side notes. I like how it says what to correct or how you can change back to the original settings, which makes this workbook a good future reference as well. The pages are not overcrowded, so you don't feel overwhelmed with information overload in one page. The material is spread out nicely and not too wordy. Compared to the online ERSI tutorials/modules, this book is really user-friendly, because the online ERSI tutorials/modules are very wordy and they give a lot of sale pitch language that I could do without. (It already takes a good deal of time to do the online tutorials; I don't need to be bogged down with rubbish introductions.) However, the GIS Tutorial Workbook gets right to the point, which I like. Thank you for such a comprehensive workbook! Yay!

Some of the exercises are not as intuitive as they should be for a tutorial. Overall, very helpful and a great tool for learning GIS.

I know that the workbook is excellent based on a review of ArcGIS 8.3 which is a previous version. However, I sense a problem with ordering the "Workbook for ArcView 9" ISBN #978-1-58948-205-0.
The instructor stated that the third edition should be ordered; however the order process does not show any option for selecting a version. Therefore, I am awaiting the 2 day shipment and can only hope that I receive the correct version. Also, the item shipped immediately so I had no option to check out the version via Amazon.

Excellent book, I am greatly pleased with the comprehensive description of the information. I do recommend that you buy it new however, the student version of ArcGIS on the CD label (CD included with the book) indicates that it is a onetime install; do not know if this is possible with a CD. Overall it is a great book for professional reference and first time users.