Customer Reviews

Getting to Know ArcGIS Desktop: Basics of ArcView, ArcEditor, and ArcInfo (Getting to Know (ESRI Press))

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

 

 

The software that came with the course materials does not match the written text and examples contained in the text of the book. I am having to try to get information from ESRI to correct the flaws. The exercises beginning in chapter 9 do not work.

This book is not an audio book as titled on your website, rather, it is a book with two DVDs of data and software.

This is an excellent, very helpful intro to the basics of using ArcGIS (specifically ArcMap in my case). The ESRI documentation that comes with the software was not helpful at all. I was (painfully) learning mostly by clicking on various menus until this book arrived. By referencing the book and its many examples, I've been able to develop my material in a matter of a few hours after spending days making little progress. Expensive but worth it.

The only knowledge of GIS I had before this book was the understanding of what it was and how it was used. This book is excellent for the beginner. Not only is it an excellent way to get a trial version of the software but it takes you step by step through making maps. I had no problems with the data or the software. Once I finished the book I was able to go on to more challenging books and take several of the ESRI longer courses. This book is the place to start for anyone interested in learning GIS.

This book is not for someone whom is already familiar with ArcGIS. This is a VERY basic workbook covering the basics of ArcGIS.

Unless you have zero experience with applications the book is useless. It covers only basic information that any GIS literate person could easily manage to figure out with a few hours of playing with the program. The only reason for one star was the 180 day license. Be forewarned however that is is only for ARCView so functionality is limited.

The authors tried to update the book to ArcGIS 10, but failed intermittently throughout the book. The cartography is horrible, which would not be an issue, except the authors continuously touted the "professional" look of the final maps. You will learn the basics, but the exercises are not sufficient to teach you in a way that you'll retain the information. I found the GIS Tutorial books more thorough and effective.

I have the text for ArcGIS version 10 so I knew what to expect. Great intro text to the GIS software. I just wish the 6 month subscription would be extended to one year.

The writers have decided that the best way for you to get into ArcGIS for the first time is to start using it, and to that end, this book consists almost entirely of exercises. The exercises are presented in cookbook style--each step is detailed very clearly with a huge number of (helpful) illustrations. The downside to this is that there's not much in the way of more sophisticated conceptual explanation of how certain processes in ArcGIS were designed. That said, the cookbook exercises are excellent, and extremely thorough. I've had no moments where I'm wondering what they're talking about in the book or why something isn't working the way it is supposed to. To be able to work through a book like this free of frustration is a rare thing. Plus, 180 day license is a nice perk. The heavy illustration also means that you can really breeze through the book, and whether it's entirely earned or not, getting through 100 pages in a couple hours certainly makes you feel pretty good.

I wanted to learn a bit about GIS software and technology. This book had wonderful exercises to familiarize me with the software. The exercises were easy to follow, with plenty of screen shots that made it easy to find the necessary buttons/menus/lists on my screen. I would estimate the exercises in this book can be completed in far fewer than 40 hours by anyone familiar with graphical user interfaces. Naturally it will take more effort to solve similar problems of your own, instead of merely following the examples in this book.