Customer Reviews

Getting to Know ArcGIS Desktop

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I reviewed this title several years ago and highlighted the excellent training material and structure it provides. My view on that remains. However, this book has literally 99% the same content and structure of the earlier editions, so if you are looking for new material you wil be disappointed. The software changes relating to the training examples are largely cosmetic, one or two modified dialogs and toolbars. Nothing of substance.

Also, there is no requirement to purchase this book to obtain the 180-day evaluation software (which is ArcGIS 10 Editor version). Indeed, it is no longer bundled with the book, you have to download the 3.9Gb file, but you also get the evaluation key, so this latest edition is unnecessary.

My advice is, save yourself a whole lot of money, buy an older version and obtain the software via download. There is so little change to the book you will not be disadvantaged. Amazon currently (Dec 2010) has used editions from $17.13.

ESRI Press could have provided an 'update' pdf of changes, but I doubt it would have got beyond a page!

IanO - UK

This book is 592 pages of ArcGIS tutorials. If you like tutorials, then this is the book for you. These tutorials will walk you through anything you would ever want to do with ArcGIS, in painful detail. I was new to ArcGIS before reading this book, it's a complex and powerful program. This book is meant to be read cover to cover, unlike most software manuals & books where you can just jump to what you need to learn. So,.. if you need to learn ArcGIS then this book is for you, but if you just need to learn specific tasks/ tools/ functions this is probably not the book that you want.

I spent over 6 hours trying to load the trial service and it would not authenticate. I had to go to the computer lab at my school and have them authenticate it...not very user friendly. Now that I'm in, and learning the program, the book is great!

This book is well written but is not so practical to use because installing the trial software is almost impossible and all the exercises are based on having the program installed. If you already have access to the software than this is a great investment otherwise I would make sure you have it before buying this book. Also, good luck getting the 180-day version that they advertise in the book, you'll be lucky to get the 60-day version (you don't need to buy book for that) that will only be available through their website. Keep in mind the book only directs you to their website for any information on downloading trial software.

Was finnally able to istall the trial software and worked well and expired on the last day of course so I'm unable to continue practicing.

I am sure this book is great and helpful but the software is bugged and doesn't work - I keep getting error messages telling me it probably doesn't work with "Windows" but if you read specs it SHOULD. I am not a software or computer genius but I have installed hundreds of software programs in my life and never have I had this kind of issue especially with something that is supposed to be brand spanking new. I need this for a class and may end up having to drop if Tech support is unable to help me. I've downloaded every patch possible and still can't use GIS and am VERY disappointed. Supposedly you dont need previous GIS knowledge to use this but I would say that maybe if you are a computer or GIS genius maybe it might work for YOU but not good for the average learning student.

good beginers book and brush up for pre arcgis 10 users. good start and resources for formal or self learning

While the text of the book has been updated to reflect version 10, none of the screenshots used in the book have been updated. This can lead to substantial confusion.

Regardless, I buy a new copy every 6 months for the cheap software. I can keep this plan going for over 10 years and still come out ahead over buying a commercial one year license.

This book was great for filling in some "holes" I had in my ArcGIS background and also showed some small shortcuts to things I already knew. It was very basic level operations but provided a good basis to move into more advanced features of ArcGIS.

This is a great book to learn the ins and outs of GIS! The exercise CD in the back of the book is a great hands on tool!

This is a good reference book for the ArcGIS beginners. Lots of examples and illustrations for the map lovers. I'll recommend it anytime.