Customer Reviews

Getting to Know ArcGIS Desktop

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

 

 

I may be a bit biased since I work for ESRI, but I am not a GIS person; I am a web developer. I currently am enrolled in school to acquire my GIS degree and find this book is very helpful for learning the BASICS of GIS. Of all the reviews I have seen here, it looks like everyone already knows about ArcGIS. This is not the book for you then. You need to find the more advanced publications with more in depth tutorials and examples of the software. I see a VBA developer looking for answers here; you wasted your money. Great book for GIS beginners ONLY!

I purchased this book as a compliment to the text for an intro to ArcHydro course I am taking at university and find it to be a very useful tool. The software runs on 2000 or NT, however, I called ESRI and they immediately sent me a 60 day full license for version 8.3 for XP. It's a great tool for the beginner starting out in geodatabse design and the exercises are easy to follow and gratifying when completed. If you're new to ArcView this is a good buy.

This textbook is a great, easy to understand and to follow tutorial. It is packed with step-by-step instructions and color pictures of the computer screen. The steps on the computer screen are even marked with arrows. I am taking my first GIS course and this book has been an excellent textbook and reference book. I highly recommend it.

I used this book in two classes this fall. While the illustrations are nice, it was a little too simplistic. Not enough emphasis on concepts and applicability. Also, shows program as deceptively easy for success with all data on the CD's provided and compatible. Not exactly how things work in real-life. Basically, a walk-through, follow-the leader exercise book.

A decent intro to ArcGIS, but contains a lot of fluff. If you have ArcGIS at work, the Getting Started With ArcGIS included with the documentation will just about cover what you want to know. It does not cover Spatial Analyst, 3D Analyst, or the Geostatistical Analayst, nor covers any of the VBA capabilites...

I am always reticient to give a poor or lukewarm review of a book, or to "damn it with faint praise", but this is not what I expected. Basically, a glorified user's manual/tutorial. It's great if you're a beginner who wants to get up to speed on using the software, but the book is mostly page-after-page of screen shots with very little text. If you're the programming type (like I am), keep shopping...

Very thorough text on ArcGIS - one of the best I've read for actual use of it. Unfortunately, it doesn't address theory of GIS programs in general that well, and I felt like my hand was being held a little too much in some things. Overall, I'm very pleased with this, and the 6-mo copy of ArcGIS Desktop that comes with the book is the cheapest way I know of to get a fully functional copy - just buy another one when your current one is expired, it's still cheaper than the software :)

The title of this book is misleading (Getting to know ArcGIS Desktop: The basics of ArcView, ArcEditor, and ArcInfo). This book is strictly on ArcView, and only briefly mentions Editor and Info. This is for someone who has never worked with ArcView 8.x and needs some info to get started, not for an experienced user.

This was a very helpful book for both lab and class.

This book runs you through excercises to familiarize you with the layout and tools the program offers. It utilizes pre-made coverages and data sets that, although useful to play with, allow the author to avoid teaching you how to generate new or initial coverages. I would think once we're done converting 3.x to 8.x we want to generate original coverages, and this book really doesn't help you figure out how to do that. So although it's a reasonable resouce, it's not the end all be all guide - and I don't know what it.