ArcGIS Basics - Organizing Your Workspace

The way in which a workspace is organized determines a-lot of how quickly and effectively you can work. The ArcCatalog and ArcMap workspaces (AKA desktop interfaces) are like your real-world desktop. If you don't organize your desk, it becomes increasingly difficult to find the tools you need to work. While on your real-world desk the tools might be a pencil or a calculator, the tools in your GIS Desktop are the toolbars.

So, activating and organizing your toolbars are important if you want to complete work without frustrating yourself and others. Again, like turning on extensions, this is a fairly straight-forward process.

In ArcMap click on the 'View' drop-down menu and highlight 'Toolbars'

You can see a list of toolbars, many of which correspond to specific extension programs. I like to have certain toolbars activated and organized in ArcMap while completing most GIS tasks. The graphic below shows these toolbars and their placement in the workspace (the image was shrunk down from a 19" monitor, smaller monitor would require a re-arrangment of toolbars).

You can click the above image for an enlarged version. Certainly, not everyone will need all these toolbars all the time. However, having them accessible really does come in handy, especially if you are 'in the zone' and working your butt off for a deadline (like an assignment)!

The basic toolbars that open with ArcMap are:
Main Menu
Data Fram Tools
Standard
Tools

The toolbars (and some chief functions) added in the above graphic are:
3D Analyst - generating 3D surfaces
Editor - creating and modifying features
GeoReferencing - assigning coordinates to rasters
Labeling - labeling features in the map
Layout - creating and modifying printable versions of the maps
Publisher - saving a freely viewable version of the GIS (free ArcReader program required to view)
Spatial Analyst - calculating landscape attributes such as cost-weighted pathways and straight lines between points

The tutorials on this site typically make use of these toolbars. I have found that organizing your workspace in the above manner really facilitates quick work, and having your workspace set-up in a similar fashion should help when following the tutorials.