Category: 2. Ancient Woodland Layers

Exercise 1.4: Add the Ancient Woodlands Layer

Now call up the Project Manager using the space bar. There are different ways to call up the menu bar, but by the end of this tutorial you’ll remember it!

The Components view is shown by default, with Layers tab visible. NB that each tab selection changes the size of the dialogue box, which can confuse!

Before you do anything else, click the Project Information tab, and look through the configuration options available. Give the project a title if you wish now or return to the Components pane.

The left hand pane consists of layers in the current project. Click Add layer to add the Woodland Inventory, which is stored in in the folder: Public / Map Data / Ancient Woodland Inventory.

If you cannot see the Public folder, click the + signs to expand each folder until you find Public, which is normally accessed via the desktop (Vista and XP) or under the C: drive in the Users folder (Windows 7). Using the arrow keys to navigate the Map Maker file menus can be much faster than using a mouse (up and down to scroll through the folders, left and right to expand and close folders.) Try it.

Now, if the folder appears to be empty it is because there isn’t a file of the appropriate type. In this case, there is no .dra file (the native Map Maker vector format) so we are going to look for a .shp file, by selecting ArcView Shape file.

You may need to click the selector once or twice to make sure it appears. Once the file appears and you’ve selected it, the OK button will be highlighted and you can proceed to the next stage, so click OK.

Here’s what you should see:

Exercise 1.3: Navigate to Whittinghame House Woodlands

Now navigate using the zoom and pan tools to the area around Whittinghame House.

Select an area so that Lady Eleanor’s Cottage is roughly in the top left corner and Ruchlaw West Mains in the bottom right hand corner.

You may have noticed that the OS map changed from 1:50k to 1:25k (both colour maps) and then to 1:10k (a black and white map). Your final view should be 1:10k and look like the image on the right – click Esc(ape) to reclaim the screen:

Exercise 1.2: Save project

Now go to Save Project As in the File menu. Use the scroll bar to navigate to the Desktop, where you will save your 1st project. Note the path is given below the left hand pane. Now give it a name, bearing in mind that the .geo will be added automatically so you can start writing immediately. Hit OK to save.

Click n the image to see the dialogue box. Hit Esc(ape) to return here.

Exercise 1.1 Open Map Maker

Let’s consolidate with some practical exercises.

The overall task is to display Ancient Woodland boundaries over a suitable OS map, add a map key, create a legend and title and print it.

This exercise is for complete beginners and should not be too challenging unless you if you are unfamiliar with Windows file management or configuring multi-level tabbed dialogue boxes.

You’ll learn about:

• the Project Manager
• how to save project files
• basic layer manipulation
• linking to a database
• changing the map style / key
• creating a project legend
• creating “map furniture”
• basic printing

So lets start right away.

Start Map Maker. If Map Maker is already open, close it down and restart it.

The screen should show a 1:50k view of Dunbar and District.