You'll be presented with a blank GIS session.  Note that ArcGIS Pro is context sensitive meaning that the ribbon layout will change depending on the tab being activated. For example, if you switch from the Insert tab (which should be currently selected) to the View tab, you'll be presented with a different ribbon with a different set of tools. So it is important that you note which tab is being referenced in this and subsequent tutorials.

Adding a map view

• While making sure that you have the Insert tab selected, click on  New Map >>  New Map to add a new Map view to your session.

You'll be presented with a new Map view that consists of two panes: a Contents  pane to the left and the Map view to the right. The Contents pane has an embedded topographic layer and a world hillshade layer by default. These layers are streamed across the internet, so a network connection is required to see them.

The Catalog Pane

Next, you will add the data you downloaded for this tutorial.  Loading and managing GIS data files is usually handled in the Catalog pane (right-hand window pane). If this is the first time you've opened an ArcGIS Pro session on your current computer, the Catalog pane should be the only pane present to the right of the Map view.

NOTE: If the Catalog pane is missing in your current session, you can activate it by clicking the View tab then selecting the Catalog Pane link from the ribbon.

• In the Catalog pane, right-click Folders and select Add Folder Connection. 

• In the Add Folder Connection box navigate to and select this tutorial's data folder (./Intro_Pro).

• Click OK to close the window.

You should now see the Intro_Pro folder under Folders/.

Next, we will want to make the connected folder the default project folder. 

• Right-click the newly connected folder and select Make Default.

• Next, we can remove the temporary project folder by right-clicking the Untitled folder and selecting Remove from Project.

• Expand the Intro_Pro folder, then drag-and-drop the Interstate.shp file into the map.

The Interstate.shp file is added to the map and is now visible as a new layer in the Contents pane.

ArcGIS Pro will usually set the extent to that of the first spatial layer added to the map. Also, note that the default color scheme assigned to Interstate.shp may differ from that shown in this tutorial.

An alternative way of loading data into the map is by clicking on Add Data in the Map tab.  

• Select the Map tab, then click on Add Data >> Data.

• Navigate to your Intro_Pro folder then add the Hillshade.tif data file.

• If you are presented with a message window asking to "build a pyramid", click No.

First, you will load a data table (a simple comma separated data file in this example) into the Map view by instructing ArcGIS to generate points from the latitude and longitude fields

• Select the Map tab, then click on Add Data >> XY Point Data. This step will open a Geoprocessing  pane to the right of the Map.

A geoprocess is a tool that takes input from the user (usually as a data file such as a data table in this example) and generates a new output. Here, it will generate a new GIS file from  a non GIS data file.

• For the Input Table field, navigate to the Intro_Pro folder and select the Cities.txt data file. 

• Click OK.

By default, ArcGIS will want to output the GIS data file in a temporary folder (it might name it Cities_XYTableToPoint). Instead, you will create a permanent spatial data file in the current project folder.

• For the Output Feature Class field, navigate to the Intro_Pro folder and name the new data file Cities_point.shp. Make sure to type the .shp extension in the name. Data file formats will be covered in future tutorials.

• Click Save.

• In this final step, you will select the data columns that store the coordinate value pairs. ArcGIS should recognize the latitude and longitude column names and automatically populate the Y and X fields. If not, select those fields from the pull down menus.

• Leave the Z Field blank (the file does not contain elevation data).

• Click Run to execute this geoprocess. When complete, you should see a green check mark in the geoprocess pane and the new Cities_points should be automatically added to the TOC.

• You can close the geoprocess window pane to minimize desktop clutter by clicking on the close icon in the geoprocessing window's upper right-hand corner.

At this point, you should see the Cities_points layer added to the Contents pane.

Via either the Catalog pane or the Add Data button, expand the Data.gdb folder as well as its Boundaries folder (technically referred to as a feature dataset) and add Counties, Parks and Hydrology to you Map.

Your Map should look something like this. Note that your default color schemes may differ from those shown in this tutorial, and the order in which the layers appear in the TOC may differ depending on the order in which they were added to your map.

You can rearrange the order in which the layers are stacked in the Map view by rearranging their order in the Contents pane. For example, let's move the Counties layer above the Interstate layer and let's move the Hydrology layer above the Parks layer if their stacking order is switched.

• You can also turn layers on and off by unchecking their boxes. For example, let's turn off the World Topographic Map layer and the World Hillshade layer by unchecking their boxes. 

•  In the upper left-hand corner of the map document, click on the Save icon.

A new file called Intro_pro.aprx should be added to your project folder. Note that it automatically adopted the name of the project folder.  You will probably not see the .aprx file listed in the Catalog pane since it is a not a data layer that can be added to the Map view.  You may need to use Windows file management folder to see the .aprx file.

In creating the .aprx file, you will also note that the content of Folders in the Catalog pane has changed. You should now see two Intro_pro folder connections.

Both folder connections are pointing to the same folder. They are therefore redundant. The little house icon on one of the folder connections indicates that this is the default folder connection.  We will keep this folder connection. We will therefore remove the other folder connection in the following step.

• In the Contents pane, select the Counties layer.  In doing so, you will see three tabs related to polygon layer manipulation appear in the ribbon. These are: Feature Layer (used to manipulate feature symbology); Labeling (used to manipulate labels); Data (used to manipulate attribute tables and perform joins).

• Click on the Feature Layer tab. This will bring up a new ribbon. This ribbon hosts most of the tools needed to change a layer's symbology.

• Click on the Symbology icon in the Appearance ribbon. This should bring up a Symbology pane to the right of your Map view window.

• In the Symbology pane, make sure that Single Symbol is selected in the Primary symbology field. Under that field, you should see a colored Symbol icon. Click on that icon to open its properties.

• In the Format Polygon Symbol >> Gallery pane, select the second option,  Black Outline (2pts).  ArcGIS offers scores of predefined polygon symbols. Some may be exactly what you want, others may need some tweaking. Next,  we will tweak the symbol by changing its outline color to white.

• Once you've selected the Black Outline symbol, click the Properties option in the Format Polygon Symbol pane.

• In the Properties window, change the outline color to white. Note that this menu also allows you to change the fill color (which is now set to transparent) as well as the polygon's outline thickness.

• When done, click on the Apply button near the bottom of the Format Polygon Symbol pane to see the changes in the Map view.

At this point, do not close the Symbology pane yet. You will use this pane to symbolize other layers in the map

• Next, select the Parks layer in the Contents pane.  Its current symbol should now appear in the Symbology pane.

• Change its fill color to green (a Leaf Green, for example) and its outline color to No Color following instructions given for symbolizing the Counties layer. There is no need to modify the outline width since its thickness will be irrelevant given a transparent outline color

• Click Apply to force the symbology change.

In the next step, we'll modify the opaqueness of the Parks symbol so as not to completely mask out the underlying hillshade features. We'll set the Park's transparency to 50% in the following step.

• While making sure that the Parks layer is still selected, navigate to the Feature Layer tab and set the layer's transparency to 50% via the slider or by typing the transparency value in the box.

• On your own, change the Hydrology layer's symbology to  a Soladite Blue fill color and a no color outline. Don't forget to click Apply to see the changes reflected in the Map.

• Next, select the Interstate layer in the Contents window, then click on the line symbol in the Symbology pane. 

•  Click on the Gallery option

• Scroll down (about a third of the way down the Gallery pane window) and select  2.0 Point for line type,  then switch to the Properties menu and set its color to Fire Red.

• Click Apply.

At this point, your map layers should look something like the map subset shown in the adjoining figure.

Next, you will change the Cities_points layer by making the point symbols proportional to the population size. But first, you will explore the attributes table associated with the Cities_points layer.

• In the Contents pane, select Cities_points. 

• Select the Data tab to bring up its ribbon.

• Click on the Attribute Table icon in the Data ribbon. This will add the layer's attribute table to your ArcGIS Pro desktop. 

Alternatively, you can right-click the points layer in the Contents pane  and select Attribute Table.

The Cities_points attributes table stores the city name, its latitude and longitude and its population count. It also stores addition fields related to its spatial features.  

Next,  we will use the population field to define the size of the point features such that the point symbol size will be proportional to the population size.

• Close the Cities_point attribute table (this to reduce desktop clutter).

• Select the Cities_points layer in the Contents pane.

• Activate the Feature Layer tab and click on Symbology from the ribbon. This will display the Symbology pane if it's not already active.

• From the Primary symbology pull-down option select Proportional Symbols.

• Select population from the  Field pull-down menu.

• Change the Maximum size to  40.

Next, we'll change the point symbol's color.

• Click on the point symbol next to Template. This should bring up the Symbology pane you've been exposed to earlier in this tutorial. 

• Set the point color symbol to Electron Gold (it's an orange hue in the color palette).

• Click Apply to force the change.

• In the Feature Layer ribbon, change the point symbology's transparency to 40%.

Your point symbols should look something like what is shown in the adjoining figure.

You'll note that the size of the these point circles remain constant regardless of the zoom level. So if you zoom out, the point symbols will cover a larger percentage of the map but their size will remain the same relative to the page layout.

You may have already figured out how to navigate around the  Map view with your mouse. To have greater control over the Map's interaction, click on the Map tab in the menu bar.

In Explore mode, your mouse works as both a panning/zooming tool as well as an inquiry tool.

• To pan around the map, press and hold the middle mouse button. 

• To zoom in and out, roll the middle mouse button forward and backward.

You can also probe your layers for attribute information. For example, click inside of the northern most park (Baxter State park). Doing so will bring up the attribute information for all layers present at that location. However, you'll note that the information being pulled up is that for the Counties layer and not for the Parks layer. This is because the Explore tool will default to the top most layer in the Contents stack.

To have the Explore tool list all visible layers present at the location clicked, expand the Explore tool and select Visible Layers.

Now click once again on the Baxter State Park polygon. You should now see the three visible layers having a feature at the location clicked. These should include Counties,  Parks and Hillshade.tif.

You can expand anyone of the layer in the Pop-up window.

•  In the upper left-hand corner of the map document, click on the Save icon.