Hands On User Level

New/Casual Advanced Quickly Customize Toolbars and Buttons Creating custom toolbars is one of the easiest bar will be saved. ways to tailor ArcGIS desktop applications to 3. Under Categories, click the category contain- the way you work. In addition to positioning ing the command to add. Under Commands, toolbars in a specific area of the application, click the specific command. Drag the command Modify you can group commands on a custom toolbar. to the new toolbar and drop it. Alternately, click one of Save mouse clicks by creating a new toolbar the Add From File button and browse to the loca- the 200 that contains frequently used menu choices, tion of the code you would like to attach to the icons that new macros, or custom commands from an- button and drag the file to the toolbar. ship with other source. 4. Right-click on the new button and choose ArcGIS Change Button Image from the context menu or create Creating a Custom Toolbar to access the button icon palette. Select one of your own. 1. Choose Tools > Customize from the main the icons displayed or click the Browse button menu. to choose a custom image or another of the icon 2. In the Customize dialog box, click on the images that ship with ArcGIS. ArcGIS stores Make Your Own Icons Toolbars tab. icons in arcexe82\bin\incons. Click Open to add You can modify any of the 200 icon files that 3. Click the New button and type the name of the icon. ship with ArcGIS or create your own using the new toolbar. 5. Repeat steps 5 through 7 to add any other but- any graphics program that handles raster files. 4. Click the dropdown arrow next to the Save tons. Close in the Customize dialog box when all You can make simple modifications to existing In combo box. Save the toolbar in an .mxt file buttons have been added. icons using Paint, a basic graphics program that (normal template) to make it available for all is included with the Windows operating system. new documents or in an .mxd file to save it to Changing the Image For building icons, Jasc Software’s Paint Shop the current document. Click OK. 1. Display the toolbar that will be modified and Pro supplies many tools and is relatively inex- In the Customize dialog box, the name of choose Tools > Customize from the main menu. pensive. the new toolbar appears in the Toolbars list. 2. On the toolbar, right-click the button to modify To modify an existing icon, navigate to An empty toolbar appears floating in the ap- and choose Change Button Image from the con- arcexe82\bin\incons and open the desired icon plication window ready to be populated with text menu. file in a graphics program. Save the icon file as a new buttons. Buttons can be added by dragging 3. Choose another image displayed in the icon Windows bit map (.bmp) using a new file name commands to this toolbar. palette or click the Browse button to choose a before making any modifications. If you are mak- custom image or another of the icon images that ing a new icon from scratch, remember that the Modifying the Toolbar ship with ArcGIS. image should be 16 pixels by 16 pixels. To make 1. In the Customize dialog box, click the Com- 4. Click Open to add the desired image. Close the only the icon images but not its background vis- mands tab. Customize dialog box. ible, set the background to transparent. 2. In the Save In combo box, click the drop-down arrow and choose the template in which the tool-

An ESRI Icon You know his friendly face. A fixture of customized ArcView interfaces since 1994, he has appeared in countless demonstrations, tutorials, and online guides. Recently, in a completely unscientific poll conducted on the ESRI campus, he was voted the icon most likely to be picked for a custom button. The Bex the Dog But, did you know that Bex the Dog is not icon was based on just a popular button icon but a real dog? this photograph With the release of ArcView 2, users of Jeff Jackson’s could write Avenue scripts that enhanced dog, Beckett. functionality and attach those scripts to new buttons. A set of icons for these buttons was curate. Beckett, or Bex as he is known to created for this release. Jeff Jackson, now the his friends, grew into an active dog who is software development lead for ArcGIS, was addicted to chasing tennis balls and loves working on this release and drew the Bex the swimming in lakes and pools. Until just a Dog icon based on a photo of his dog, Beck- couple of years ago, Jeff couldn’t go moun- ett. tain biking without him. Jeff spotted Beckett, a rambunctious Jeff’s Bex the Dog icon has been equally Golden Retriever/Irish Setter puppy, at the durable. It has been included in all succeed- Bangor Humane Society in Maine in 1989. ing ArcView releases and now ships with His first impression of the pup proved ac- ArcGIS.

50 ArcUser October–December 2002 www.esri.com