Enabling digitizing mode

Digitizing tablets generally operate in two modes: digitizing (absolute) mode and mouse (relative) mode. When you are in digitizing mode, you can only digitize features; you cannot choose buttons, menu commands, or tools from the ArcMap user interface because the screen pointer is locked to the drawing area. In mouse mode, however, there is no correlation between the position of the screen pointer and the digitizing tablet. When digitizing, you can switch between digitizing mode and mouse mode using the Editing Options dialog box. This allows you to use the digitizer puck to digitize features as well as access user interface choices (as a substitute for the mouse). Also, you can use your mouse to choose interface elements at any time, whether your digitizer is in mouse mode or digitizing mode.

Steps:

1. Click the Editor menu and click Options.
2. Click the General tab.
3. Type the stream tolerance (in map units). You can also give the stream tolerance value in other units by specifying a distance units abbreviation with the value that you enter. For example, to specify a distance of 10 feet, type 10ft. Distance unit abbreviations only work if your data frame is projected.
4. Type the number of vertices you want to group together. Now when you click the Undo button while digitizing in stream mode, the number of vertices you specify are deleted.
5. Click the Digitizer tab.
6. Check Enabled to use the puck in digitizing mode.
7. Click OK.
8. Trace the puck over the feature on the paper map and create features as desired. Press F8 if you want to create vertices by streaming.