Entering attributes immediately after creating a new feature

You can turn on a setting so you will be prompted to enter attributes into the Attributes window after any editing operation that results in new features. You will need to close the window before you can do anything else with ArcMap.

Turning on this setting is most useful in the following situations:

• Your geodatabase does not allow features to have null attribute values or requires that attributes values be unique. When prompted, you can edit the attribute values before the new feature is stored in the geodatabase. This may be useful when working in a nonversioned edit session with ArcSDE data.
• You are creating new features and want to attribute them immediately. This is especially true when you are creating a few new features at a time, and they have known attributes or subtypes. This is useful when the values cannot be determined ahead of time; otherwise, you should set these values as part of the feature template.

Being prompted to enter attributes may be less efficient in cases where you create a batch of features at a time. For example, if you are using a command that creates a number of new features, you may find that it is difficult to enter and keep track of the attributes for so many features at once.

Steps:

1. Click the Editor menu and click Options.
2. Click the Attributes tab.
3. Check the Display box.
4. Specify whether to show the Attributes window for all layers or just certain ones. If you want it to display for certain layers, check those layers.
5. Click OK.
6. Finish a sketch or perform any editing operation that results in at least one new feature being created. The Attributes window opens.
7. Type the attribute values.
If you have created multiple features at once and want to assign the same attribute values to them, click the layer name and type the values.
8. Click OK.

   A message appears if there is a problem with the values, such as if you have null values when they are not allowed or if you enter text in a numeric field. You will have an opportunity to fix the problem.