Creating item descriptions

A key aspect in working with ArcGIS items in ArcCatalog is to document each of the GIS items in your Catalog tree—your map documents, layers, geoprocessing models, geodatabase datasets, and so on. In turn, these item descriptions are used by ArcGIS Search to help you find datasets, layers, and other ArcGIS items that you can put to use.

Item descriptions are also used to create and work with standards-based metadata.

Here's how you can document your GIS items and how item descriptions can be leveraged for effectively using ArcGIS.

Steps:

1. In the Catalog tree, navigate to an item and highlight it.
2. Click the Description tab to view, edit, and manage the item description.
3. Click the Edit button to edit or revise the item description.
Working with metadata

This process for creating and updating item descriptions is also how you start to work with and capture standards-based metadata documentation for ArcGIS items. See A quick tour of creating and editing metadata for more information.