ArcGIS versions

You've now learned some basic GIS concepts. This course teaches one specific GIS software program: ArcGIS Desktop. To work effectively with ArcGIS, you need to understand its structure.

ArcGIS is a scalable product that includes three license levels: ArcView®, ArcEditor™, and ArcInfo®. All three software products look and work the same—they differ only in how much they can do. ArcEditor does more than ArcView, and ArcInfo does more than ArcEditor.

ArcGIS Desktop can be licensed as ArcView, ArcEditor, or ArcInfo. All three products provide powerful GIS tools for solving real-world problems.

Each ArcGIS product includes two applications: ArcMap and ArcCatalog™. ArcMap is the application you work with to explore and analyze data and make maps. ArcCatalog is the application you work with to manage data. Additionally, ArcToolbox™ is an integrated application that contains many tools for GIS tasks. You can access ArcToolbox from both ArcMap and ArcCatalog.

In this topic, you'll learn more about ArcMap, ArcCatalog, and ArcToolbox and see how, together, they can be used to solve problems.