Methods of editing attributes

In ArcMap, there are different ways to view and access feature attributes for editing.

The Attributes dialog

One environment for editing attribute values is the Attributes dialog. During an edit session, the Attributes dialog displays the attribute values of the selected features in the map. You can edit individual feature attribute values in this dialog by typing, copying and pasting, or deleting. If you want all the selected features to be updated with the same value for an attribute, you can make the edit in one place and it is applied to all the selected features at once.

In the Attributes dialog, the layer name and selected features are listed in the left pane. On the right, the attribute fields and values display. You can click individual values to edit them.

The Attributes dialog displays the attributes of all selected features in the map, even when features in different layers are selected. You can easily edit attributes for multiple layers at the same time.

Here, features in the Streets and SubdivisionParcels layers are selected. The street feature's NAME attribute is being edited. Grayed-out attribute values, like the street's Shape_Length value, cannot be edited; they are maintained by the software.

The attribute table

You can also access feature attributes by opening the layer attribute table. You can view the records for all the features in the layer or just the records for selected features. Just like in the Attributes dialog, in an attribute table, you can manually edit feature attribute values by typing, copying and pasting, or deleting.

You can directly edit attribute values for selected features in the layer attribute table.

Unlike the Attributes dialog, the attribute table provides a tool that automates editing. You will learn about this tool in the next concept.