Best Practice for Publishing a Map internally

Question

Hello All

I am trying to see what would be the best way for non-GIS users to view and have some interactive ability to see a published map on a pdf form or some other viewing media i.e. ArcExplorer, Viewer?  I know that in pdf form you can turn on and off layers, but what about selecting and view attributes on that pdf map, or is that too much for a pdf.

thank you for any input

JM

innisfilgis1 · Answer

I normally use ArcGIS Explorer Desktop for that. The application is free and easy to use but there are no editing capabilities. If you have ArcGIS online you can also publish a web map application. Easy to use, and although the online license is expensive, the end user does not need it in order to use the published map. The online also would allow editing.

MarkBockenhauer · Answer

If your original source document is a ArcMap MXD,  using the Publisher Extension to create a published map file (PMF) and having your users use ArcReader to view it, would work.

You can also use ArcGIS Explorer Desktop, but it does not ready MXD's directly.  You could save Layer Files or Layer Packages from ArcMap and assemble an ArcGIS Explorer desktop map out of the ArcGIS layers.

ArcReader and ArcGIS Explorer desktop are free applications and pretty easy to use for GIS novices.  For ArcReader you will need the ArcGIS Publisher Extension to create content.  ArcGIS Explorer Desktop can view a variety of content, no extension required.

The best practice, is really about what works best for you and your users.  Lots of options.