topic Re: Shapefile Colors based on attributes? in Data Management Questions

Shapefile Colors based on attributes?

GregSullivan1 — Mon, 31 Mar 2014 17:56:13 GMT

Hello,
I have what I think should be a very easy to solve problem but I am struggling. I currently have a shapefile with descriptions of land use cover as one of the columns in the Attribute table. My entire shapefile comes up as one color/shade and I want to make the colors different depending on the type of Land Cover. I have around 1500 features but only 14 different types of land use. Does anyone know how I could do this?

Re: Shapefile Colors based on attributes?

JoshuaChisholm — Mon, 31 Mar 2014 18:35:05 GMT

Hello Greg,

If I'm understanding you correctly, you just need to use layer symbology.

Double-click the desired layer in the Table Of Contents

Go to the "Symbology" tab

Under "Show:", Select "Categories" then "Unique Values"

The "Value Field" should be set to the field you want to symbolize by ('land use cover' in your case)

*Note, a layer's symbology information is stored in the map document (MXD), not the shapefile/geodatadase. Only the data (spatial and attributes) are stored in the shapefile/geodatabase.

Re: Shapefile Colors based on attributes?

GregSullivan1 — Tue, 01 Apr 2014 11:39:49 GMT

Thanks, this was exactly what I was looking for!