Alan, Megan,
What kind of feature are you trying to buffer? I cannot see a direct way of using the BUFFER function to do this
However, if what you are looking for is a shadow line at a particular distance and direction from the original feature, for example a curving polyline there are simple ways of producing this with the EDITOR:
1. in an edit session select the feature and use Right-click COPY, then Right click Paste to create a duplicate feature in the same place
2. then pull down the EDITOR menu and select MOVE and input a desired X-Y offset for the shadow line and hit enter.
This will produce and exact copy of the feature at specified X-Y offset which is just another way of specifying direction and distance.
If you want to stick with direction and distance you need to be more familiar with editing functions and snapping environments but it works quickly too:
1. start an edit session Create New Feature with Target: a polyline feature class and set snapping on ENDS.
2. using the sketch tool, snap to an Target END point on the feature and left click to make a starting vertex and pull away to start a line.
3. either right-click for a menu and hit "direction-distance" or type CTRL-g to get the same input box and input the direction and distance you want for your shadow buffer. Hit F-2 to finish the offset line.
4. duplicate the feature using the "copy Features Tool" on the Advanced Editing toolbar or use copy and paste and some arbitrary offset to separate the features.
5. select the copied feature with the edit tool and move the selection anchor to the end of the copied feature ( hit CTRL and hover over the small "x" then left click and drag the "x" until it snaps to the end of your feature.
6. move the feature with the edit tool until the END pt snaps to the end of the direction-distance line and you have your shadow line.
What you do with it after that is up to your preferences;
You could fill in the other end of the area with a line and convert the thing to a polygon and shade it.
Anyway, it is sort of a fun editing task, sorry I can't see a way to use the buffer tool.
selection anchor 1.[ESRI software] In an ArcMap editing session, a small "x" located in the center of selected features. The selection anchor is used in the snapping environment, or when rotating, moving, and scaling features.
