Basic Question

[RoyTarantino]

HI,

I'm a newbie to ArcGIS so I'm sure this is a very basic question.  I'm trying to plot a single lat, lon point with ArcMap from a csv file.  I created the csv file from excel:

ID	Longitude	Latitude
VZW	-74.533958333	40.725025000

It contains the lat lon of an location in Basking Ridge, NJ (gotten from Goggle earth).  When I load it into ArcMap, it displays the point off the coast of Africa in the the Atlantic Ocean!

What am I doing wrong?  Here are the steps:

1. Create a new document, add basemap STreets

2. click on add data, select my csv file

3. right click on it in the table of contents, select display xy data...

4. DIsplay XY Data pop up appears with:

X Field Longitude

Y Field Latitude

Z field <None>

Projected Coordinate System:

  Name: WGS_1984_Web_Mercator_Auxiliary_Sphere

Geographic Coordinate System:

  Name: GCS_WGS_1984

Click ok, and the symbol appears off of Africa.

When I take the same XY value and click on Go To XY, and enter it in the fields, ArcMap locates it correctly,.

Eventually I need to plot many lat lons from a gps device all in csv files.

Please help!

Thanks,

Roy

[TimWitt2]

Roy,

- open an mxd

-click on file -> add data -> add xy data

and switch your x and y.

this should work.

Tim

[AnthonyGiles · Accepted solution]

Roy,

if your coordinates are geographic (lat/long) you need to use a geographic projection. Under geographic-world-wgs84

regards

anthony

[RoyTarantino]

BINGO! That was it. Thanks so much.

I was confused by the wgs84

-Roy

[RoyTarantino]

BINGO! That was it.  Thanks so much.

I was confused by the wgs84

[AnthonyGiles]

Ray,

Please don't forget to also mark the post as answered,

regards

Anthony

[RoyTarantino]

Done. Thanks again.