Need help viewing .xml Method Reports

[EricScherff]

Hello,

I have been exploring different types and settings of kriging with the Geostatistical Wizard, and in an effort to be systematic and allow for some refinement of my approach have been saving the Method Reports as .xml files.  Now I am ready to review the settings I used for the different models to see what worked well and what did not.  Unfortunately, when I open the .xml files in the default program (IE or Firefox) they are not very readable, and are full of code and repetitive parameter names.  The dialog box that pops up at the end of the Wizard is readable enough, and if I could view this in a spreadsheet format, then that would be fine, too.  How can I make use of these .xml files so that I do not have to wade through all these extraneous characters and symbols?  Thanks for any advice.

Eric

[EricKrause]

Probably the most structured and safe way to do this is to save your geostatistical layers to .lyr files using the "Save to Layer File" geoprocessing tool.  When you pull the .lyr file into ArcMap, right-click the layer and choose Properties.  On the Method Report tab, you'll see all the parameters in the same structure as the Method Report window in the Geostatistical Wizard.

Do you really need an xml file separate from the geostatistical layer?  If you really need it, let me know.

[EricScherff]

I would like to have a compact summary of the model settings so I can compare each model side-by-side with others for the same study area.  A spreadsheet format is what I envision, and so a .csv would actually be superior to an .xml for this.  Here is the attempt I made: [ATTACH=CONFIG]14752[/ATTACH] In my rendition each column is a different model, but it is incomplete to the point of being meaningless because I had to process the xml with MSWord 2010, which does not recognize the xml format.  Any copy-paste I have tried on the Method Reports as they are rendered by ArcMap in the dialog box results in rows being split.  My best choice so far seems to be to print the Method Report and then compare hard copies.  This is OK, but an electronic version (i.e. spreadsheet) would be more flexible in my view.  I realize this will also be slightly incongruous because different model settings and types of kriging will yield different row headings, but I do not think this would be too awkward.  I do not know how to work with xml (do I need to write a stylesheet?)--if I did maybe this would be more straightforward.  I am also curious why xml is the format ArcMap uses for this export--what is the application where an xml Method Report would be beneficial?  Thank you for the tip on how to access the Method Properties--any other tools/techniques for working with the xml would also be appreciated.

Eric Scherff

[EricKrause]

If you're using ArcGIS 10, you can right-click the parameters in the Wizard and Copy All.  This is shown in the attached graphic.  You can then paste them directly into Excel, and it will format nicely.  Let me know if you're using a version earlier than 10.

[EricScherff]

Thank you for telling me about this feature! I was not aware this functionality existed, but it is quick, eliminates transcription errors, and will be much more useful to me than the xml file.

Cheers!
Eric Scherff