The Info pane provides information on the active component and on any data within that component that is picked, such as an object in a drawing, a record in a table, a tile in an image, a frame in a layout, or a label in a labels layer. The Info pane provides information using five main tabs, one of which, the Component tab, is always shown, with the other four tabs automatically appearing when data is picked with an Alt-click. Additional tabs appear when data is picked in specific types of components, for example, the Position tab when a frame is picked in a layout and the Pixels tab when a tile is picked in an image.
We can switch to the Info pane by clicking its tab if it is open, by choosing Info in the View - Panes menu, or by using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+2.
Shift-click the pane's name tab to undock the pane. Shift-click the title bar to dock it again, or right-click the title bar and choose Dock. An undocked pane can be resized and moved anywhere on our Windows desktop. Close a docked pane by choosing its tab and then pressing the X button to close. Close an undocked pane by right-clicking the title bar and choosing Close.
The Info pane has so many capabilities that multiple topics are required:
Info Pane: Component - The Component tab displays information for the active layer or window such as the projection (coordinate system) for the component, or the language used by a script. Clicking on a component shown in the Component tab will switch to that component in the Project pane.
The Component tab is the default tab for the Info pane: it is the only tab that appears in the Info pane until we Alt-click into the open window to pick an object or label, to pick a tile in an image, or to pick a row in a table. When we pick an item in the window more tabs will appear in the Info pane.
The tab strip at the top of the Info pane as well as information displayed in the Component tab will depend on the type of component. For example, at left above a drawing layer in a map has the focus and at right above an image window has the focus. The Info pane for the image provides additional information such as the size of the image in pixels and also the size of each pixel in the units of measure used by the image's coordinate system.
The Description can contain whatever text we want, edited by clicking the [...] browse button. Adding text using the browse button will cause the description text to appear.
When the focus is on a table window, the Info pane shows the total number of fields, records, selected records, displayed records, and fetched records. Table windows automatically fetch and display all records for table stored in the .map project. For tables linked into a project that are stored in an external data source, table windows will fetch and display as many records as have been set in the Tools - Options setting for the initial number of records to show.
When the number of records fetched has been reduced by the Tools - Options setting to less than the total number of records in the table, a (+) notation appears next to Fetched: readout.
The Fetch All
button also appears when the number of records fetched has been reduced
by the Tools - Options setting
to less than the total number of records in the table. Pressing
the button will command the table window to fetch and display all records in the table. Once a table window has been told to fetch all records
for the displayed table, it will keep fetching all records for all further
operations that refresh or replace the table.
Info Pane: Values - The Values tab appears when data in a component is picked with an Alt-click. It shows details on the item picked, such as attributes for an object picked in a drawing, or fields for a record picked in a table, or controls for a frame picked in a layout.
Info Pane: Coordinates - The Coordinates tab appears when an object in a drawing or a label in a labels layer is picked with an Alt-click. It shows a list of coordinates that define the object or label, also called the geometry. Coordinates that are not read-only may be edited.
The Coordinates tab can also be switched into traverse mode to show geometry using traverses in a variety of popular formats.
Info Pane: Style - The Style tab appears when an object in a drawing, a label in a labels layer, or a frame in a layout is picked with an Alt-click. It provides style controls to format the appearance of the picked item, including altering the individual style of objects in drawings when Style overrides are enabled.
Info Pane: Related - The Related tab appears when a record in a table is picked with an Alt-click. It allows us to search for records in a secondary table that are related to the picked record, creating on-the-fly joins between the picked record and records in the other table.
Info Pane: Pixels - The Pixels tab appears when a tile in an image is picked with an Alt-click. See the Info Pane and Images topic for examples.
Info Pane: Position - The Position tab appears when a frame in a layout is picked with an Alt-click. It allows us to specify the position and size of a frame within a layout.
Assign Initial Coordinate System
Repair Initial Coordinate System
Example: Edit Coordinates While Creating an Object - When creating an object in a map using a tool such as Create Area, right in the middle of the process we can edit coordinates in the Info pane Coordinates tab. This example shows the step by step process.
Example: Edit Attributes and Move a Point - We look at the attributes for a point in a drawing layer and edit one of the attributes using a more expanded Edit dialog. We then move the point to a new location. Easy!
Example: Edit Attributes, Larger Text, IME for Asian Languages - A tour showing how to edit attributes in a drawing using the Info pane Values tab and the expanded Edit dialog, including advanced Unicode facilities and use of the built in Input Method Editor (IME) to input text in Japanese language.
Example: Assign Initial Coordinate System - Use the Info pane to manually assign an initial coordinate system when importing from a format that does not specify the coordinate system.
Example: Change Projection of an Image - Use the Reproject Component command to change the projection of an image, raster data showing terrain elevations in a region of Florida, from Latitude / Longitude to Orthographic centered on Florida.
Example: Create Parcels from Traverse Files - Traverse files using ESRI traverse file format are widely used by surveyors and government organizations in the US to define parcels and lines by describing a sequence of directions, distances and curves from a starting point. Manifold automatically handles both tangent and non-tangent curves in ESRI traverse file format as well as the full variety of options used to specify angles, distances and curves. This video shows how it's easy to create a parcel from a traverse file.