Using the “Go To XY” Tool in ArcGIS 9.2

About moving around a map

You can use the Go To XY command on the Tools toolbar to navigate to a particular x,y location in your map. You can specify the location by entering coordinates in the map units of your map, decimal degrees, or Degrees Minutes Seconds. You can pan to, zoom to, or flash the location. You can also draw a point, a labeled point, or a callout at the location. The recent history list makes it easy to return to coordinates you have already entered.

The following tools are on the Go To XY dialog box:

• Pan to the location.
• Zoom to the location.
• Flash the location.
• Draw a point at the location.
• Draw a point at the location labeled with its coordinates.
• Draw a callout pointing at the location showing its coordinates.
• Return to a location you've already entered in this session.
• Choose the units in which to enter coordinates.

Navigating to a particular x,y location

1. Click the Go to XY button on the Tools toolbar.
2. Click the Units button and choose the units for the input coordinates.
3. Enter an x-coordinate (longitude) and y-coordinate (latitude) in the boxes.
4. Press Enter. You can also click Pan To or Zoom To to navigate to the coordinate. Click Flash to flash the location.
5. Click the other buttons on the Go To XY dialog box if you want to add a marker, label, or callout at the location.
6. To return to a previous location, click the Recent button and click an entry in the list.

Rules for specifying longitude and latitude with the Go To XY command

• Remember that X is longitude (East/West) and Y is latitude (North/South)—the same order in which coordinates are listed in the status bar. Spherical coordinates aren't always specified in this order, so make sure you enter longitude first in this dialog box. For example, if someone asks you to plot 17.1325 -60.666 on the map, ask them if these coordinates are in long/lat or lat/long order. The only way to tell the order from the coordinates themselves is if they contain E, W, N, S characters to signify the hemisphere.
• When you are using Decimal Degrees (DD), Degrees Minutes Seconds (DMS), or Degrees Decimal Minutes (DM), coordinates can be entered by using a minus sign before the numeric value to signify the Western or Southern quadrants, or using E, W, N, S characters before or after the numeric values.
• Values in DMS and DM coordinates can be separated with spaces or the ° ' " special characters (such as when you paste coordinates that you have copied from other dialogs or applications that use those characters), or both.
• Regardless of whether you are using DD, DMS or DM in the dialog box, coordinates can be entered in any of these three longitude/latitude formats and they will be automatically converted to match your chosen format.
• When you are using DD and DM, coordinates your input are always converted to use a minus sign to signify W or S.
• When you are using DMS, coordinates your input are always converted to use E, W, N, S to signify quadrants and are given the ° ' " special characters.
• All of these are legal longitude/latitude inputs:

      -45 -45
      45 W 45 S
      45.50W 45.50S
      W45 S45
      45 30.5W 44 30.5S
      45°30'30"W 45°30'30"N
      45 30 30 W 45 30 30 N
      -45 30 30 45 30 30
      45 30.50W 45 30.50
      -45.50833 45.50833

  Tips

•  You can set the symbols used for markers, labels, and callouts by clicking Drawing on the Draw toolbar and clicking Default Symbol Properties.
• You can use the Identify tool on the Tools toolbar to click any location in the map and find its x,y location.
• With decimal degrees as the units, you can specify the hemisphere by typing +, –, N, S, E, and W.
• Decimal degrees and degrees/minutes/seconds will be disabled if the layer or data frame does not have a defined coordinate system.

Last Modified: 06/19/2008