You can access context-specific online help throughout Web Soil Survey, by clicking the question-mark icon. This opens up help for the particular feature or group of features where the icon is located. When you open a help item, the question-mark icon turns upside-down: . To close the help item, you can click the upside-down question mark icon, or click the Close button at the upper right of the open help item.

Many help items are divided into sections, which can be opened and closed. To open a closed section, click the plus-sign icon, and to close an open section, click the minus-sign icon.

If you need additional assistance, click the Contact Us link in the navigation bar, click the soilshotline@lin.usda.gov link, and we’ll be glad to help you.

Use the Search panel, in the upper left corner of each tab in Web Soil Survey. Enter keywords or phrases, and use the Advanced Search options if needed, and click Search.

The search results are links that navigate to the the places in Web Soil Survey that match your search items.

For more information, click the icon in the Search panel.

Here are some basic instructions to get started using Web Soil Survey:

1. On the left side of the screen in the Quick Navigation panel, click on one of the selection methods. For example, open State/County, select your state and county, and click View.
2. After the map updates, click the Zoom In tool . Then click and drag a rectangle on the map to zoom to an area. Zoom in as close as you need to so you can see streets and landmarks you recognize.
3. After the map updates, click the AOI Rectangle tool .
4. Click and drag a rectangle around the area of the map you wish to set as your Area of Interest.
5. The application will create the AOI you have specified. Now you can navigate to the Soil Map or Soil Data Explorer tabs and start getting soil information.

If the area you are interested in is not rectangular, you can use the AOI Polygon tool . Click points on the map to define your AOI. Double-click or CTRL-click the final point to finish.

To stop in the middle of drawing an AOI and start over, when using the AOI Rectangle tool, press the Esc key without releasing the mouse button.

To start over when using the AOI Polygon tool, just press the Esc key.

To delete an AOI after drawing it, click the Clear AOI button in the Area of Interest Properties panel.

Though the aerial photography layer is much improved in release 2.1, there is no adjustment to improve the appearance of the aerial photos.

However, you can turn off the aerial photography layer — Click the Legend tab, scroll the Legend down to the “Aerial Photography” layer, and uncheck it.

To see all available information on a map data layer:

1. Zoom the map to a scale where the layer you are interested in is visible.
2. Open the Legend tab.
3. Right click the name of the layer to pop-up the context menu.
4. Click View Layer Descriptions.
5. All available information about the source of the data layer is displayed. In some cases, the source of the data layer is not known, and No descriptions available is displayed.

To get the date of the aerial photography for a particular spot:

1. Click the Identify tool on the map tool bar.
2. Open the Legend tab.
3. Set the “Aerial Photography” background layer as the active layer, by clicking the layer name (leave the checkbox checked, and just click the name “Aerial Photography”).
4. Then click on the map. In the Identify panel below the map, you will see the date that the aerial photo you clicked was made.

The aerial photography date(s) are also included on the Legend page of printable maps.

Here are some basic instructions to get soil data from Web Soil Survey:

1. First, create an area of interest (AOI). (See “How do I select the area for which I want to get soil information?” above.)
2. Then, click the Soil Map tab.
3. You will see the Soil Map for your AOI. Click the Printable Version button, and press View to create a PDF that you can download or print. For additional help, press the question-mark icon in the Printable Version form.
4. Then, click the Soil Data Explorer tab.

5. The Soil Data Explorer tab contains five inner tabs:

   • Intro to Soils
   • Suitabilities and Limitations for Use (the default)
   • Soil Properties and Qualities
   • Ecological Site Assessment
   • Soil Reports

   On the left side Suitabilities and Limitations for Use tab are a number of “Folders”, which you can click to open. You can find the data you want most easily using the Search feature, at the upper left corner of all Web Soil Survey tabs.

6. Open Recreational Development, for example.
7. The folders contain forms which you can fill out to get “Soil Ratings” (on the other inner tabs, other kinds of soil data are available). Click Playgrounds to open it.
8. You can click View Description to see a description of this rating.
9. Click View Rating to run the rating and view the data map and/or tables.
10. Click the Printable Version button, and press View to create a PDF of the soil rating map and/or tables that you can download or print.
11. Help for the Suitabilities and Limitations for Use tab, and for all the inner tabs, is available by clicking the question-mark icon at the upper right of the folder panel.

Define your area of interest, then navigate to the Soil Map tab. On the left side, find your soil map unit in the Map Unit Legend. Click on the map unit name to display the description for that map unit in a dialog. The Map Unit Description dialog also contains a Printable Version button.

You can also view and print a report containing all Map Unit Descriptions for your AOI. Navigate to the Soil Data Explorer tab, then the Soil Reports inner tab. On the left side, in the AOI Inventory folder, view the Map Unit Description report.

How can I get soil tabular and spatial data in a database format?

This data is available in various forms, depending on your needs:

Notes:

1. Soil tabular data in an ASCII format that can be imported into a Microsoft Access “SSURGO Template Database”. You can download the national SSURGO Template Database, or for some states, a custom SSURGO Template Database.
2. You can determine data availability for soil survey areas using the Soil Survey Area Data Availability Status Map.
3. The Soil Data Access and SDM backup copy options require considerably more technical expertise than the others.
4. For details, refer to the Soil Data Access Query Guide.

To utilize this data, you will need:

• For the spatial data, ArcGIS or other software that can read shapefiles.
• For the tabular data, Microsoft Access.
• To use the spatial data in conjunction with the tabular data, the Soil Data Viewer application.
• For a Soil Data Mart backup copy, Microsoft SQL Server and ESRI ArcSDE.

You can print or save soils data on a page-by-page basis using the Printable Version feature.

You can also add maps and data to a “Shopping Cart” for inclusion in a single Custom Soil Resource Report. It’s an easy way to get one polished report containing all relevant information for your area of interest. Any custom report you create on your Shopping Cart is free of charge — we just used the well-known internet shopping analogy for collecting and ordering your information.

To try out this feature, define your area of interest (AOI), and navigate to the Shopping Cart tab. In the Table of Contents panel, notice several report items available by default: Cover, Preface, Contents, How Soil Surveys Are Made, Soil Map, Map Unit Legend, Map Unit Descriptions, and References. You can preview items in your Shopping Cart by clicking the item’s title in the Table of Contents. To make the preview go away, click the title again.

You can add additional information to your report as desired. From the inner tabs of the Soil Data Explorer tab, view information and then click Add to Shopping Cart. In this way, you can assemble a report customized to your needs.

When you have collected all the data you want in your report, press the Check Out button and choose Get Now or Download Later.