When you create or open a project, one of the first panes you see is the Project pane. It allows you to access all items associated with a specific project in one place, whether they are available from a local or network computer, ArcGIS Online, or your organization's portal.
In the Project pane and project view, you can do the following:
- Discover GIS content on local networks or your organization's portal.
- Browse and search for layers to add to a map or analyze with a tool.
- Connect to databases and servers.
- Create and import maps, scenes, and layouts.
- Preview an item's spatial data and create a thumbnail.
- Describe your project and its items.
- Manage items in a geodatabase or a style.
As you build your project by adding maps, scenes, layouts, connections to folders, geodatabases, and so on, these items appear, grouped by type.
The Project pane and the project view are geared towards different tasks. Both the pane and the view can be open at the same time, so you can switch tasks without losing your place. For example, you can edit symbols in a custom style in the project view, and pause in that work to add layers to a map using the Project pane.
Project pane
The Project pane has tabs across the top. The Project tab provides access to the collection of items in your project; it is selected by default. The Portal tab provides access to collections of online content available from the active portal that you have permission to use. The Notifications tab lists any messages received while working on your project; messages are cleared from the tab when you switch projects or restart ArcGIS Pro.
In the Project pane you can do the following:
- Double-click a container such as a folder, group, database, toolbox, or server to see the items it contains.
- Search for items by typing keywords into the Search box and pressing Enter.
- Hover over an item and a pop-up appears showing its location, title, thumbnail, tags, and modification date, if these details are available.
- Ctrl+click many items to select them all, and add them all to a map at once, for example.
The Project and Portal tabs provide an overview of the items in each collection. For example, you can see all items in the project and connected to the project at once. It provides a quick way to access an item if you know its name and exactly where it is located.
The Project pane docks in the ArcGIS Pro application, providing access to items in your project and the active portal while you work. After browsing or searching for content, you can drag layers onto maps, datasets onto tools, tools onto models, and so on.
Reopen the Project pane
The Project pane is usually available when you create or open a project. Once closed, you can open it again by doing the following:
- On the View tab, in the Windows group, click Project, and click Project Pane.
Project view
The project view provides a rich gallery experience for exploring items. This can be helpful if you aren't sure which item to use, especially if you are accessing the active portal for the first time or if you use ArcGIS Pro infrequently.
You can immediately see an item's title, type, and thumbnail, if this information is available. The Details pane provides more information about the item. For most items, the Details tab displays the item's metadata. For spatial datasets, the Preview tab lets you visualize the data. For a style, you can preview the symbols, scale bars, north arrows, and other items it contains; you can also modify a style item's properties.
In the project view. you see one level in a collection's hierarchy at a time. You can browse by double-clicking collections, groups, or containers in the project view and using the Back button to return to your last location. You can also browse in the project view using its Location bar instead, which always shows your current location.
When the project view is active, the available item collections are listed in the Contents pane. The Project collection is selected by default—you can access the items in your project, categorized by type. Each category of items included in the project appears in the Contents pane. You can also select a Portal collection such as My Content or Groups to access content from the active portal that you have permission to use. Use the categories and collections in the Contents pane as quick links to switch to another collection or item category. These quick links do not expand to support browsing in the same manner as the Project pane.
In the project view, you can do the following:
- Click an item category or a portal collection in the Contents pane to list those items.
- Double-click a style to see and manage the items it contains.
- View an item's metadata on the Details tab.
- Preview an item's spatial data on the Preview tab.
- Create a thumbnail for an item that has spatial data.
- Click on the Location bar to copy your current location's path.
- Click a place in your current location's path on the Location bar to browse to that location.
- Click an arrow on the Location bar and click another place in the list that appears to browse to that location.
- Paste or type a path to another location onto the Location bar and press Enter to browse to that location.
- Click Edit on the Home tab on the ribbon to describe an item if you have permission to do so.
- Uncheck Show Details on the Home tab on the ribbon to hide the Details pane.
- Click Up to go up a level in the current collection's hierarchy.
- Click Forward to return to a previous location within the same collection.
If you need more room when managing the items in a style or describing an item, you can, for example, undock the project view and place it on another monitor.
Open the project view in addition to the Project pane
From the ribbon, you can open one or more project views. You can use many project views to compare the items in different databases or folders, to compare metadata for two items, to copy items from one style to another, and so on.
- On the View tab, in the Windows group, click Project, and click Project View.
The project view opens. The Project pane remains open and continues to provide access to whatever collection of items was previously available. You may want to unpin the Project pane to hide it temporarily if you leave the project view docked in the ArcGIS Pro application.
Switch from the Project pane to the project view
When you switch tasks to edit an item's metadata or manage items in a style, the Project pane may seem like it's in the way. You can Auto Hide the Project pane by using the pin at the top of the pane, or close the Project pane entirely.
- In the Project pane, click the Options button.
- Click Switch to View.
The Project pane closes and the project view opens.
Preview an item's spatial data
When exploring a new collection of items, you may not know which item is the best one to use. In the project view, you can visualize an item's spatial data to help you decide if it is the correct one to add to a map or analyze with a tool. You explore spatial data on the Preview tab in the same manner as you explore spatial data in a map.
Maps are displayed as authored. If they have a basemap layer, the basemap layer specified by the map appears in the preview. For spatial datasets, however, a basemap is displayed under the data to provide context. The Light Gray Canvas basemap is used by default so the data remains prominent. You can turn off or change the basemap as appropriate.
Maps or layers created in another application are converted to the ArcGIS Pro format before they are displayed.
- Click an item containing spatial data in the project view such as a feature class or a map.
- Click the Preview tab at the bottom of the project view.
The item's spatial data draws on the Preview tab. A Preview contextual tab also appears on the ribbon.
- Explore the item's spatial data.
- Position the pointer on the Preview tab and use its buttons and wheels to pan, zoom, tile, and rotate the spatial data as appropriate.
- On the Preview contextual tab on the ribbon, in the Navigate group, click the Full Extent, Fixed Zoom In, Fixed Zoom Out, Previous Extent, and Next Extent buttons to explore the spatial data.
- You can change the basemap to provide better context for the data. On the Preview contextual tab on the ribbon, in the Preview group, click the Basemap drop-down arrow and click the basemap you want to use instead.
Create a thumbnail to help you remember what data the item contains in the future.
Browse dialog box
The browse dialog box allows you to select an item in your project, a portal item, or an item outside your project to use for a specific task. The browse dialog box lets you explore items in a manner that is similar to both the Project pane and the project view.
In addition to the collections of items that are also available in the Project pane and the project view, the browse dialog box includes a My Computer collection that lets you select an item that is available on the local computer but is not currently included in your project. This capability lets you add an existing file geodatabase to your project, or import the contents of an ArcMap document to your project, for example. While you can browse to items that are not included in your project, a search will only return items that are included in your project or are available from the active portal.
With the browse dialog box, you can do the following:
- Click a quick link to browse to an item category or portal collection, and list those items.
- Click the Location bar or in the Name text box to paste or type the path to a new location and press Enter. The dialog box will browse to that location. If the location is not accessible from the local computer's drives, it will be added as a temporary quick link in the dialog box, and the items it contains are listed.
- Paste a full path to an item including the item's name into the Name text box to immediately select that item. For example, paste a full path including a table's name to add it to the current map.
- Click Options in the upper corner of the dialog box, and click Gallery to switch from Outline to Gallery mode. Gallery mode is similar to the project view.
- Click the Project > Folders or Portal > My Content quick link, for example, and click in the Search box. Type the name or type of item you want to find and press Enter. Click the item you want to use in the list of search results. When you are browsing My Computer, a search won't return any items.
- When the Portal > Groups or Portal > All Portal quick link is selected, click Options in the upper corner of the dialog box, and click Search My Organization to include only items provided by your organization in your search results.
When items are listed on the browse dialog box, they are filtered according to the specific items that can be used to perform the task at hand. For example, when adding data to a map, only items that can be added to a map will appear. When importing items to a project, only items that can be imported will appear.