Overview Open - Create or show/hide an overview window

Overview Open - Create or show/hide an overview window

With this function (hotkey Ctrl+O) you can create a new overview window or change the settings of an existing one. If an overview window has already been defined for the active view, it is opened with the existing settings - if not, the following dialog window is opened. Call the function once more to hide the overview window again. By using the keys Ctrl+O you can thus display and hide the overview window quickly.

The initial settings in this dialog can normally be confirmed without any changes (just click on the button or press the Enter key to open the overview window). The visible themes of the active view are automatically chosen for the overview window. If there were no themes visible in the view (image themes are excluded though), you must at least select one theme, before you can create an overview window.

Customize existing overview windows: You can modify the settings of an existing overview by calling the function Overview Open while pressing the Shift key. Thereby the dialog with the current settings of the overview is opened. At the settings Extent and Position the option Keep Current is added (in order to keep the overview extent and the window position unchanged).

The following settings can be changed in the dialog:

Themes: Choose the themes of the active view, that should be displayed in the overview window (by pressing the Shift key you can select several themes). Click on for the active themes, on for the visible ones or on for all themes of the view (except image themes). Click on these buttons while pressing the Shift key, in order to add the visible or active themes to the selection.

Update: This option is only available when modifying an existing overview. Normally the legends of the themes in the overview stay untouched. If you activate this option all legends will be updated.

Extent: This setting defines the extent that shall be displayed in the overview window. Full Extent uses the full extent of the chosen themes, Visible Extent the visible extent in the view. The option Keep Current (keep the extent of the overview unchanged) is only available when modifying an existing overview.

Visibility: You can determine if the overview window shall be visible permanently (Permanent) or only if the view is active (Linked to View). By default the visibility of the overview window is linked to the view. When you activate the project window or another document (view, layout, script, table, etc.) the overview is hidden. Opening other windows and dialogs (Query Builder, Identify Window, Legend Editor, Symbol Window, Shape Properties, etc.) has no influence on the visibility of the overview.

Permanent visibility is recommended if you are working with tables or several views at the same time and want the overview to be always available. If you click on an overview window or its title bar with the mouse pointer (e.g. for zooming to another extent) the corresponding view will be opened automatically.

Window Width: You can define the width of the overview window in Pixels (corresponding to the screen resolution - the default width is 200 pixels). The height of the window will be adapted to the extent of the overview (see Extent). Therefore the height of the window may change, if you update the extent of the overview. You can adjust the window size later with the mouse as you like. It is recommended to keep the overview window as small as possible, in order to increase the speed of updating the overview (large overview windows may require a long time to be redrawn - see Hints Using Overviews).

Position: You can define the position of the overview window inside of the application window of ArcView (Bottom Left, Bottom Right, Top Left or Top Right). The option Keep Current is only available when modifying an existing overview. You can drag the window to any position with the mouse later - even beyond the ArcView window or to a second display.

Panning Options: In Pan Mode (see Hints Using Overviews) you can move between extents with a fixed scale or size using the cursor keys on the keyboard.

Scale: You can define the size of the panning zones by defining a fixed scale. The default setting is dividing the overview window in approximately 20x20 zones. In Pan Mode or by choosing a single zone in Zoom Mode, the view will be zoomed exactly to this scale. This option isn't available, if the map units of the view are undefined (the scale of the view is unknown and cannot be defined either).

Size of Panning Zones: You can also define the zone size by defining their Width or Height (map units of the view). In Zoom Mode you can only zoom to an extent with the multiple size of the chosen height or width. If you define either height or width, the missing value will be calculated corresponding to the current form factor of the view. If you define both values, you should ensure that the window size of the view is corresponding to the extent (otherwise a larger extent is displayed).

Hint: If you want to define size and scale of the zones at the same time, you should consider the following: The view is always zoomed to the chosen scale. If you are panning with the cursor keys, the moving is done with the chosen width or height. If the window size of the view is too small for displaying the desired extent at the chosen scale, some areas of the view can't be displayed and will therefore be skipped when panning! Thus you must check, at which scale the zones can be displayed in the view. If you enter a scale at which a larger extent can be displayed, you can create overlapping areas when panning (e.g. an overlap of 50% if the visible extent is twice as wide or high as the defined zone extent).