The easiest way to display zooarchaeological data on the template is to link an Excel or dBase table to the elements shapefile. One field in this table will need to correspond to the 'el_code', 'part_code' or 'compcode' field in the attribute table, or to a similar new field added by the user. In the external table, values in this field must be unique. Note that since the code fields in the attribute tables are formatted as text, the same must be true of the linking field in the external table. Right-click on a layer's entry in the list panel, and choose 'joins and relates', then 'relates'. The subsequent dialogue box allows you to select the external table and specify the fields to link. Note that elements, and even portions, may be represented by multiple ArcGIS features. This is not a problem for displaying data since each feature with the same code in the field used for the link will be associated with the same row in the external table.
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Last updated: Thu Feb 25 2010