Starting an edit session (Start Editing)

There are two ways to start an edit session: by clicking the Editor menu on the Editor toolbar or by right-clicking a layer in the table of contents.

When you use the Editor menu to start editing and have multiple workspaces in the map, you need to choose the one you want to edit. The dialog box that appears lists the layers in the map and the workspaces they are from and provides information on which other layers are also part of that workspace.

Another way of starting editing is to right-click a layer in the table of contents, point to Edit Features, then click Start Editing. This starts an edit session on the workspace containing that layer. For example, if you right-click a layer from a geodatabase and start editing it, you are able to edit all the other layers from that same geodatabase.

Steps:

1. Click the Editor menu on the Editor toolbar and click Start Editing.
2. If your map contains editable data from more than one geodatabase or folder, choose the workspace that you want to edit and click OK.

   The top of the window shows a list of editable layers in the active data frame, and the bottom of the window shows the workspaces containing those layers. Only layers that can be edited are listed.

   • Click a layer to view its data source at the bottom of the window. When you click a layer at the top, any other layers in that workspace are also highlighted (the database symbols change color).
   • Click a data source at the bottom of the window to view the layers in that data source. If you click a data source at the bottom of the window but no layers are listed, this means there are no editable layers in that data source.