In this chapter, we will cover the following recipes:
ArcGIS Pro represents a huge step forward in Desktop GIS. This new 64-bit solution allows GIS Professionals to take full advantage of modern computer hardware, which brings increased performance and capability that has not been available for the desktop. It also has a brand new modern ribbon interface. This is completely different from the toolbar-based interface we have become accustomed to in ArcMap or ArcCatalog. While more intuitive for completely new users, it can be a bit challenging for existing ArcGIS Desktop users.
In this chapter, you will begin exploring ArcGIS Pro. You will first determine whether your computer has the capability to run this powerful software. Then you will determine which license levels are available to you. This is important as it will impact your ability to complete some of the recipes in this book.
You will then move on to working in ArcGIS Pro. You will start by learning how to open an existing ArcGIS Pro project. Then you will open and navigate a map. From there, you will learn methods for adding new layers and configuring some of their properties.
Finally, you will learn how to create a new project from the beginning. This will include adding new maps, and importing ArcMap map documents.
Unlike the 32-bit ArcMap and ArcCatalog applications, ArcGIS Pro supports hyperthreading (use of multiple core processors), graphics processing units, and more than 4 GB of RAM. This also means ArcGIS Pro requires more computer resources to run properly.
The minimum requirements for ArcGIS Pro 2.1 are:
Keep in mind that these are the minimum requirements. The more hardware the better where ArcGIS Pro is concerned. In general, I would recommend at least 12 GB of RAM, an i5 dual core processor, and a separate video card with its own GPU and memory. For a complete set of recommended hardware specifications, you may want to look at my other book from Packt Publishing, Learning ArcGIS Pro.
In this recipe, you will learn how to use the system requirements tool to verify whether your computer can run ArcGIS Pro. This is a free tool provided by Esri.
To work through this recipe, you will need to make sure you have access to the internet and sufficient permissions to install software on your computer.
Get Started
, tab as shown in the following screenshot:Review the system requirements
.Supported Operating Systems
link located on the right-hand side of the page in the In this topic
box.Check your computer’s ability to run ArcGIS Pro 2.1
:A new tab should open in your browser and take you to the Can You RUN It
page powered by System Requirements Lab.
Can You RUN It
button, as shown here, to download the Detection.exe
file:Detection.exe
file is downloaded, click it to run the file. This executable will check the specifications of your computer and generate a report indicating whether your computer is capable of running ArcGIS Pro.Notice that you can see whether your system meets the minimum and recommended specifications for running ArcGIS Pro. If your system just meets the minimum specifications, you can expect ArcGIS Pro to run slowly and require the application to be restarted much more frequently.
If your system failed, you will need to upgrade the components or software that the reports indicate are below the required specifications. This might be as simple as updating your drivers or Internet Explorer. It might require you to purchase new hardware if your CPU, RAM, or video card fail to meet the minimum requirements.
If your system meets or exceeds the system requirements, you may download and install ArcGIS Pro. Please refer to the installation instructions located at http://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/get-started/install-and-sign-in-to-arcgis-pro.htm.
ArcGIS Pro has very specific requirements that must be met in order to run effectively. In this recipe, you downloaded and used the tool provided by Esri to verify whether your system met or exceeded those requirements. This tool checks for both hardware and software dependencies needed to successfully run ArcGIS Pro, and provides you with a detailed report so you know without a doubt whether your computer has the horsepower required.
ArcGIS Pro has three different license levels: Basic, Standard, and Advanced. The license level determines the level of functionality available to the user. Basic has the least functionality, Advanced has the most, and Standard is somewhere in between.
In general, Basic allows you to visualize GIS data, produce maps, perform simple data edits, and perform basic GIS data analysis. Standard builds on the capabilities of the Basic level, with more advanced editing and data validation tools. Advanced expands the capabilities of both Basic and Standard by adding more data analysis tools. For a complete list of the capabilities of each license level of ArcGIS Pro, go to http://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/get-started/license-levels.htm.
It important for you to know what license level you are using so you know what capabilities are available to you. Some recipes in this book will require a Standard or Advanced license. In this recipe, you will learn how you can determine your ArcGIS Pro license level.
You will need to make sure that you have successfully installed ArcGIS Pro 2.0 or higher. If you have not installed ArcGIS Pro yet, please refer to http://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/get-started/install-and-sign-in-to-arcgis-pro.htm for installation instructions.
ArcGIS
program group and click ArcGIS Pro
:Depending on the version of Windows you are running, your Windows Start button and display might be a bit different. You may also need to click All Programs
to see the ArcGIS
program group. If you right click the ArcGIS Pro
icon you can select to add it to your task bar at the bottom of your display. This makes starting ArcGIS Pro faster and easier.
About ArcGIS Pro
, located in the lower-left corner of the start window.About ArcGIS Pro
window, select Licensing
, located in the left side of the window. This will display your ArcGIS Pro licensing information:If you already have an ArcGIS Pro project open, you can access this same information from the project pane.
At the top of the Licensing
window, you will see what license level you have been assigned. As you can see in the image, I have access to the Advanced
license level. From here, you can also see which extensions you have access to. Extensions are add-ons for ArcGIS Pro, which provide additional functionality and are normally focused on a specific use, such as 3D analysis or network analysis. Again, in the image, you can see I have access to several extensions:
Question: What license level have you been assigned, Basic, Standard or Advanced?
Answer:
Question: Do you have access to any extensions, and if so which ones?
Answer:
In this recipe, you learned how to determine which license level of ArcGIS Pro you had access to. You did this by going to the About ArcGIS Pro
window from the ArcGIS Pro start window. From there, you accessed your license level information by clicking the Licensing
option located on the left side.
The license level is important, as it determines what functionality you have access to within the program. As you will see in this book, some recipes will require you to have access to higher license levels.
The Licensing
window allows you to do more than just see what license level and extensions have been assigned to you. It also allows you to determine what type of ArcGIS Pro licensing you want to use, check out a license for use in the field, and more.
ArcGIS Pro supports three basic types of licensing: single user, concurrent user, and named user. Named user is the default and requires you to have a username and password in your organization’s ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Portal. Single user licenses are the traditional software license, where the software is licensed to a single computer. Concurrent licenses are sometimes referred to as network licenses. These make use of a license manager that is typically installed on a server and controls how many users can be running the software at once. To learn more about the types of licenses supported in ArcGIS Pro, go to http://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/get-started/licensing-arcgis-pro.htm.
ArcGIS Pro makes use of project files that have a .aprx
file extension. Projects store 2D maps, 3D scenes, database connections, folder connections, custom toolboxes, and more. When you start ArcGIS Pro, you must open a project.
In this recipe, you will learn how to open an existing project. Later in this chapter, you will learn how to create a new project.
To complete this recipe, you will need to make sure you have downloaded and installed the data associated with this book. If you followed the installation instructions, the data and projects should be located in C:\Student\ArcGISProCookbook
. You will also need access to the internet. You will need to have ArcGIS Pro 2.1 or later installed as well. The recipe can be completed with any license level of ArcGIS Pro: Basic, Standard, or Advanced.
About ArcGIS Pro
window.Browse
button, which looks like a file folder.Computer
in the left panel, select C:\
.If you do not see anything below Computer
in the panel on the left, click the small arrow head. That will expand the contents of the computer, so you should see the C:\
drive.
If you installed the book data to another drive, select the drive containing the book data.
Student
folder and double click it.ArcGISProCookbook
folder.Chapter1
folder.Chapter 1 Ex 1.aprx
folder and click OK
.You have now opened your first ArcGIS Pro project. If it opened successfully, ArcGIS Pro should look similar to this:
Before you can start working in ArcGIS Pro, you must first open a project. To open a project, you must navigate to where it is stored. In this recipe, if you installed the data in the default location, the project was stored on your computer's C:\
drive in a series of folders, so that the full path was C:\Student\ArcGISProCookbook\Chapter1
. You were able to access this project by navigating to that location.
Projects can be saved to your local computer or on a network server. It is also possible to save projects to external and flash drives. You may encounter issues if you do save and try to access projects stored on these devices because of slow data transfer rates.
You are not required to close ArcGIS Pro if you want to open another project. ArcGIS Pro doesn't allow you to open a project if you already have a project open. This will close the current project and open the one you select. To do this, follow these steps.
Open
button located on the Quick Access Toolbar at the top of the ArcGIS Pro interface, as indicated in the following image:Open Project
window that appears, navigate to C:\Student\ArcGISProCookbook\Chapter1
using the same method you did to open the current project.Chapter 1 Ex 1A.aprx
file and click OK
.The project you originally opened should now be closed and a new project should be open, which looks similar to this:
You have now opened two projects in ArcGIS Pro using two different methods. You will find, while using ArcGIS Pro, that there are usually at least two ways to accomplish any tasks. Often there are more.
Now that you know how to open an existing project, it is time to learn how to open a map stored within the project. Projects can contain 2D maps, 3D scenes, data connections, layouts, styles, toolboxes, and more. However, 2D maps are still the primary canvas that GIS professionals work with.
In this recipe, you will learn how to open existing 2D maps. Once open, you will learn how to navigate within the map.
If you have successfully completed all the previous recipes, you should not need to do anything more to continue with this recipe. If you have not completed the other recipes in this chapter, you will need to do so before starting this one.
Chapter 1 Ex 1A
project located in C:\Student\ArcGISProCookbook\Chapter1
.If you don’t remember how, you should refer back to the previous recipe or click the project name in the list of recently opened projects.
Catalog
pane located on the right of the ArcGIS Pro interface, expand the Maps
folder by clicking the small arrowhead to the left of the word Maps
.If the Catalog
pane is not open, check that it is not set to autohide. If it is, you will see a small tab located on the right side, named Catalog
. Simply click the tab to make the Catalog
pane open. If you have closed the Catalog
pane, click the View
tab in the ribbon. Then click the small arrowhead located below Catalog
and select Catalog Pane
.
Map
and select Open
, as shown here:You have just opened an existing project map. A project can contain multiple maps that can be either 2D or 3D. 3D maps are referred to as scenes. Now you will learn how to navigate within the maps.
Map
tab in the ribbon.Explore
tool located on the Map
tab in the Navigate
tool group.The Explore
tool is a jack of all trades. It allows you to pan, zoom, and access data about features in your map. For those that have used ArcMap, the Explore tool replaces the identify, zoom in, zoom out, and pan tools.
Full Extent
button located in the Navigate
group on the Map
tab in the ribbon, as shown here:Bookmarks
in the Navigate
group on the Map
tab in the ribbon.Washington Park
from the window that appears. This will zoom you to a predefined area in your map that focuses on Washington Park. Your map should now look similar to this:Explore
tool again.Mulberry ST SW
and Sweetwater ST SW
. Continue holding down the Shift key and drag your mouse pointer to the southeast until you reach the intersection of Alabama St SW
and Joe Jerkins Blvd SW
. As you are dragging your mouse, you should see a dashed rectangular box appear in the map. This represents the area you want to zoom into. Once you have created a box that looks similar to the following image, release both the Shift key and your mouse button:Explore
tool is still active in the Map
tab.If you look closely at the information window that appears, you will notice it shows the information for the City Limits
and not the parcel. You need to adjust the settings for the Explore
tool.
X
located in the upper right corner.Explore
tool and select Visible Layers
.City Limit
.Explore
tool to see how they work.Full Extent
button to return to the full extents of the map.Save Project
button located in the Quick Access toolbar.In this recipe, you began exploring the contents of a project by opening an existing map that was contained in a project that you opened in the last recipe. Once you opened the map from that Catalog
pane, you began to navigate within it using the Explore
tool. You used the Explore tool to first zoom in and out within the map. Then, you used the Full Extent
button to return to the full extent of the map view. Next, you used a book mark to zoom to Washington Park
in the map. From there, you zoomed into an even more specific area, using a combination of the Explore
tool and the Shift key along with your mouse.
Once you zoomed into a block of parcels you were interested in, you used the Explore
tool to retrieve information about a specific parcel.
Now you know how to start ArcGIS Pro and open a project so you can begin accessing functionality. You have learned how to open an existing map and navigate within the map. You can even see information about features displayed within the map using the Explore tool.
But how did those layers get added to the map? How did ArcGIS Pro know how to display the layers you saw within the map? That is your next step in your ArcGIS Pro journey.
In this recipe, you will learn various methods for adding new layers to a map. You will then discover how to configure various properties associated with a layer, such as its name and symbology.
If you have already completed the previous recipes, you should be ready for this one. If you have not completed them, you will need to do so. This recipe builds on the past ones.
Chapter 1 Ex 1A.aprx
project if you closed ArcGIS Pro at the end of the last recipe.Map
if it is not already open.As you can see, this is a very simple map. You will want to add some new layers to show additional information.
Add Data
button. Do not click the words Add Data
. You want to click the icon located above the words.Add Data
dialog box, expand Project
by clicking the small arrowhead located to the left of Project
if you do not see the contents in the following image.Databases
so you see two databases in the window to the right of the dialog box. You should see the Chapter 1 Ex 1
and Trippville_GIS
geodatabases:Trippville_GIS
geodatabase to reveal its contents.Base
feature dataset.Buildings
feature class.Natwtr_Body
and Natwtr_Stream
feature classes.OK
to add them as three new layers to your map.You have just added three new layers to your map using the Add Data
button. This is just one of several methods that you can use to add a new layer to a map. You will use some other methods later in this recipe. Now, you will adjust some of the properties associated with the layers you just added.
When you add a new layer to a map in ArcGIS Pro, the software will display the new layer using a random color. Also, it will automatically add the new layers to your map contents based on what type of layer it is. Point layers will be added to the top. Line layers will be added below points. Polygon layers will be added below the line layers. Raster layers are added below the polygons, and base maps are placed at the very bottom. In a map, the drawing order starts with the layers at the bottom of the list and draws each succeeding layer on top of the previous, so that the last layer drawn is the one on the top of the list.
Natwtr_Stream
layer you just added to your map and select Properties
, located at the bottom of the menu that appears.Layer Properties
dialog box, select General
from the window on the left side.Name
, where it says Natwtr_Stream
, replace that with Streams and Creeks
.Metadata
in the left window.Title
: Streams and Creeks
Tags
: Natural Water, Streams, Creeks
Summary
: Streams and Creeks located in the City of Trippville
Description
: This layer shows the general location of most creeks and streams located in and around the City of Trippville.
Credits
: eGIS Associates, Inc.
Use Limitations
: This data is for training use only
Your Layer Properties
window should now look like the preceding screenshot.
OK
to apply the changes you have just made to the properties of the Natwtr_Stream
layer.Natwtr_Body
layer you added using the following values to update its properties. Remember to click OK
when you're done:
Name
: Lakes and Ponds
Title
: Lakes and Ponds
Tags
: Natural Water, lakes, ponds
Summary
: Lakes and ponds located in the City of Trippville
Description
: This layer shows the general location of most lakes and ponds located in and around the City of Trippville.
Credits
: eGIS Associates, Inc.
Use Limitations
: This data is for training use only
Now you will move the Streams and Creeks
layer so it is beneath the Lakes and Ponds
layer.
Streams and Creeks
layer in the Contents
pane.Lakes and Ponds
layer. Your Contents
pane should look similar to the following image when you are done. Remember, your colors may be different:Lakes and Ponds
layer so you can adjust the Symbology
settings.Symbology
pane will open on the right side of the interface. Make sure you are viewing the Gallery
and type lake
into the search cell:Properties
tab located next to Gallery
in the Symbology
pane, as illustrated in the following screenshot:Outline Color
, select Cretan Blue from the color palette that is presented.Outline Width
to 1 pt
, as shown here:Apply
, located at the bottom of the Symbology
pane.Streams and Creeks
layer.Stream
in the Gallery
and select the Water (Line)
symbol that should be presented.Your map should now look like this. The color of the Buildings layer may be different, depending on what ArcGIS Pro assigned it when you added the layer:
Buildings
layer in the Contents
pane.Appearance
tab in the Feature Layer
contextual
menu in the ribbon.Symbology
button.Unique Values
from the presented menu.Symbology
pane will open once again, though it will look a bit different. Next to Field 1
, click the drop-down menu and select Building Type
.Color
scheme and select a desired color scheme, such as Basic Random
. Notice the symbology for the Buildings
layer has changed in the Contents
pane to reflect your new symbology settings.Symbology
pane.Project
tab in the ribbon and selecting Save
.It is recommended that you save your projects often. This will help to prevent you from losing work if ArcGIS Pro or your system experiences a problem.
Catalog
pane, expand the Databases
folder by clicking the small arrowhead located to the left.If you accidentally close the Catalog
pane or Contents
pane, click on the View
tab in the ribbon to reopen them.
Trippville_GIS
geodatabase.Power_Poles
feature class and select Add to Current Map
:Power Poles
layer has been added to you map. Right-click the symbol under the layer name to display a color palette.Power Poles
layer. Your map should now look similar to this one:Share
tab in the ribbon.Map
File
from the Save As
group in the Share
tab.C:\
in the left side of the Save Map AS MAPX File
window.Student
folder.ArcGISProCookbook
folder.MyProjects
folder.Name
cell located at the bottom of the Save Map AS MAPX File
, type TrippvilleBuildingTypeMap
and click Save
.You just created a Map File
that will allow you to add this same map to other projects quickly and easily. You will use this file in the next recipe.
In this recipe, you started by adding new layers to a map. You added multiple layers at one time using the Add Data
button. Once you added the new layers, you began to adjust their properties so that they would be more useful within the map. First, you renamed the layer using a more descriptive and understandable name than the one originally associated with the feature class in the geodatabase. Then, you updated the metadata for the layer so others using the map would have a better understanding of its purpose.
After you updated some of the basic properties of the layers you added, you worked on the symbology so that the map was easier to read. You made the Streams
, Creeks
, Lakes
, and Ponds
layers blue so they resembled the features they represent, also, people are accustomed to seeing them presented this way in a map. You made these adjustments by clicking the symbol patch located beneath each layer and then changing the symbol properties in the Symbology
pane.
The Buildings
layer required a little more effort, because you needed to change the symbology so that you could tell each building type from within the map. This required you to base the symbology on an attribute of the buildings that was stored in a field found in the attribute table of the Buildings
layer. To do this, you went to the Appearance
tab and selected the Unique Values
symbology. Then, you configured this symbology type to use the Building Type
field from the attribute table for the layer. Once you pointed the symbology type to that field, it automatically created a unique symbol for each building type it found. In this case, it created a unique symbol allowing you to determine the type of buildings (for example, houses or apartments).
You added the Power Poles
layer from the Catalog
pane by right-clicking the feature class within the geodatabase and selecting Add to Current Map
. You then adjusted the color of the Power Poles
symbol to red by right-clicking the symbol and selecting Mars Red from the presented color palette.
Finally, you created a Map File
based on the map you made, so you will be able add the map to other projects quickly and easily. The map will be added with all the layer properties and settings that you just configured, so you will not need to go through that process again.
We have mentioned several times that you must first open a project before you are able to access the functionality included in ArcGIS Pro. You have begun to experience this in the previous recipes where you opened and worked with existing projects. These were already configured, and contained several project items including maps and database connections. How were these projects created?
In this recipe, you will create a new project using one of the four project templates included with ArcGIS Pro. You will see the structure created by ArcGIS Pro when a new project is created.
To complete this recipe, all you need to do is ensure that you have ArcGIS Pro installed, access to a license, and the data for the book downloaded and installed. This recipe does not even require you to have completed the previous recipes, though it might help provide a better understanding of what you are doing.
ArcGIS Pro
start window appears, select the Blank
template from Create a new project
on the right side:Name
cell, name your new project %your name%Chapter1NewProject
(for example TrippChapter1Newproject
).Browse
button located next to the Location
cell. It looks like a small file folder with a blue arrow.Computer
, click the C:\
drive.Student
folder.ArcGISProCookbook
folder.MyProjects
folder and click OK
. Do not double-click it.Create a New Project
dialog window looks like this, except for the name which will include your name:OK
.You have just created your first new project in ArcGIS Pro using the Blank
template. This created a new bare bones project. This project contains the minimum number of items you will find in a project. You can now begin to explore your new project.
Toolboxes
folder in the Catalog
pane.Databases
folder in the Catalog
pane.You should have noticed that your new project contains a single custom toolbox and file geodatabase that has the same name as your project. These were automatically created by ArcGIS Pro when you created the new project. You should have also noticed that several styles and locators were also automatically connected by default.
There are three basic types of geodatabase: personal, file, and SDE. ArcGIS Pro only supports file and SDE geodatabases. It does not support the personal geodatabase. To learn more about geodatabases, go to http://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/help/data/geodatabases/overview/what-is-a-geodatabase-.htm.
This new project is missing several key elements that you will need to perform any GIS work. First, it is missing a map. Second, if you expand the geodatabase that is connected to the project, you will notice it is empty. So, you also need data. Now you will connect to an existing geodatabase and then add a map.
C:\
under Computer
in the area located on the left of the Select Existing Geodatabase
window that appears.Student
folder.ArcGISProCookbook
and Databases
.Trippville_GIS.gdb
and click OK
. Do not double-click the Trippville_GIS
geodatabase.Trippville_GIS.gdb
you just added to your project and select Add to New Projects
, as shown in the following image:You just added a connection to the Trippville GIS geodatabase you have been using in the other recipes. In those, the database connection had already been established. Now you know how it was done. Once you added the connection, you then added it to your favorites and set it so it will automatically be added to any new projects you create.
You still need to add a map. You could do this the same way you did in the previous recipe. However, in this one you will import the Map File
you created in the last recipe.
Insert
tab in the ribbon:Import Map
tool in the Project
group on the Insert
tab in the ribbon:C:\Student\ArcGISProCookbook\MyProjects
folder.TrippvilleBuildingTypeMap.mapx
file and click OK
.If you did not complete the previous recipe, you can instead navigate to C:\Student\ArcGISProCookbook\Chapter1
and select the Chapter1Ex1AResults.mapx
file.
A familiar-looking map should now be added to your project. It contains all the layers that you created in the last recipe along with the symbology and properties you configured.
In this recipe, you created your first new project. You used the Blank
template, which creates a very basic project for ArcGIS Pro. Projects created with the Blank
template include connections to a custom toolbox and geodatabase that have the same name as the project, along with several styles and locators. The toolbox and geodatabase are automatically created by ArcGIS Pro when you create the new project. They are both empty and are intended for you to save project-specific items to them. However, in most cases, your organization will already have an established GIS database.
Once you created your project, you added a connection to an existing geodatabase, Trippville_GIS
. This database contains the GIS data for the City of Trippville that you used in other recipes. This is actually the primary database that you will use in the remainder of this book. So, you added it to your favorites and set it to automatically be added to all new projects you create.
After you established a connection to the primary geodatabase, you imported a new map. This new map was based on a Map file you created in a previous recipe. The new map was added with layers already added and their properties configured, saving you a lot of effort.
In the last recipe, you created a new project using the Blank
template. As you saw, this template automatically created the project structure including a project geodatabase, custom toolbox, and more. The blank template is not the only one included with ArcGIS Pro. There are several others you can use when creating a new project. Let's take a quick look at them.
As you may have noticed when you created your new project, ArcGIS Pro includes three other project templates: Global Scene, Local Scene, and Map. Each of these will create slightly different projects:
Name | Description | Project items that are created |
Map | Creates a new project that automatically includes a new 2D Map |
|
Local Scene | Creates a new project that automatically includes a new local 3D Map |
|
Global Scene | Creates a new project that automatically includes a new global 3D Map, similar to what you experience with Google Earth the first time you open it |
|
In addition, connections to standard styles, locators, and any favorites that are set to add to new projects are also added to the items created, based on the selected new project template.
Using the skills that you have learned in the previous recipes, try creating a new project using a template other than Blank. See how they differ from one another.
Where there is an eBook version of a title available, you can buy it from the book details for that title. Add either the standalone eBook or the eBook and print book bundle to your shopping cart. Your eBook will show in your cart as a product on its own. After completing checkout and payment in the normal way, you will receive your receipt on the screen containing a link to a personalised PDF download file. This link will remain active for 30 days. You can download backup copies of the file by logging in to your account at any time.
If you already have Adobe reader installed, then clicking on the link will download and open the PDF file directly. If you don't, then save the PDF file on your machine and download the Reader to view it.
Please Note: Packt eBooks are non-returnable and non-refundable.
Packt eBook and Licensing When you buy an eBook from Packt Publishing, completing your purchase means you accept the terms of our licence agreement. Please read the full text of the agreement. In it we have tried to balance the need for the ebook to be usable for you the reader with our needs to protect the rights of us as Publishers and of our authors. In summary, the agreement says:
If you want to purchase a video course, eBook or Bundle (Print+eBook) please follow below steps:
Our eBooks are currently available in a variety of formats such as PDF and ePubs. In the future, this may well change with trends and development in technology, but please note that our PDFs are not Adobe eBook Reader format, which has greater restrictions on security.
You will need to use Adobe Reader v9 or later in order to read Packt's PDF eBooks.
Packt eBooks are a complete electronic version of the print edition, available in PDF and ePub formats. Every piece of content down to the page numbering is the same. Because we save the costs of printing and shipping the book to you, we are able to offer eBooks at a lower cost than print editions.
When you have purchased an eBook, simply login to your account and click on the link in Your Download Area. We recommend you saving the file to your hard drive before opening it.
For optimal viewing of our eBooks, we recommend you download and install the free Adobe Reader version 9.