ArcGIS 9.2 – a major release coming this fall - likely the most comprehensive update that ArcGIS has seen. The focus of this release: Improve the quality and usability of ArcGIS via customer driven improvements. Extending the ArcGIS platform. And Better documentation. the goal is to ship final release this fall - Pre release was July 2006. Read on for a look at what you can expect as seen at the ESRI UC.

Key enhancements
- make it easier to use and fix bugs
- improve docs
- make good looking maps without using other apps
- add more powerful visualization
- make the geoDB easier to use
- improved support for cAD and other data stds
- better automation for worklows using geoprocessing
- make it easier to author and deploy GIS maps across the web

More than 4000 bugs have been fixed in total!

From the what's new at 9.2 session... The Biggest complaint regarding usability was that it required too many mouse clicks to do something. Within ArcMap ESRI has repaired some 600 issues with a strive for consistency across all applications. Hundreds of new shortcuts added for faster navigation Some of the other fixes you'll find waiting for you in 9.2 include:
- added support for the mouse-wheel. Drag map and scroll to zoom in/out. Right click context menu with many shortcuts.
- Customize where the full extent action takes you. Very useful if publishing to the web as that property is adopted and applied to your data properties.
- Birds-eye map viewer window – view your window with none of the ArcMap “stuff” around it. Very useful for those of you with dual monitor workstations!
- Easily add your own scales into the scale control dialog – automatically converts your units to a common format
- Very easy to annotate your maps with locations and coordinates
- More robust measurement tool, supports many units, click on any feature and retrieve the area in any unit desired.
- Simple access to tabular data. View very large field contents, easy turn on/off data fields to see only what you need.
- Easy to calculate area of a feature via calculate geometry dialog – also ability to add unit abbreviation characters into the field for labeling.
- Select multiple features to create subsets of your data, simple add/remove ability.
- Online documentation with flash animations of what’s coming – see ESRI.com homepage for article on What’s new in 9.2 (220+ pages as a PDF)
- New search engine supporting documentation

Making great looking maps (without using other apps)
- added intelligent, reactive symbology
- improved productivity
- more control over symbols
- customize symbology to individual features and drive the symbology by attributes of data
- graphic conflict detection according to pre-defined rules
- expanded animation capabilities
- multi-dimensional support for NetCDF – commonly used format for use with oceanographic and hydrologic data modeling
- Improved 3D usability with new geoprocessing tools, addition of terrains and a terrain data format, and 3D visualization improvements.

I’ve already covered off a number of the enhancements that you’ll find in ArcGIS later this fall when 9.2 ships (note: if you’re waiting for ArcGIS Explorer it will be available once the shrink wrap is taken off ArcGIS 9.2).

Recall the focus of this major release will include:
- Improve the quality and usability of ArcGIS via customer driven improvements.
- Extended the ArcGIS platform
- Better documentation

Other key general improvements include:

-         new keyboard shortcuts, mouse wheel support

-         numerous new and improved tools, including a my places tool, measure tool, and go to XY tool

-         faster geocoding

-         HUGE, integrated help utility

-         Direct read Miccrosoft Excel files

-         New COGO tools

If you can’t wait to get your hands on 9.2 then you may be able to catch a preview when the ESRI crew goes on the road with the ArcGIS 9.2 Nationwide seminar series. The seminars will cover off the latest enhancements in the following products: ArcGIS (ArcView, ArcEditor, ArcInfo), Server, EDN, ArcSDE, ArcIMS, ArcPad, and MapObjects. Between September and November tour stops will be made in Anchorage, Vegas, Pasadena, Atlanta, Austin, Orlando, New York, and many places in between. See www.esri.com/92seminar for details... oh, I forgot to mention that the seminars are Free!

For more on ArcGIS 9.2 see What's Coming in ArcGIS 9.2