Defining An Active Area Of Interest (AOI)
Defining an active area of interest is a way to redefine the project extent to specify a particular area within the overall project bounds. After you define and select an active area of interest, when you click 
to restore the project extent, the map resets to display the active area of interest. By default, the project extent and the project bounds are the same until you define and select an active area of interest.
The active area of interest also determines the portion of the area of the map that displays in the AOI Print View. After you select an active area of interest, the AOI Print View shows only the active area of interest regardless of the current map view. Without an active area of interest, the map view and the AOI Print View are synchronized so the AOI Print View matches the map view.
Active areas of interest are helpful for anyone working in a particular area of the map by giving them a quick way to focus on that particular portion of the map. They are also a good way to ensure consistent printing of map data since the AOI Print View corresponds to the active area of interest and does so regardless of changes to the map extent on the map view.
To define a new active area of interest:
- To define the current map extents as the active area of interest, click
.
Otherwise, click
and select an area on the map. - Type the name you want to use for the area of interest in the Enter name of AOI: field, then click Create.
The new area of interest is now the active area of interest for the project. Clicking at any time will restore the map to the currently active area of interest.
To change the active area of interest, select the one you want from the list at the end of the map view toolbar. You can also restore the original project bounds.
The active area of interest displays as a rectangle on the base map. You can change the line color, line style, and line size for the area of interest rectangle. To make these changes, click 
on the toolbar.