ArcMap Excel – Editing Shapefile Without Losing Points

arcmapexcelexportmicrosoft-power-map-excel

I have a point shapefile with a lot of data that needs to be cleaned up. I'd much prefer to work with the table in Excel. When I use the "Table to Excel" tool, I can get the data into Excel, but when I use the "Excel to Table" tool to bring it back into ArcMap, I lose the points. The "Shape*" field is gone!

Is there any way to edit shapefile data in Excel without losing the points? Or do I just have to make my changes in ArcMap?

Best Answer

Since you have a unique ID, you could do the attribute edits in Excel.

  • Export the attributes to Excel with "Table to Excel"
  • Drop the fields that you're editing in Excel from the shapefile in ArcMap with "Delete Field" tool.
  • Edit the attributes in Excel
  • Import the attribute data back to ArcMap using "Excel to Table"
  • Use the "Join Field" tool in ArcMap to join the attribute table fields back to the shapefile. Use your unique ID field for the Input Join Field and the Output Join Field. In the Join Fields box specify the fields you want to be copied to the shapefile.
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