Turning XY coordinates into points on a map

Have you ever wondered how to take an Excel spreadsheet with a bunch of XY coordinates and display it on a map? Well, now you can see how it’s actually done using Excel and ArcGIS.  

In this How-to, you'll learn how to:

• How to plot points on a map using a coordinates within an Excel spreadsheet.
• How to recognize and remedy common problems with data.

Step-by-step guide

1. Open ArcMap document 
   
   1. Click on yellow 'Add data' button.
   2. Navigate to the folder that contains the Excel file with XY coordinates, double-click the Excel file.
   3. The Excel file is opened up to reveal all of the 'Books' or worksheets inside.  Choose the one that contains your XY coordinates, then select Open.
       
2. Right‐click on Excel data in Table of Contents… 
   1. Select “Display XY Data…” 
   2. Click on drop‐down for X Field and select column including “X” coordinates. 
   3. Click on drop‐down for Y field and select column including “Y” coordinates. 
   4. Confirm Coordinate System is NAD 1983 State Plane Maryland FIPS 1900 

   5. Click OK. This should create an 'Event Layer', showing dots on the map.

      What's an event layer?

      An Event layer is just a map layer that hasn't been saved to your hard drive yet. In this How-to, the records in Excel are displayed as points but a GIS layer has not been saved yet. In the next step, you will convert the temporary Event layer to a GIS feature class.

3. An event layer should then display the points on the map. 
   1. Right‐click on the XY event layer in the Table of Contents… 
   2. Select Data → Export Data 
   3. Keep original settings and click on folder icon to browse to a File/Personal Geodatabase to save data as a Feature Class. 
   4. Click OK and YES to add data to map.

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