refreshing and labeling

In ArcCatalog, if you've just created a new layer in ArcMap, it may not appear until you refresh the list. To refresh the list, use F5.

Labels

You can label features (ugh, an arc word...) with their attributes (ugh, another arc word). There is a toolbar for it.

You might need to be in an open Edit Session for this to work.

View -> Toolbars -> Labeling

The first icon is the Label Manager.

You can label with more than one attribute field. Click on the Expression button under Text String. You can Append more than one field name in the label. (e.g. you can label a fluvial terrace with both its unique id number and also the terrace grouping Qt1, Qt2, etc.)

Edit the size and color and etc. to your liking.

The end.

Text in ArcGIS is nontrivial (labels vs. annotation vs. graphic text), but labeling is relatively straight-forward.

Overview of working with text