Grapefruit

ArcGIS Field Calculator: failure during processing, check the Geoprocessing window

You try to do something simple in ArcMap, like copy the values from one field to another with Field Calculator. All you are trying to do is calculate [Field1] = [Field2]. But, instead of getting what you want so you can proceed with all the rest of the actual work you have to do, you instead get the unhelpful and grammatically incorrect error message: "There was a failure during processing, check the Geoprocessing window for details." (Side note to software engineers and their tech editors: the comma splice is easy to avoid. Look it up, figure it out, and stop doing it.)

So, here is the answer, sometimes: if the data layer in question is listed in your ArcMap Table of Contents with a slash in the name (like, "Site Centroids with Lat/Long Coordinates"), the slash is what is causing the error. Remove it.

You are welcome.

Trimble Pathfinder Office 5.20 and Trimble Terrasync 5.21

Hello, person despairingly googling for answers about your Trimble GeoXH 2008 or Trimble GeoXH 2005 GPS and Terrasync 5.21 for use with Windows Mobile OS, and/or Trimble Pathfinder Office 5.20 for Windows 7 personal computers.

Terrasync 5.21: If you are installing Terrasync 5.21 on a Trimble GeoXH 2008, you will also need the "GeoExplorer 2008 series v2.11 GPS Firmware" located here or here. You would think this information or even the firmware executable might come bundled with the Terrasync 5.21 installer. It does not. That is why I am posting the information here, in the hopes that future users do not have to paw through Trimble's byzantine website.

If you are installing Terrasync 5.21 on a 2005 GeoXH, you do not need a firmware update. How about that. Again, posting here, so maybe you can find this more easily than not finding it on Trimble's website.

Pathfinder Office 5.20: If you have installed a 14-day trial version of Pathfinder Office 5.20, you can't just click on the "Help: Registration" menu item and enter your installation code. You have to completely uninstall it and then reinstall from scratch. If you try to use the "Help: Registration" menu you will be asked for a POPN (Proof of Purchase Number) which you probably don't have and which the vendor who sold you the very expensive software license may well not have either. The vendor will probably recommend that you uninstall and reinstall from sctratch. You would think that perhaps the "Help: Registration" option would either make this information clear, or not exist at all. Because it is instead a confusing, poorly designed user interface apparently meant to waste your time, I thought I would post this information clearly and concisely here, in the hopes that future users will find it, since it is so hard or even impossible to find elsewhere.

ESRI: Please fix the Legend Bugs

When I set the font size to 10, it means I don't want it to just change to 5256.38 by itself.