The organization of MapOffice you may have noticed has changed slightly. What was once just tools has been separated into two categories. Tools and tasks are now available at differing levels of functionality depending on the version of MapOffice you are using.Tool and tasks have been separated as a result of feedback from the user community.

Many local government users wanted the ability to measure and conduct other tool type functions with executing their business processes/tasks. The two were separated and definitions for each created.Tasks are focused on work completed by local government. These are functions that occur every day in local government and the addition of GIS makes them more efficient. An example of a task is isolating a water main using the water main isolation task. These differ from tools in that tools work independently of tasks and basemaps. Tools are traditional technical functions of GIS like measure and identify. Examples of tools are measure distance, measure area, identify and markup. These can be used regardless of what view is being used or task is being completed.