Creating a new metadata document is easy. Simply navigate to your document in ArcCatalog and click the Metadata Tab. A new .xml file will be created for your dataset. This .xml file will be assigned the same name as your dataset. So for instance, if you are working with a shapefile called "your_shapefile," the metadata document will be named "your_shapefile.shp.xml".

You can also create a new metadata document or update an existing one by clicking the Create/Update Metadata button. If you edit a shapefile, clicking this button will update the Spatial Reference Information and Attribute Information to reflect any changes. Metadata is automatically updated each time you access your metadata file (unless you turn off this default setting), so in reality, you will very rarely use the Create/Update Metadata button.

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