Sometimes you need to navigate directly to an input location. You can type x,y coordinates in the Go To XY tool and navigate to it directly. A list of supported units also allows you to change the coordinate format being used on the fly.
On the Map tab, in the Navigate group, click the Go To XY button 
to display the moveable overlay in the view. Click the Go To XY button again to remove the overlay.
You can do the following with the Go To XY tool:
- Input coordinates by typing them directly or pasting from another source.
- Enter coordinates in the default units of the map's projection or in one of six predefined unit formats.
- Visually identify the location by clicking Flash
. - Navigate to the location by clicking Pan
. - In a 2D map, place a point graphic at the location by clicking one of the three location choices: Mark Location
, Mark and Label Location 
, or Mark Location with Callout 
. - Use the recent history list to return the last five coordinates you entered for the current session.
- Minimize the overlay to take up less on-screen space when you are not using it, but you don't want to completely remove it from the display.
Guidelines for specifying coordinates with the Go To XY tool
You can specify the location as a longitude-latitude coordinate pair, a Military Grid Reference System grid location, a Universal Transverse Mercator coordinate, or a U.S. National Grid location. Click the Units button to choose the units to use for coordinates.
- Remember that x is longitude (east/west), and y is latitude (north/south). Enter the coordinates in the same order in which coordinates are listed in the map status bar. Spherical coordinates aren't always specified in this order, so make sure you verify the correct order on this dialog box. For example, if someone asks you to plot 17.1325, -60.666 on the map, ask them if these coordinates are in longitude-latitude or latitude-longitude order. The only way to tell the order from the coordinates is if they contain E, W, N, S characters to signify the hemisphere.
- Coordinates must be entered in the format order defined by the default location unit, which is set in the project Options dialog box.
- When you're using decimal degrees (DD), degrees decimal minutes (DM), or degrees minutes seconds (DMS), you can enter coordinates using a minus sign before the numeric value to signify the western or southern quadrants or using E, W, N, S characters before or after the numeric values.
- You can separate values in DM and DMS coordinates with spaces or the °, ', " special characters (such as when you paste coordinates that you have copied from other dialog boxes or applications that use those characters) or both.
- When you choose a new unit format, coordinates in the recent history list are converted to match the new format.
Example coordinate formats
| Coordinate format | Example value |
|---|---|
Decimal Degrees | 118.8348591°W 33.6337148°N |
Degrees Minutes Seconds | 118°50'45.0"W 33°38'1.05"N |
Degrees Decimal Minutes | 118°48.769'W 33°36.520'N |
Military Grid Reference System (MGRS) | 11SLT 31579 21764 |
US National Grid (USNG) | 11S LT 31344 23289 |
UTM | 11S 300891 3719717 |