ArcReader

Generally speaking, ArcReader looks just like ArcMap, TOC on the left, map on the right, toolbars at the top, layers can be turned off or on. Properties are locked down; for example, you can't change Display transparency or Symbology or Labels.

If you want to publish a map therefore you might want to include several layers that have different settings. For example, a street layer might be included twice, once with and once without labels.

You can zoom in and out and pan around and you can print.

You can do searches and you can use the identify tool.

There are still data and layout views.

The age-old problem of packaging the shapefiles / datasources with the map still exists. For example, my MXD project shapefiles are on a server, so my PMF (ArcReader) file still references the very same server files. If I hand you a copy of the PMF, it won't work for you unless I give you a copy of my server, too. About the only property available for you to change is the data source location for each layer. So if you have the files, you can hook them up.

There does not appear to be any way for you to SAVE the new PMF file though! So you'd be forced to repeat the updates each time you open the PMF, probably cursing me all the while.

If the server is Internet-based and all the references in my ArcMap project are to those published Web services instead of to shapefiles tucked away on a file server, the PMF would work for you too. If your Internet connection is fast enough. Vector files, good. Raster files, bad.