ESRI, Google Earth and Global Mapper guys...

I know of a private surveying company that has been around about ten years, but has no map indexing system (no database of any kind, not even index cards). This works ok for their lot jobs, as the computer directories are named after the subdivision.

That means if you want to know if anything has been done Section 24, someone has to remember it, or hope they get lucky while wildly searching in the computer.

This is no good, so I need to get them on an indexing system, and I want a graphical database, ... now.

I don't care so much about querying, but I want to be able navigate to the geographic area of interest and what see jobs have been done there, with hyperlinks to map pdf's, etc.

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I did this for my former business in Google Earth (GE) and it was great. Used Placemarks with hyperlinks attached.

They have a lic copy ArcView, but no one knows how to use it (everyone's always too busy!?!) and I think if we waited to learn it enough, the indexing may never happen, so am leaning towards the simple-to-use GE. I exported my kml to ESRI Explorer one time, and the Placemarks came in, but the converted Placemarks I imported into Explorer were not editable.

Questions:

If I exported the Placemarks kml to full ESRI, would they be editable (or queriable)?

Do Global Mapper "Placemarks" export well to ESRI? (editable?)

What would be the best way to learn enough about ESRI to be able to create a good "Placemark" system? That's all I need right now.

I need to get this going soon, so any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Steve