How do i add a point to a shapefile so that it has (not null) geometry?

[MatthewNoteboom]

This is driving me nuts. I'm trying to add one point to a shapefile with 10 points and about 12 fields - I want to give it a name, and type in coordinates calculated elsewhere. Arcmap seems to have a problem with this although it doesn't say so, it just doesn't ever display the point that has perfectly sensible coordinates.

[DanPatterson_Retired · Accepted solution]

You should do this in edit mode if you are using ArcMap.  When you create the point you can specify the coordinate then

Creating a point or vertex at an exact x,y location (absolute x,y)—Help | ArcGIS Desktop 

[MatthewNoteboom]

thanks Dan. I got there more or less. I was seeing it as a more simple structure like other visually similar database types I've worked with. Since longitude/latitude were fields in the attribute table, I was thinking those actually represented the geometry, but I now understand they're just data fields like all the others.