The rectangular limits (xmin,ymin,xmax,ymax) of the area of the Earth's surface you want to display using ARC/INFO. The geographic extent specified by the minimum bounding rectangle of a study area.

1) The rectangular limits (xmin,ymin and xmax,ymax) of the area of the Earth's surface displayed. Map extent is specified in the coordinate system of the coverage or other geographic data set used. Typically, the extent of the geographic database (or a portion of it defined by a zoomed-in view) defines the map extent for display. 2) The geographic extent of a geographic data set specified by the minimum bounding rectangle (i.e., xmin,ymin and xmax,ymax).

Area of the real world which is represented by the map. In GIS it is usually defined by the smallest non-rotated bounding rectangle which contains all of the map features.