this text comes from one of our GIS intranet pages,
when i get a internet webspace somewhere we will post proper pages for
inspection..
please bear in mind - its written for non-GIS users.
the link for downloading data is just a zipped up collection of tab files.
Mapping With Excel.
This article will show you how to make maps of Hackney using our data and
your copy of Excel. Here's what we are going to do in brief: firstly, you've
got to download the data from us (not difficult), then you've got to
register the data using a little program that comes with Excel (very simple)
and that's it ... you're ready to begin drawing some maps.
But with all good lessons we are going to start at the end product - drawing
a map. Perhaps you've never used the Map tool in Excel or there is a slim
chance it isn't there on your toolbar. So we better check if you've got it
or we are going nowhere. Open up your copy of Excel and take a look at the
toolbar - you are looking for the map icon that looks like a globe.
If you haven't got it you can install it by finding your Microsoft Office
CD, and reinstalling the Mapping option under the Excel section. Consult
your IT specialist if in doubt.
Click on your newly-found Map Icon and draw a rectangle in a blank area of
your worksheet. A dialog box should pop up asking you to select a 'map
template' from a pre-arranged list. It should look like this:
Select from the list 'UK and ROI Counties'. And as if by magic up should pop
a map of the UK and Ireland. The map is not static and we can zoom in/out,
pan around and label map objects if we wish to - you will find all these
tools in the toolbar. Play around with the map, try out the other map
templates - there is no way of altering or deleting them.
Here's a side note: have you noticed what Excel was trying to do? It says
that Microsoft Map was unable to choose a map template for you 'based upon
the data you selected'. Hang on, we didn't select any data did we? No, but
the point is we could have. If we had a list of UK counties and next to it a
series of corresponding values then Excel would make an assumption about
which map we wanted and open up the UK counties map template and colour it
accordingly to the values we had entered. But will come onto this later on.
Okay, now you know how to create maps in Excel. Just click and draw. But how
do you get a map of Hackney to appear? We need to build and add a Hackney
map template to list of templates available. In order to do this we must
have some Hackney map data sitting on your computer's hard-drive. Click on
the icon below to download the Hackney map data. Save it to a temporary
directory.
Download Hackney Map data.
The file is zipped up which means it's in a compressed format and unless you
have WinZip you won't be able to open it. Why have we done it? Well, zipping
files is a standard way of sending information because it takes up less time
and space. So if you haven't got WinZip you better click here to download
it. Don't worry - you'll find it an extremely useful program. Once you have
WinZip installed, run it and open the Hackney Map data file (called
'excel_mapping_data.zip'). Click on Extract and choose a directory to save
the files to. I would suggest 'C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft
Shared\DataMap\Data'. The data filenames must be 8 characters or less to be
registered with the Data Manager. A text file called 'readme.txt' is
included in the zip file explaining each file name. After you have done this
you can delete the zip file from the temporary directory.
So you now have a directory somewhere on your computer that contains the
hackney map data. We must now create our Hackney template. Go to your Start
button on your desktop. Select Run and type "C:\Program Files\Common
Files\Microsoft Shared\Datamap\Datainst.exe" and click OK. If the file is
not there then you may have to reinstall Microsoft Office, but before you do
check that the file is not elsewhere on your hard-drive by using
Start>Find>Files&Folders and search for 'Datainst.exe'.
You have just loaded up the Map Manager for Excel. You will see a familiar
list of templates already on offer. Select 'New' to create a new template,
and type in a suitable name. In the below example, I've already created a
template called 'LB Hackney'. I will presume this is the name of your
template.
Now select LB Hackney from the list and click 'Advanced'. This will open up
a second list showing all the available datasets that you can include in
this map template. However, our map data is not present.. yet. To include
our data in the list click Open and one by one select the data layers that
you downloaded. You will have to specify a name for each dataset, and a
table for refined searches (this is unimportant to us so select anything),
and when asked include path of dataset rather than copying the data. Once
they are all included check their checkboxes, and then select Exit. You have
now registered the map data with Excel's Map Manager and you have created a
map template to work with when creating your own Hackney maps. Give yourself
a pat on the back.
Okay, hurry back to Excel and draw a Hackney map for yourself. It should
look the map on the left.
You can now zoom in, change the title, label objects and generally make cool
maps for yourself. But there is more, we could if wish create a thematic
layer. This is the method of colouring or shading a map in accordance with
some attribute. Thermal imagery are thematic maps whose attribute is heat
levels. Crime maps are thematic maps whoose attribute is the rate of crime
in a given area. In Hackney there are various datasets that we can use to
colour code data with: Enumeration Districts, Wards, Housing Neighbourhoods
and Neighbourhood Committees. Right-click on your map and turn off all
layers save for the Wards layer. Now you should have a map showing the wards
of Hackney - and all the same colour. Right, let's associate some data to
it. You will need to create two coloumns in the worksheet next to the map.
Here's a column showing area figures for each ward. You don't have to enter
data for ever ward - one or two will be enough for our purposes.
Then make sure the Map is the current active object in excel by
double-clicking on it. Then go to Insert>Data. Then select the two columns
and press Okay on the dialog box. And hopefully a colour-coded map should
appear. The thematic dialog box should spring open too. This is really easy
to use. In the white box you have a icon showing what kind of thematic style
(or format) is being used and on what set of data (which column). You can
choose the style of the map from a possible choice of six - shown on the
left. To change the style of map grab one of the icons, and drop it over the
icon in the white box.
Congratulations on creating your first thematic map with Excel. As long as
you have numeric data grouped by EDs, Wards or Neighbourhoods you will be
able to create a thematic map. Best of luck to you and if you have any
problems please email me by clicking here, or use Groupwise: 'baileya'.
Andy Bailey x2227.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
----- Original Message -----
From: "Christy Noonan" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "'Andy'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Tuesday, January 11, 2000 8:02 PM
Subject: RE: MI Can map be embedded in Excel 97 and linked?
>
> Hi,
> Can you shed a little more light on this. Specifically where is the
> Microsoft Map manager's data list, is this a dialog box at install, or
> something you can add to from the menu?
> I know you should be able to import a MapInfo file into Excel, as it is
> in the Excel Map data help (There is actually a link from the help file to
> MapInfo), however it does not give specifics on what format the file
should
> be in *.mif - *.tab, or how to get in to display?
> Any insight would be helpful.
> Thanks, Cn
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------------------------
> yes you can. You need to prepare your zipcode table in mapinfo and then
> add it to the microsoft map manager's data list. After that you will be
> able
> to use
> it in excel with thematic zipcode columns.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Bob Smith" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Sent: Tuesday, January 11, 2000 2:00 PM
> Subject: MI Can map be embedded in Excel 97 and linked?
>
>
> > Need to create a map on an Excel 97 spreadsheet that is linked to the
> > data on the sheet. It must have the same functionality as the built-in
> > "Microsoft Map" tools. That is, when the spreadsheet data is updated
> > each month, the user can just right-click the map and click "Refresh"
> > and the map updates on the spot. (The reason I can't just use the
> > built-in Microsoft Map is because the data is by zip code and Microsoft
> > Map only goes down to state level.) Can MapInfo Professional allow me
> > to do what I'm asking here?
> >
> > Thanks! Darrin
> > [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > To unsubscribe from this list, send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put
> > "unsubscribe MAPINFO-L" in the message body, or contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> To unsubscribe from this list, send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put
> "unsubscribe MAPINFO-L" in the message body, or contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>
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