Maps from Excel : Saving your map and sharing it

You can save the map as an image on your desktop or as an SWF (Adobe Shock Wave File format) on the Mapizmo.com server. In the latter case, you can share the URL with your friends / contacts. The (configured) map can be saved at any time. See how.....
Steps:

1. Create a map in the Internet Explorer browser window as discussed in the previous posts.
2. Saving map as an Image:
• Click on the "Save your work > As Image" menu item in the browser toolbar.


• A dialog box for saving the map image opens up.
  
  
  
• Save the image to your desktop in "png" or "jpg" format.
3. Saving map as an SWF:
   • Click on the "Save your work > As SWF" menu item in the browser toolbar.
   
   
   • A dialog box for saving the map configuration opens up. Enter name and description for the map and click on "Save Map" button.
     
     
     
   
   
   • Copy the URL which shows up at bottom of the screen. Open a new browser window and paste the URL in its address bar and press "Enter". You will see a copy of the map in the browser window. Note that this map is a "live" and interactive map.
   
   
   • You can preview the SWF map by clicking on the respective "Map" button on the dialog box.
   
   
   • You can save up to 5 such interactive maps on a single Mapizmo user account.
   
   
   • The interactive maps will be accessible from any browser window and do not require authentication. You can share the URLs with your friends and contacts.
   
   
   • The following image shows a sample of the SWF map
   
   
   
   
   
   

Maps for Excel: Configuring map colors

You can customize the map colors - region background color, region border color (including border thickness, border filters) and Map Canvas background color.

Continued from previous post: "Maps from Excel: Adding Titles & other text to a map".

Steps:

1. Click on the menu item "Map Props.. > Regions" menu item in the browser toolbar.
   
   


2. From the dialog box which pops open, you can choose to paint one region at a time or multiple regions at once.
   
   
   



3. Select the desired color from the color chooser box. (Advanced users: You can set custom colors for painting by typing the respective hex code in the color chooser text box.). Click on "Apply Changes" button when done.
   
   • Painting one region at a time: Click on the desired region.
   
   
   • Painting multiple regions at once: Mouse down on the Map Canvas and draw a box around the desired regions.
   
   You can color / re-color any number of times.


4. The following image shows a sample map with different paint combinations.
   
   


5. To configure map borders and canvas colors, click on "Map Props...> Other.." menu item from the browser toolbar.


6. Select the desired border thickness, color and filter. Note that the configuration applies to entire map. Click on "Apply Changes" button when done.
   


7. The following images show samples of the resulting map.
   
   
   
   

Maps from Excel: Adding Titles & other text to a map

You can add title(s) and other text elements to your map and customize the font color, size and style of the text. You can place the text on any location on the Map Canvas.

Steps:

1. Follow the steps shown for "Create your first map" blog post.


2. In the Internet Explorer window toolbar where the map is displayed, click on "Insert > Text" menu item
   


3. Double click on the text - "Inserted Text" which appears on the top left hand corner of the browser window (Map Canvas), to open the text configuration dialog box. Select the entire text in the rich text box, before formatting it.


4. Enter the following text - "Simple Boundary Map of United States" in text box.


5. Note: You can remove the text from the Map Canvas at any time, by clicking on "Remove Text" button.


6. Select desired font color, weight, size, style of the text and click on "Update Text" button. Close the dialog box.


7. You can drag the text to any location on the Map Canvas.


8. The following image shows a sample of the formatted map

Creating your first map in Excel

Ref site: www.mapizmo.com

Prequisites:

• User account with Mapizmo.com


• Microsoft Excel 2003 or 2007 with Mapizmo.com macros installed (See 'Getting Started.pdf' document in the Downloads section of www.mapizmo.com for details)


• Internet Explorer 6, 7 or 8

Steps:

1. Open Excel and click on Mapizmo button. Click on "Enable macros" button, if prompted.
   
   
   
   • In Excel 2007, Mapizmo button will be under "Add Ins" menu item.
   
   
   • In Excel 2003, the "Mapizmo" link will be under "Tools" menu item on the Excel toolbar.


2. In the dialog box which appears, enter your Mapizmo.com username and password and click on 'Done' button.


3. In the 'Configuration' section, click on 'Show Map' button.


4. An Internet Explorer window opens and a map of United States will be displayed in the browser.


5. Click here to view a demo of the live map.

MapizmoApps on Force.com

We have built some apps on Force.com (http://www.salesforce.com/) platform, showcasing different types of integrations using Mapizmo Javascript APIs and the Map Gadget. You will need a user account on http://www.salesforce.com/ to access the MapizmoApps on Force.com.

Install the Apps by clicking on this link.