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Map view basics

Tutorial transcript 8

Welcome to the TableBuilder Tutorial Series: Module 8 - Map View basics. In this module, I'll show you how to create a map of your data, how to use the interactive tools, how to change the map areas, how to download a map and run you through some of other map functions. To complete this module, you'll need to log into TableBuilder and either create a new table or select a saved table.

In this example, I've created a table that shows the number of people in each Commonwealth Electoral Division in Australia.

We will now map the data from the Table View screen. To map the data, simply select the “Map View” tab. Your map is now being processed. You will be able to see it being drawn on screen on the right of the screen. The map of Australia has been drawn with Electoral Division boundaries and each area coloured with one of the 5 colours available from the palette. The map has finished drawing when you see the green dot in the box immediately above the map.

You can do several things with our map. You can zoom in by using the mouse, or the “zoom in” (button with upward pointing triangle) or “zoom out” (button with downward pointing triangle) buttons on the left of the map.

We can change the palette using the ‘Palette’ drop down box in the control panel on the left of the screen. Options available include LightGreen-Grey, DarkBlue-Grey, and LightBlue-Grey etc.

You can change the opacity of your map using the “Thematic Opacity” slider in the control panel. Moving the slider toward the right makes the colour less transparent. Moving the slider towards the left makes the colour more transparent.

You can also change the data classifier using the “Data Classifier” drop down box in the control panel on the left of the screen. Options available include Natural Breaks, Equal Distribution, Quantile and Custom Ranges.

When you click on any particular area on the map, it will show you the data for that area. In this example, clicking on the area in Northern Territory, the pop up dialogue states there are 101305 Persons Place of Usual Residence in Lingiari Commonwealth Electoral Division. In another example, selecting an area from Queensland, it tells you the data for the Kennedy Commonwealth Electoral Division (144526 Persons Place of Usual Residence). Select the cross button at the top right hand corner of the pop up will close the dialogue box.

You can also toggle between a street map and an aerial map by using the map option drop down box at the top right corner of the map.

To add or remove areas from your map, you can use the tools at the top left corner of the map. These include ‘Single’, ‘Freehand’ and ‘Rectangle’.

In this example, we have selected the 'Single' button. The map is now completely coloured in yellow and the tool tip appeared states “Click to add or remove a region”. Use your mouse to point to an area on the map and click. Your area will be removed. To put it back, simply click in the areas that you have removed.
If you want to remove or add multiple areas to the map, you can use either the Freehand or rectangular selection by using the ‘Freehand’ button or ‘Rectangle’ button.

We will use the freehand tool. Now click somewhere on the map and draw a shape around the area you would like to remove. Tool tip states “Press down to start and let go to finish”. Click and hold to start drawing, drag to draw the area to be removed, and then release to finalise. An oblique shape with red boundary has been drawn with enclosed area coloured in a darker shade than the original colour. All these areas have now been removed. To add them, or a selection of them, back, simply click and drag a shape again.

If we zoom into our map by clicking on an area as centre, you might want to remove a batch of Commonwealth Electoral Divisions in New South Wales and Victoria and maybe take a couple more out from Queensland. Click and hold to start drawing, drag to draw the area to be removed, and then release to finalise. Then click the “Apply Changes” button.

By applying changes to the map, you are also changing your table. Simply click the “Table View” button. You will notice the table has now removed several Commonwealth Electoral Divisions.

If you go back to the “Map View” tab by clicking the “Map View” link, we can now check our map and download or save it for later use. You can download your map in either PDF or KMZ format using the Download drop down box at the top right corner. For this example, we’re going to download our map as a PDF and simply click the 'Go' button.

Select ‘Open’ button in the “File Download” dialogue box. That is our downloaded PDF map opened up in Adobe Reader. You can either print this or save it for later use.

That ends this Module - Map View basics.

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