WHAT'S NEW

MapForums Surpasses 25,000 Posts, MapPoint Downloads Last week MapForums users crossed the 25,000 mark in terms of number of posts in the forum. To see who has been the most active in the forums over the past months and previous years, go to Quick Links, and then Top Posters of the Month. MapForums also hosts a popular Downloads section with a number of tools, map templates, icon sets, and utilities to help you get the most out of MapPoint. Access to the Downloads section is $19.95 for three months. MapPoint Power Tools Spreadsheet Geocode Addresses Optimize Route Initialization Mapping An Address Distance Between Zip Codes Drawing Drivetime Zones Map Templates Single State Mapper Map Individual Counties Thin County Lines Worldwide Airport Database Other MapPoint Tools Drawing Radii (Circles) Import a Route with Stoptimes Numbered Balloon Images .... and many more useful tools and data sets for MapPoint to download. New tools are added regularly and members are encouraged to suggest or contribute additional downloads! Register or Upgrade your Account.

	RECENT NEWS

King of Bing Maps Challenge This morning, at TechEd 2010 in New Orleans, Bing announced some additions to Bing Maps that are relevant to both developers and consumers. First, Bing opened up the Bing Map App API to developers at BING MAPS PLATFORM - Map App Developer Resources: Map SDKs, APIs, Tips, Training with the release of the Bing Map App Software Development Kit (SDK). This release gives developers the ability to create their own map apps built on top of Bing Maps and hosted on bing.com/maps. Once developers create their Bing Map app, they’re encouraged to submit it to the King of Bing Maps Challenge. The challenge starts today and concludes on July 25, 2010. Secondly, Bing released two new mapping apps: WeatherBug: With WeatherBug, consumers can check weather around the world or select an observation station to see the current conditions. Observation stations are pinned to the map and consumers can layer Doppler and satellite weather imagery over the map view. Observation stations include National Weather Service locations, WeatherBug Backyard stations, and WeatherBug stations, which may include current and next day forecasts, camera images and links to radar imagery. EveryScape Eats: With Everyscape Eats, consumers can not only read restaurant reviews and the menu, but they can actually “step inside” to see photos or a video tour of the restaurant interior. More information about today’s announcement is available on the Bing blog post. If you’re interested in specifics about how to build an app for Bing Maps check out the Developer blog post here.

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Working with pushpins in MapPoint? Get the MapPoint 2004/2006 Pushpin Tool for just $75. The latest features include the ability to export lat/lon coordinates of pushpins to Excel and advanced find Pushpin functionality. Read more and purchase the tool here or go directly to paypal. Affordable volume licensing now available for organizations wishing to distribute the Pushpin Tool to 5, 10, 20, or 50 or more users. Learn More and Download a Free Demo

	LATEST Q & A

JKurz2008: MapPoint or alternative for Haiti? Hi all, I work for a Haitian NGO. We've started talking about the desire to map our operational data geographically. I've just started researching and learning about MapPoint. Does anyone have any advice? We don't need a super high level of detail, but I do want to be able to map according to the GPS coordinates we have for our branch locations. Thanks! James ... Olga@lbs: Copying thematic maps from MapPoint 2010 to Excel/Word 2007 Hi all, I'm having issues with copying thematic (color-coded) maps from MapPoint 2010 into Excel/Word 2007. I have been able to do this in MapPoint 2004, but there seems to be a glitch in the 2010 version where colors are not retained when copied via Edit->Copy Map menu option. I'm not a new user, but just had a new version installed and this issue is puzzling. Has anyone ever ran into something like this? My map is multi-layered, I have custom territories and a thematic map based on custom... vtkendra: How up-to-date are the zip codes in MapPoint? I have imported some zip codes for my companie's territories into MapPoint. About 5% did not match to MapPoint's zip codes. I have identified some that are errors in my data file but some appear to be errors within MapPoint (according to the data check's I've done with the USPS website). How current are the MapPoint zip codes? One specific one I'm having trouble with is 20041. According to USPS, this is a DC zip code. However, in MapPoint, it's showing this zip code in VA. ... sollasollew: MapPoint Data Can someone suggest sources of inexpensive or free data for maps. I am particularly interested in housing values at either the census tract or zip code level. Also, is it possible to show census tract and/or zip code boundaries on a map? Thanks. Eric ...

	ARTICLES

Subscribe via RSS The articles list is now available for syndication on your web site or your favorite RSS news aggregator/reader. MapPoint and Visual Studio 2010 Tutorial Wilfried Mestdagh shows how to get started with Visual Studio 2010 and MapPoint 2010 development in this first of a two-part article. Using the New Windows 7 Location API Richard Marsden discusses the new “Location and Sensors” API and how to get started with development including a complete working example with source code available to download. Using the New MapFeatures Collection and MapFeature Objects in MapPoint 2010 Richard Marsden explores the new MapFeatures Collection in MapPoint 2010 and how to programmatically control the "Map Settings" via the API. Includes a table with the complete list of the MapFeature indices. An Overview of the New Features in Microsoft MapPoint 2010 Richard Marsden highlights the new features in MapPoint 2010 including the "Map Settings" or cartographic layer pane, new programmatic capabilities for GPS control, GPS import/export and several other major enhancements including MapPoint 2009 "Fixes". BackAndForwardUtility: A Simple .NET Add-in for Microsoft MapPoint MapPoint 2009 introduced a new redesigned and streamlined interfaced which eliminated a couple of little-used buttons - the back and forward buttons for navigating map views. Richard Marsden shows how to get the functionality back using a .NET Add-in. Functional Programming with MapPoint and F#: Part 2 In this, the second of a two-part article on functional programming with MapPoint, Richard Marsden uses F# in a practical example classifying data points as wetlands based on hydrology, vegetation, and soil measurements. Functional Programming with MapPoint and F#: Part 1 The first of two articles by Richard Marsden on MapPoint and F#. Recently released as a full product by Microsoft, F# can be used as a functional language or as an imperative or object-oriented language, and is useful for multi-threaded programming. Calling MapPoint from C# with Late Binding Richard Marsden shows how to call MapPoint from C# using late binding or dynamic invocation. Late binding has a number of advantages in certain scenarios including being about to support multiple type libraries. Shape Name Utility The Shape Name Utility is a simple utility developed by Richard Marsden that allows a user to examine and/or change the names of MapPoint shapes. This article describes the code and how it works. Roll Your Own Commercial Routing System with MapPoint Matt Fritz shares his experience developing a routing application including discussion of MapPoint's strengths and limitations. The articles includes several screenshots illustrating the various components of the routing application.

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