MapPoint User Survey Extended to March 31st!
Dear Microsoft MapPoint User:
The
MapPoint Team is conducting a short survey to learn more about your
organization’s use of Microsoft MapPoint to support your mapping,
routing and data analysis needs.
In exchange for your
valuable time and feedback, we will include your name in a drawing for
a chance to win one of 50 Amazon.com gift certificates valued at $25
each. To start the survey, just click on the “
Begin Survey” link below or paste the following link into your browser’s address field:
http://www.infosolutionsgroup.com/Surveys/MapPoint_3/. Please complete the survey by midnight EST, March 31st, 2009.
Begin Survey If
there is another individual within your organization who is more
qualified to answer this survey, please forward this email to them.
Sincerely,
The MapPoint Team
Automating MapPoint with Excel VBA - Tutorial 6
Building off our
previous tutorial which draws radii around a list of addresses, in this installment we also read in the color of the line. Earlier
tutorials can be found here
1,
2,
3,
and
4.
Again, the main portion of the code is a loop. Working through
a list of data in an Excel worksheet is a bit kludgy. It basically just
started with the first row where data is expected and works it's way
down (nReadRow = nReadRow + 1) until it detects a blank cell in the
Address column.
In this version, the color is read from the
seventh column. A special function "AssignColor" translates English
color names to VBA color codes. This is then used later to assign the
Line's ForeColor.
At the end of the script, the map is zoomed
to the dataset points and then zoomed out (objMap.Altitude =
objMap.Altitude * 2) to show the circles. As a future enhancement, it
may make sense for the zoom out factor to be determined by the largest
radius in the list.
'test to see if there is an address in column 2 (B) for the current row Do While Cells(nReadRow, 2) <> "" szAddress = Cells(nReadRow, 2) szCity = Cells(nReadRow, 3) szState = Cells(nReadRow, 4) szZip = Cells(nReadRow, 5) fRadius = Cells(nReadRow, 6) nColor = AssignColor(Cells(nReadRow, 7)) Set objLoc = objMap.FindAddressResults( _ szAddress, szCity, szState, szZip)(1) objMap.AddPushpin objLoc, Cells(nReadRow, 2) objMap.Shapes.AddShape geoShapeRadius, objLoc, fRadius, fRadius objMap.Shapes.Item(nShapeIndex).ZOrder (geoSendBehindRoads) objMap.Shapes.Item(nShapeIndex).Line.ForeColor = nColor objMap.Shapes.Item(nShapeIndex).Line.Weight = 2 nShapeIndex = nShapeIndex + 1 nReadRow = nReadRow + 1 Loop objMap.DataSets.ZoomTo objMap.Altitude = objMap.Altitude * 2The spreadsheet and complete code can be downloaded from the
MapForums Plus Downloads section for
MapForums Plus Subscribers.
If you have any questions,
suggestions, or enhancements you would like to share please post in the
MapPoint
/ Excel VBA discussion thread.
Keep an eye out for
a continuation of this series in
future issues.
TIP: Buying a GPS for MapPoint 2009
In
the past couple months, several people have mentioned that they have
MapPoint 2009 and would like to get a GPS for it and are looking for
recommendations on which GPS is going to work best with MapPoint.
Streets & Trips 2009, a sister product of MapPoint 2009 which shares much of the same code base,
sells with a GPS unit on Amazon for little more than GPS puck by itself.
If you have other suggestions for a GPS unit for MapPoint 2009 or have more information,
please share in this thread on the forum.
MapPoint Consultants and Products Directories
We
are starting new sections on MapForums for listings of MapPoint
Consultants and Companies who specialize in Microsoft Geography
Solutions including MapPoint and Virtual Earth.
If you are a
consultant who know MapPoint or Virtual Earth, this is a terrific way
to read our audience and share information about your capabilities,
services, describe past projects, and communicate your availability.
You are welcome to post your resume and keep your thread or profile
updated periodically with references, new offerings, and contant
information. Get started today by posting "New Thread" in the
MapPoint Consultant Directory.
Similarly we are also starting a new
Products Directory
for MapPoint Add-ins, Virtual Earth tools, and related products. If you
have a MapPoint/VE Add-in or tool, list it in here to get some great
visibility and exposure for your product. To keep your product near the
front of the directory, you can post periodically updates, tutorials,
case studies, or other new information about your product.
MP2K Magazine Twitter Channel
Interesting news items and updates for MapElves, MapForums, and MP2K Magazine are posted to our twitter channel at
http://twitter.com/mp2kmag. Here's the
original announcement on MapForums regarding the launch of our twitter channel.
Get
Published in MP2K
Magazine
If you have a MapPoint presentation, neat programming technique, or
would simply like to share the ways in which you are using MapPoint
technology or any other ideas, contact us to discuss how we can turn
your knowledge into
an article and share your experience with the rest of the MapPoint
community of users and developers.
Thanks to
Marvin
Hlavac for allowing us to use the
picture on the right of his Maltese puppy eating from the MapPoint
mug.