Quick Tips: Mapping
Inspired by some recent support desk questions, this week’s SimplyMap report will provide some useful tips and tricks to help make the most out of your maps. Let’s get started!
First, let’s take a look at the map that we will apply changes to. This is a map showing Median Household Income for the city of Chicago:
At this level of zoom and geography, your map will display by ZIP Codes. If you’d like to see a more granular map, select a smaller geography from the View Data By dropdown in your map legend. The map below displays the data by census tract:
Next, when you create maps in SimplyMap, by default the legend values will use national figures. If you would like to see your map legend changed to reflect the underlying data specifically for the region shown on the map, try changing the classification method to be Quantiles Local. This option is found in the Edit Legend menu.
New map shown below with reconfigured break points:
The last tip we have here involves applying a location mask to your map. Doing so will remove the surrounding areas around your selected location. This feature is found in the Display Options dropdown located towards the top right of SimplyMap.
Final map shown below:
Our tips summarized:
1. Try changing the unit of geography for your map to be smaller from the View Data By dropdown in the legend.
2. Change the classification method of your map to be quantiles local. This reconfigures your break points to reflect the underlying data of your study area (we used Chicago).
3. Apply a Location Mask from the Display Options menu.
We hope you enjoyed these tips - stay tuned for more!
More from SimplyAnalytics
GRI Heading to SLA Annual Conference - June 14-16 Boston
Posted on May 18, 2015 by Admin
The SimplyMap team is looking forward to visiting with customers and others at the SLA Annual Conference, coming to Boston on June 14-16. Come visit us at Booth #916, we are happy to answ...
View Spotlight - Time Series Table
Posted on Aug 27, 2018 by Admin
Welcome readers! This week we are excited to feature our newest view in SimplyAnalytics, the Time Series Table.What is it?The Time Series Table allows you to quickly pull all years availa...
Retail Market Power: Manhattan’s Jewelry and Car Sales
Posted on Jul 26, 2016 by Admin
In this week’s SimplyMap report, we’ll take a look at the Retail Market Power dataset and provide a simple, effective example of how the data package can be used. If your institution curr...
GRI Exhibiting at OLA Super Conference, January 30-February 2, 2013
Posted on Dec 03, 2012 by Admin
Come visit the Geographic Research booth at the Ontario Library Association Super Conference this season. The conference will take place on January 30 - February 2, 2013 at the Metro Toro...
Exploring SimplyMap Data: America’s Favorite Music
Posted on Sep 09, 2015 by Admin
This week’s SimplyMap report will set out to discover what America’s favorite type of music is. We will use data within the premium data package, SimmonsLOCAL to answer the question. The ...
SimplyAnalytics Exhibiting at the PLA 2020 Conference in Nashville - February 26-28
Posted on Feb 25, 2020 by Admin
SimplyAnalytics will be exhibiting at the PLA Conference, held this year at the Music City Center in Nashville, TN on February 26 - 28. Visit the team at Booth 1444 with your questions, f...
Men's Health identifies most cell-addicted cities with SimplyMap
Posted on Jan 24, 2009 by Admin
Men's Health magazine took a look this month at where our wireless habits are most out of control. Their methodology includes the use of SimplyMap: First, we crunched data from SimplyMap...
University of Washington Launches 9 new SimplyMap Tutorials
Posted on Apr 30, 2008 by Admin
Doreen Harwood, Business Librarian from the University of Washington has developed a series of detailed tutorials on using SimplyMap. The tutorials, which are Flash-based and interactive,...
Exploring SimplyMap Data: America’s Work from Home Employees
Posted on Feb 13, 2015 by Admin
In this week’s report exploring SimplyMap data, we want to find out where America’s remote workers reside. To find this, we can tap into the Census data in SimplyMap. The specific variabl...
The Most Socially Networked Cities in America
Posted on Mar 21, 2011 by Admin
Men's Health magazine decided to crown one town America's Most Socially Networked City, and has generated quite a buzz in the process. Their survey examined the number of Facebook and Li...




