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!