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Microsoft® MapPoint® 2004
business mapping software combines powerful
mapping and analysis tools with the simplicity
of Microsoft Office. MapPoint enables users
to visually analyze and effectively communicate
their business information.
Designed for everyday
business use, MapPoint allows users to
easily locate and illustrate
points on maps, integrate maps into Microsoft
Office documents, and quickly identify business
trends on a map, with either the user’s
own data or up-to-date, detailed demographic
information.
USING
AFD Products WITH MICROSOFT MapPoint®
Using
AFD Products with MapPoint
To enable the MapPoint
integration in the AFD Products front-end
select the 'Enable MapPoint Integration'
option from the Map menu. Items will
be added to the file you have open in MapPoint. If
MapPoint is not running when you first
attempt to add an address from Postcode
Plus a new instance will be started for
you.
Displaying
Addresses in MapPoint
To display an address
in MapPoint from AFD Products, simply
double click the item you wish to display
in the Results list or, if you prefer,
select the item and then click the 'MapPoint'
button near the bottom right of the Postcode
Plus window. The approximate location
of that address will then be shown. By
default a Push-Pin will be added to identify
it and the Postcode will be used as the
label. To alter the settings for
this, see the MapPoint settings section
below.
If you have multiple
addresses to display, for example you have
carried out a search and wish to add all
the results from that search to MapPoint
you can simply select the addresses from
the results list that you wish to transfer
to MapPoint and then select the 'Transfer
Selected Items to MapPoint' item from the
Map menu in AFD Products. (Note
you can select all the items in the list
by selecting the Select All item from the
Edit menu. Alternatively to select
items of your choice hold down the ctrl
key and click on each item to select, or
to select a range of items hold down shift
and click the first and last item in the
list that you want to select).
Working
with Nearest and MapPoint
The Nearest functionality
of AFD Products can also be used with
MapPoint to enable you to see the relative
locations of a Nearest outlet to the Postcode
or address you are looking up. As
Nearest calculates straight line distances
only, this could be a big help in locating
the best outlet to direct the customer
too. This can be especially helpful
where two locations are a similar distance
apart as seeing them on the map might make
it obvious which one is easiest to get
to. Alternatively it might help see
that one further away is better because
the closest is separated by an expense
of water with no nearby bridge etc. You
can also get driving directions to the
outlet from a given postcode or address
using MapPoint and AFD Products.
Adding
Nearest Locations to MapPoint
To display all
nearest locations on MapPoint, you can
use the 'Transfer All Nearest Locations
To MapPoint' option on the Map menu. Doing
so then means that you can lookup postcodes
or addresses as normal in AFD Products
and when you double-click them to see them
in MapPoint you will also see any Nearest
outlets nearby.
Displaying the
Driving Route and Directions for a
Nearest location
Displaying directions
and the route from a postcode or address
you have looked up to a Nearest location
is simple. On the Nearest tab, enter
the postcode in the Find field you wish
to get directions from and then double-click
the Nearest outlet in the list to see the
route and full directions displayed in
MapPoint. You can also click the
'MapPoint' button near the bottom right
of the AFD Products window if you prefer. You
can of course search or lookup your address
on the Search Tab to check your results
and then move to the Nearest tab to double
click a Nearest item and get your route
details.
MapPoint
Options
A range of options are
available to customise your use of MapPoint
with AFD Products. Simply select
Properties from the File menu and then
click the MapPoint tab to configure these:
The options
provided are as follows:
Options
applicable to displaying a single item
This option
is applicable to display of a single item
only as when multiple items are added a
push-pin must be added for each one for
this functionality to be useful.
| Option |
Description |
| Add a
Push-Pin |
This option
means that a push-pin is added to
MapPoint for each item you double-click
on. |
| Replace
the Push-Pin with the new item |
This option
will cause AFD Products to replace
each Push-Pin with the new item,
i.e. when you add an item to MapPoint
as a Push-Pin and then add another
the original item will be removed. These
saves clutter on the Map when you
are dealing with individual items
at a time. |
| Select
the location only |
This option
causes AFD Products to simply select
the location in MapPoint when you
double-click an item. No push-pin
is added. |
Push-Pin
Options
For displaying
single items these options are only applicable
if you have selected the Add a Push-Pin
or Replace the Push-Pin options above. However
they are still available as features such
as adding Nearest points or multiple items
requires Push-Pins to be used.
You should
note that these options are not retrospective,
i.e. changing the Push-Pin type will not
affect Push-Pins that AFD Products has
already added to MapPoint. This means
that you can use one colour of Push-Pin
for one thing and then change the colour
here before adding others if you wish to
differentiate them in MapPoint.
| Option |
Description |
| Don't
add a duplicate Push-Pin item |
This options
prevents duplicate items, e.g. the
same Postcode being added to MapPoint
twice to help reduce clutter. The
duplication check is based on the
Push-Pin caption and as such works
best when using the Postcode as the
caption. |
| Display
the Push-Pin Caption |
This causes
AFD Products adds Push-Pin's with
the caption displayed by default. Displaying
the caption makes points easier to
see and identify, however if you
are adding a large number of points
might just add to clutter on the
map. |
| Use the
following as the Push-Pin Caption |
This allows
you to specify what field to use
as the Push-Pin caption. If
you select Locality, Street, Property
or Organisation and that field is
blank the next available one will
be used instead (e.g. if there is
no Locality then town would be used,
if there was no Street the Locality
would be used or if it is still blank
then the town). |
| Use the
following Push-Pins |
Here you
can select the colour of Push-Pin
to use, you can also specify to use
a tack instead. This allows
you to easily distinguish different
datasets or types of location on
the Map if you wish to. |
| Highlight
Location |
This option
causes AFD Products to add Push-Pin's
that are highlighted in MapPoint
by default. This can make it
easier to spot Push-Pins especially
if the caption is not being displayed. |
Use
MapPoint location in preference to Longitude
and Latitude were possible
MapPoint
contains limited address data. If
this option is specified then Postcode
Plus will attempt to lookup the street
address in MapPoint and use MapPoint's
data to identify it's location where possible. Doing
this means that the location would be placed
at a potentially more appropriate point
on the street. This is because the
grid references in AFD Products are based
on a square which can lead to a Postcode
being plotted near the street rather than
actually on it. In many cases the
latitude and longitude values from Postcode
Plus are used in any case as MapPoint does
not contain more complex address data or
many dependant streets etc. It should
also be noted that MapPoint is not as up
to date as AFD Products and particularly
on long roads the position given by MapPoint
may be quite far out from it's actual physical
position. For improved accuracy to
ensure the address is in the right area
turning this option off makes sense, however
having it turned on could give you locations
that are mostly on the actually street
displayed in MapPoint and may look better
and work better with calculating MapPoint
routes.
Utilising
other MapPoint Features
MapPoint
contains a wide variety of mapping related
features and these can all be used in conjunction
with the AFD Products integration. Simply
add your Push-Pins from AFD Products and
then use all the features of MapPoint to
make use of that data. You can save
and reload maps of Push-Pins for different
purposes and, for example, if you pre-save
a map with Nearest Push-Pins you could
then load that each time to use with Postcode
Plus rather than having to re-add the items. We
would always recommend keeping a backup
of any files you use with AFD Products
so should you inadvertedly add Push-Pins
for addresses you don't want you can easily
revert back to your backup. Full
details of the features of Microsoft MapPoint
are provided in it's help file.
Using
the MapPoint and AFD Products API
Both AFD AFD Products
and Microsoft MapPoint provide comprehensive
API's that allow you to control and integrate
the two. Using a language like Microsoft
Visual Basic or any of Microsoft Visual
Studio .NET family you can easily look
up addresses in AFD Products and add them
and manipulate points in MapPoint. You
can find a VB example of this in your c:\pcplus\examples\VB\MapPoint
folder (where c:\pcplus is the folder into
which you installed AFD Products). For
other languages and full API details see
the AFD Products API
Documentation and refer to the Programming
Information section of the MapPoint help
system (accessible from the Help menu within
Microsoft MapPoint).
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