Author: Mapline Team

Mapline vs. Google Maps: GIS Maps for Your Business

Written on October 27, 2016. Posted in Blog.

Google Maps is the go-to mapping software when it comes to getting driving directions, and that’s great if you’re planning a family road trip. But when you’re looking to visualize and analyze data for your business, is Google still the best service to turn to? We take a look at the features of both Google Maps and Mapline to show Mapline’s superiority when it comes to mapping software for your industry. Plotting Multiple Locations Google Maps: Sure, you can plot multiple locations within Google Maps – as long as all you want to see is how to get from one to the others. For distance between several points, you need to enter in each starting address and destination address, note the distance, and then start over for as many data points as you need. Mapline: With Mapline you get the whole picture. Upload your Excel sheet with hundreds of locations and view them simultaneously as pins on a map. Easily visualize the distance between any of the addresses while still being able to see each of your pins and take in the big picture.

Data Analysis

Google Maps: Google offers no analysis of your data. Aside from determine exact driving distance from one point to another, you’re unable to draw any conclusions from entering addresses into Google Maps. Mapline: You can obtain a wealth of information from viewing your pins in Mapline by using our features such as sublayering, radial mapping and territories.

Sublayers

Use Mapline’s sublayers to group your pins according to customer segments, location types or other differentiators. The color coding of sublayering lets you quickly see patterns and trends in your data such as clusters or outliers. There is no equivalent feature in Google Maps.

Radial Mapping

There are two radial mapping options within Mapline: Areas Around Pins and Overlapping Radius Areas. The first allows you to view high-density pin clusters as well as high-value pins, based on data amounts included in your Excel spreadsheet. The second radial mapping choice gives you the option to set a distance for the radius and will present a heat map around each pin, showing you where pin radii overlap. There is no equivalent feature in Google Maps.

Territories

Mapline’s territories feature offers dozens of existing territories that you can overlay on your data. Choose from territories delineated by zip codes, area codes, DMAs and so much more to put your data in perspective and understand the story it is telling. Google Maps does show state boundary lines, but only in relation to distance between two or more addresses.

The Bottom Line

We highly recommend you continue using Google Maps to plan your trip to your vacation house, but for everything business related, Mapline is the clear winner for GIS maps.

Mapline Makes a Difference: The New Jersey Mock Election

Written on October 26, 2016. Posted in Blog.

We’ve been having some fun behind the scenes at Mapline this election season. We’ve teamed up with the New Jersey Center for Civic Education and the New Jersey Social Studies Supervisors Association to power maps for their mock election for students.

How the Mock Election Works

The mock election covers the presidential race, as well as New Jersey congressional seats and two “yes or no” issue questions: whether the state’s gasoline tax should be raised 23 cents per gallon to fund repairs and improvements to New Jersey’s roads and transportation infrastructure and whether term limits should be imposed for members of Congress. Educators simply determine their Congressional District and download the appropriate ballot for their students, who are then able to cast their votes either on paper or electronically. Voting opened October 10, and all results must be submitted by October 25.

Mapping the Results

After the votes are in, our Mapline team will power maps that will plot a variety of different data for students and educators. A total of 77 maps will be available as PDF downloads representing combinations of 4 overarching variables: candidate, issue, grade level and political region. Mapline’s territory heat map overlays will color code territories in order to differentiate voting patterns. In addition to the PDF maps, Mapline is also providing 4 aggregated maps to be embedded in the site that students and teachers can manipulate. These live, interactive maps will represent voting results across all grades by Congressional District. A map will be dedicated to each candidate and issue variable. Students and teachers can zoom in and out on these maps and can perform searches for specific cities or addresses to narrow down the data.

Increasing Civic Awareness

Students from grades 5-12 from more than 300 school districts in New Jersey are expected to participate in the mock election, generating a wealth of data on student political opinion. It’s a fantastic educational opportunity for teachers to show students firsthand how democracy works and to lead them in analyzing voting patterns across districts. We’re honored to be a part of such an endeavor, and can’t wait to see the results come in! Check out other ways Mapline can be used in the classroom and beyond.

Measure and Export Distance Between All Locations in Two Datasets

Written on October 19, 2016. Posted in Features and Training, Support.

Simple distance analysis

Mapline is making it a whole lot easier for you to find out exactly how far apart locations are. You can easily add two datasets to Mapline and then export the straight-line distance between all locations in both of these datasets. Once downloaded, the Excel spreadsheet will contain the 2 datasets that you chose. The first one is along the side as rows, while the second dataset goes along the top as columns. The distance between any two locations is shown where the column and row intersect.

Steps to measure and export the distance between all locations in two datasets

Open your map.
Click “Tools.”
Select “Distance Grid.”
Select the two datasets and your preferred units.
Click the “OK” button to export the distances between all locations in datasets (A) and (B).

Ready to discover how easy it is to map the distance between two locations. Click the button below to get started

EMBED A MAP ON YOUR WEBSITE

Written on October 10, 2016. Posted in Support.

Easy Steps to Embed a Map

Within seconds you can embed a map on a website with Mapline, and it’s just as easy as a YouTube video. Simply click Menu and select the Embed button. This will generate the code for you to paste into a webpage’s source code. Note that you will need to make your map public to embed a map. This simply means that anyone with the URL can access your map.

Embed a Map On Your Website with Mapline Mapping Software

When you insert a map on a website, you gain space to explain your map in more detail – how you gathered your data, where your map fits into a bigger vision, etc. You can also seek comments or feedback, which can be particularly useful when you are using a map for planning purposes. Gain input and insight from team members with different perspectives and use this when making important decision. You can also configure the map size for the best fit on your site and indicate whether you would like to show the left sidebar or not.

Steps to embed a map on a website

Open your map.
Click on the MENU button and select the “Embed” option.
Check the box indicating that you are aware that your map will be publicaly available
Copy and paste code shown on the box into your website

Mapline makes it that easy to embed a map on your website. Mapline makes it that easy to embed a map on a website. Sign up now to give it a try!

Measure Distance Between Map Locations

Written on October 4, 2016. Posted in Support.

Find all locations within a certain distance

You can easily create a more focused approach in targeting the right market. With Mapline, you can use distance analysis to understand what customers’ purchasing behaviors by seeing the distances locations are from one another. All it takes is a few clicks to analyze the connection of distances between map points. The results allow you to identify more growth opportunities.

Steps to find distances between locations

Open your map.
Click “Add.”
Select the type of shape you want to draw. (Polylines or Circles)
Draw polylines by clicking to make points on the shape. Draw circles by clicking and dragging.
Click “Style” to change the color and border of the shapes.
Click “Done.”
Now, click on your map to see either the straight line distance or the radius distance from a single point on your map.

Customize Map Labels with Images

Written on October 4, 2016. Posted in Blog.

Easily organize and distinguish pins on your map

Let your map tell your stories for you! Mapline enables you to upload images so you can create custom map labels. Easily add your company or customer logo and assign it to the appropriate locations. This is especially helpful when you have large data sets and it is hard to differentiate between all the different pins on your map. Sometimes colored pins aren’t enough to easily visualize your data with your team. By being able to upload your own images, you can easily distinguish between location sets when you plot pins on your map.

Steps to upload custom images for map pins

Open your map.
Click the pin icon in the left sidebar next to your dataset name.
Select the “Custom Image” tab.
Click “Upload.”
Select the image you would like to upload. It can be any .JPEG or .PNG file.
Once uploaded, click the same image to use as the marker.
Choose the icon size.
Click the “OK” button.

That’s how easy it is to add custom labels to maps. Sign up now to give it a try!

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