1. MapInfo Pro Tips and Tricks

2. Agenda MapInfo Pro Tips and Tricks Use a Query to control the Display Order of Objects. Set Default Friendly Names for your tables. Dynamic Text for your Layout Designer. Create your own keyboard shortcuts with the Command Editor tool.

3. How to control the Display order of objects within a table This tip applies to all versions of MapInfo Pro

4. Controlling the display order of map objects A MapInfo table does not provide control over the display order of map objects. But … a query made from a MapInfo table is drawn in the order that the data appears in the query. A requirement for this technique is a way to sort your data in the order you want it to be drawn. The example on the right is a dataset of driving regions that overlap. Before sortingAfter sorting MapInfo Pro Tips and Tricks

5. Default Friendly Names This tip applies to versions 15.0 and 15.2

6. Add a default Friendly Name to your table A friendly name can be stored so that it is used when the table is opened. To do this, open the TAB file in a text editor and add the desired friendly name. Below is an example. !table !version 300 !charset WindowsLatin1 Definition Table Type NATIVE Charset "WindowsLatin1" Fields 3 Name Char (6) Index 1 ; Degrees Integer ; Lat_Long Char (4) ; ReadOnly Description "World Grid 15 degrees" begin_metadata "\IsReadOnly" = "FALSE" "\Quality" = "" "\Quality\Lineage" = "" Be sure this is above the begin_metadata section, if there is one. MapInfo Pro Tips and Tricks

7. Add a default Friendly Name to your table Additional detail: If a friendly name has been saved in a workspace, it will take precedence over a name stored in the TAB file. If a table has a friendly name, it is possible to change it (or remove it) in Layer Control. Friendly names are different to and separate from Alias table names. –Allow for longer names and can use most ASCII characters. An alternative method to create a friendly name is to use the MapBasic window. Here is an example: –The new name does not take effect right away, if the table already has a friendly name. Set table your_table Description “your friendly name” MapInfo Pro Tips and Tricks

8. Dynamic text for your Layout Designer This tip is shown using the Layout Designer but a similar technique will work on the old Layout window.

9. Add Dynamic Text to your Layout Designer windows The EASY WAY The basic principle is that a label expression can contain a MapBasic function. You don't have to know too much about this to take advantage of the technique. 1)Download the following table and workspace from our Community Download site. 2)Use the Add Workspace command to open the dynamic text elements. 3)Copy and paste the different dynamic text elements to your own Layouts as needed. If you wish to understand how this works and to perhaps do more with this technique, the following will explain it more thoroughly. MapInfo Pro Tips and Tricks

10. Add Dynamic Text to your Layout Designer windows The Details: It is possible to add dynamic text to your Layout Designer windows. The text will be created at the time the Layout is created. To do this, a table is created that is used to contain your text. The text is a label expression. Label expressions can contain functions and the functions are evaluated at the time that the Map and the Layout Designer are created. You can download the table and workspace used to create the dynamic text from the Community Download site MapInfo Pro Tips and Tricks

11. Add Dynamic Text to your Layout Designer windows Part 1: First piece of dynamic text 1.You need a table whose sole purpose is to be used to generate dynamic text. Create and name this table "DynamicText". 2.Put one point object in this table. Set the style of this to N. 3.Make sure no other tables are open. 4.Start a new Layout Designer window a) Add a map containing DynamicText. b) Change the label expression for this layer to CurrentDate() c) Set the font and font size as desired. d) Resize the frame tightly around the text and remove the border, if desired. 5.Save a workspace, name it Dynamic Text or something similar. The point object is not going to be seen. It is only needed so we have a place for a label expression. You can also get the table used in this example from the Community Downloads site. MapInfo Pro Tips and Tricks

12. Add Dynamic Text to your Layout Designer windows Part 2: Add more pieces of dynamic text 1.Copy and paste the frame containing your first piece of dynamic text. 2.Move the new frame to a different location on your layout. 3.Change the Label expression, for example to Curtime() 4.Adjust the size of the frame around the text if needed. You can repeat the above for additional pieces of dynamic text. The same table can be used. You need a different map for each label expression. Copying and pasting in the Layout Designer is supported in v15.2. If you are using 12.5 or v15.0, you will need to add the map as a new frame and adjust it as needed. Copying and pasting in the Layout Designer is supported in v15.2. If you are using 12.5 or v15.0, you will need to add the map as a new frame and adjust it as needed. Pitney Bowes | MapInfo Pro Tips and Tricks | MapInfo Pro Tips and Tricks

13. Add Dynamic Text to your Layout Designer windows MapInfo Pro Tips and Tricks Example label expressions ExpressionExample ResultComment CurDate()05/09/2015 Formatted according to your system locale. Format functions are available to control this. CurTime()08:18:22 Format functions are available to control this. Str$(Year(CurDate()))2015 The string function is needed or else a number is returned with numeric formatting. "© "+ Year(CurDate()) + " Pitney Bowes) © 2015 Pitney BowesNote the spaces in the expression.

14. Add Dynamic Text to your Layout Designer windows MapInfo Pro Tips and Tricks Example label expressions (continued) ExpressionExample ResultComment "Dataset: "+TableInfo(1, 1) "Dataset: World_boundaries" This is the first table that was opened in the session. It is the alias, not the "friendly name". The friendly name can be obtained using the LayerInfo() function. The first parameter is the number of the table that was opened. "1" means the first table. If you have a consistent structure in your workspaces and the table of interest is always opened at a particular point in the workspace then you can use TableInfo() to get the name. For example TableInfo(2,1) will return the name of the second table that was opened. The first parameter is the number of the table that was opened. "1" means the first table. If you have a consistent structure in your workspaces and the table of interest is always opened at a particular point in the workspace then you can use TableInfo() to get the name. For example TableInfo(2,1) will return the name of the second table that was opened.

15. Add Dynamic Text to your Layout Designer windows MapInfo Pro Tips and Tricks Example label expressions (continued) There are additional possibilities if you have a consistent workspace structure and can identify the map window you are working with. The WindowID() function is used to specify a window. Knowing this, there is a lot of info you can get about your maps and data. Here is how to dynamically add the Projection to your Layout assuming the first window opened is a Map window and this is the projection info you need. ExpressionExample ResultComment MapperInfo(WindowID(1),18) Popular Visualization CRS The projection used in the first window opened. The first parameter is the number of the map window you want information from. A "1" indicates the first map window opened. The second parameter (18) indicates that the function will return the projection description.

16. Add Dynamic Text to your Layout Designer windows MapInfo Pro Tips and Tricks Example label expressions (continued) There are additional possibilities if you have a consistent workspace structure. If a particularly important table is always opened in the same sequence you can get lots of information about that table. In the following example, the location and number of rows are obtained about the first table that was opened. ExpressionExample ResultComment "Number of rows: " + TableInfo(1,8) Number of rows: 4008 Returns the number of rows in the first table opened. PathToDirectory$(TableInfo (1,19)) C:\Data\Maps\Worldmap. Tab" Using TableInfo() depends upon knowing beforehand the order in which the table of interest has been opened. Given a full file name and path, the PathToDirectory$() function returns the file path without the file name. The TableInfo() function in this case is supplying a full name and path.

17. Add Dynamic Text to your Layout Designer windows To learn more about the MapBasic functions used in this tip, consult the MapBasic Reference Guide. It is installed with your software (look in the Documentation folder) and available for download from our web site. MapInfo Pro Tips and Tricks

18. Set up your own Keyboard Shortcuts This tip requires the 64 bit v12.5.3 or later.

19. Use the Command Editor tool to set up your own keyboard shortcuts MapInfo Pro Tips and Tricks The command editor first appeared in the v12.5.3 patch release. On the Home tab, click on the Tools button and load the Command Editor.

20. Use the Command Editor tool to set up your own keyboard shortcuts Press the Update button to save your changes. Requires MapInfo Pro to be restarted. If you attempt to use an existing shortcut, it will be highlighted in red. If you make a mistake you can use the Restore to Defaults button. For more info, an article on the Command Editor appeared in the July 2015 issue of "The MapInfo Pro" journal.July 2015

21. Bonus tips Oldies but goodies! More than we have time for!

22. Tip #1: Open Excel or Text files for immediate editing When opening Excel or Text data (delimited ASCII or CSV file), there is an option to create a native copy of the data while you are opening it. MapInfo Pro Tips and Tricks

23. Tip #2: Recover "lost" windows If you have ever had the Info tool window or some other window go missing, it is possibly because they have been opened up off of your screen. This could happen due to the window position being set in a workspace. To recover your windows: 32 bit versions: Window > Recover Off Screen Windows (requires v11.5 or later) 64 bit versions: Home tab > Window gallery > Recover Off Screen Windows If you have an earlier version of MI Pro, this article from the MI Pro Journal explains an alternative method. Click herehere MapInfo Pro Tips and Tricks

24. Tip #3: Improve your map appearance with Stacked Styles This option is found in the Layer Properties >Layer Display tab (32 bit releases) and in the Style tab (64 bit interface). A full article is herehere MapInfo Pro Tips and Tricks

25. Tip #4 : Suspend map redraws to work faster! You can suspend map redraws and make multiple changes at once. 64 bit version – look in the Map tab (Options group). 32 bit interface – click the Suspend button in Layer control An additional related tip is in this articlearticle MapInfo Pro Tips and Tricks

26. Tip #5: Setting a default Find symbol If you don't like the default symbol used by the Query > Find command you can change it. 32 bit versions Options > Preferences > Styles… 64 bit versions The Styles preferences are in the Backstage area MapInfo Pro Tips and Tricks

27. Tip #6: Set a default column display for a Table In the Pick Fields dialog box… If you do not need to see all of your columns, use the Save As Default Browser View option. Not a permanent change to your table. Columns are hidden, not removed. MapInfo Pro Tips and Tricks

28. Tip #7: Middle mouse button is the Pan tool. In the 64 bit releases of MapInfo Pro, the middle mouse button (which may be the mouse wheel) provides quick access to the Pan (grabber) tool. This tip is for those using the 64 bit releases of MapInfo Pro.

29. Resources!

30. Pitney Bowes Location Intelligence MapInfo Pro MapInfo Pro Tips and Tricks

31. MapInfo Resources Product Support Education & Training User Groups & Forums Case Studies MapInfo Pro Tips and Tricks

32. Subscribe to The MapInfo Pro Monthly Journal!! Tips, tricks, techniques and advice for MapInfo Pro Users Easy tips Advanced tips The Query Ninja Developer Dojo Rummaging in the Toolbox Get on the Grid http://web.pb.com/mapinfopro-archive/ MapInfo Pro Tips and Tricks

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34. MapInfo YouTube Channel www.youtube.com/mapinfo MapInfo Pro Tips and Tricks

35. Follow us on Twitter! Keep in Touch Learn More http://www.twitter.com/mapinfo MapInfo Pro Tips and Tricks

36. Try MapInfo Stratus free for 60 days UK & Ireland: http://slp.pbinsight.com/info/stratus-uk-evaluationhttp://slp.pbinsight.com/info/stratus-uk-evaluation French: http://slp.pbinsight.com/info/stratus-fr-evaluationhttp://slp.pbinsight.com/info/stratus-fr-evaluation German: http://slp.pbinsight.com/info/stratus-de-evaluationhttp://slp.pbinsight.com/info/stratus-de-evaluation Finnish: http://slp.pbinsight.com/info/stratus-fi-evaluationhttp://slp.pbinsight.com/info/stratus-fi-evaluation Swedish: http://slp.pbinsight.com/info/stratus-se-evaluationhttp://slp.pbinsight.com/info/stratus-se-evaluation Danish: http://web.pb.com/stratus-dk-evaluationhttp://web.pb.com/stratus-dk-evaluation MapInfo Pro Tips and Tricks

37. Community site for tools and utilities http://communitydownloads.pbinsight.com Download MapBasic and other tools and utilities. Direct link from MapInfo Pro! MapInfo Pro Tips and Tricks

38. Five super useful utilities … MapInfo2Excel – export from MI Pro to Excel. Click here (32 bit) or here (64 bit)here Turbocharged MapBasic Development: MapBasic IDE. Click herehere Mask – create a translucent mask for your maps. Click herehere Data Driven Pages – batch print/export of maps. Click herehere Search and replace – a fast search and replace tool. Click herehere

39. Five useful white papers Focusing in on Spatial Precision: Click here.here Options and implications for improving the precision of your data. A Golden Opportunity: Truly Integrated 3D GIS. Click here.here Illustrating the efficiencies in integrating data, GIS and GIM. Hot Spot Mapping: Click here.here Using Location Intelligence to reduce crime. The ROI of Data Quality: Click here.here A fresh look at the value and necessity of improved data quality. Business Strength Geocoding: Click here.here Ten requirements for more cost-efficient and effective business decisions. MapInfo Pro Tips and Tricks

40. Thank you! Tom.probert@pb.com MapInfo Pro Tips and Tricks