Oct 30, 2015
If you are using Office 365 Pro Plus or Excel 2013, you can take advantage of Power Map for Excel. Power Map is a three-dimensional (3-D) data visualisation tool that lets you look at information in new ways by using geographic and time-based data. You can discover insights that you might not see in traditional two-dimensional (2-D) tables and charts. Power Map is built into Office 365 Pro Plus, but you will need to download a preview version to use it with Office 2013 or Excel 2013.
With Power Map, you can plot geographic and temporal data on a 3-D globe or custom map, show it over time, and create visual tours you can share with other people. You’ll want to use Power Map to:
- Map data Plot more than a million rows of data visually on Bing maps in 3-D format from an Excel table or Data Model in Excel.
- Discover insights Gain new understandings by viewing your data in geographic space and seeing time-stamped data change over time.
- Share stories Capture screenshots and build cinematic, guided video tours you can share broadly, engaging audiences like never before. Or export tours to video and share them that way as well.
You will find the Map button in the Tours group on the Insert tab of the Excel ribbon, as shown in this picture.
Create your first Power Map
When you have Excel data that has geographic properties in table format or in a Data Model—for example, rows and columns that have names of cities, states, counties, zip codes, countries/regions, or longitudes and latitudes—you’re ready to get started. Here’s how:
- In Excel, open a workbook that has the table or Data Model data you want to explore in Power Map.
- Click any cell in the table.
- Click Insert > Map. Clicking Map for the first time automatically enables Power Map.
Power Map uses Bing to geocode your data based on its geographic properties. After a few seconds, the globe will appear next to the first screen of the Layer Pane.
- In the Layer Pane, verify that fields are mapped correctly and click the drop-down arrow of any incorrectly mapped fields to match them to the right geographic properties.
- When Power Map plots the data, dots appear on the globe.
- Click Next to start aggregating and further visualising your data on the map.
For example, make sure that Zip Code is recognized as Zip in the drop-down box.
For more information, have a look at New Horizons' Excel 2013 training.
How do your Excel skills stack up?
Test NowNext up:
- Creating a simple Website and User Interface with MVC (Part 3)
- Microsoft Word: Make an Exclusion Dictionary
- The Power of the Paragraph
- What’s new in Skype for Business
- Decorate Your Office
- Drag and Drop
- I wasn't meant to send that!
- Is your ‘Human Capital’ stock going up or down?
- Customise the navigation drop-down in SharePoint
- From Rivals to Friends … The rise of a new behemoth – The Red Microsoft Hat.
Previously
- What’s new in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015?
- What they don’t tell you about becoming a manager
- On the Checkout Option in SharePoint
- Selecting Layers in a Visio Flowchart Diagram
- What is new in Office 2016
- Absolute Cell References use in Formulas
- Speak well under pressure
- The awesomeness that is AngularJS – Part 2
- Create Scenarios in Excel using cell names
- Creating a simple Website and User Interface with MVC – Part 2