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Ancestry Daily News
6/26/2001 - Archive
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Rootsworks: Spreadsheets—Mapping |
Rootsworks: Spreadsheets—Mapping
A map is a special picture that tells us about places—places where
our ancestors were born, raised, married, worked, died, and were buried. So
how do we get a map?
Set It Up
There are many options that a person might choose when installing Microsoft
Office. Overlooking the mapping features in Excel doesn't rank in the top four
oversights I commit each week. Anyhow, if you didn't set it up, you'll need
your Office CD to fix that.
Tool Bar Setup
Before you can make a map, you will want to have a little blue icon of a globe
on your toolbar. If you already have one, you can jump down to the execution
part of the article. Otherwise, to find the blue globe, use this menu sequence:
View, Toolbars, Customize. Then click on the Commands Tab, and then on Insert.
Scroll down through the categories until you see the blue globe, labeled "map."
Drag the globe and drop it onto one of your toolbars.
If you couldn't find it in the menu sequence, you need to install it. If by
now you've put it on your toolbar, you're set. Skip down to Execution.
Install
Perhaps you have lived an otherwise virtuous and meaningful life, but you somehow
managed to install MS Office without installing the mapping features for Excel.
Don't despair. This is something that a lot of good people go through and you
can make it, too. First, put your Office CD in and run setup from it. When you
see "Office Setup" choose Add or Remove Features, then drill down to MS Excel
and finally to Microsoft Map. Let 'er rip and you'll be ready for execution
in a few minutes.
Execution
I remember John McKay, the great football coach at USC, who was also the first
coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They were one of the worst teams in the history
of the game. After one typically futile game, a reporter asked the coach, "What
do you think of your team's execution?" His reply, "I'm in favor of it." I'm
in favor of making maps with Excel, kind of like "Excelecution." You can only
make maps of the United States by state or by zip code—that's all the geographical
intelligence that you're going to get. Okay, there are other maps, but not for
the United States.
Making a map is the easiest part.
Select the data you want to map (either states or zip codes)—I click on
the column header to get it all with one click.
Click on the Map Icon you
just installed—it looks like a globe.
Draw a rectangular area for the map on your worksheet (I recommend using
empty cells—they're great for this!) by positioning the mouse where you want
the upper left corner to be, clicking once, and dragging the area to the lower
right corner. Then let go it it. Voila!
Getting Fancy
I often stop right there, but you can alter the defaults in two ways: you can
change the map and you can change the legend.
The default map type is Value Shading, where it makes the states different colors.
But you can also get Density Dots, where it draws a dot in the center of the
state or the zip code area for each entry. The third type is Graduated Symbol
(my favorite), where it makes a bigger or smaller symbol based on the number
of entries in an area.
You may find that this is the easiest way to get your own legend. You'll definitely
find that this is the easiest way to Change Your Legend. The two ways that you
can do that are by changing the Groupings (do you want the same number in each
group, or the groups to be the same size?) and Colors.
Genealogy Tie-In
This is probably one area where genealogists don't need much encouragement.
Migration Maps show how a family moved around over time. Life lines show the
locations of the key events in an individual's life. You can also learn, as
I did, just how Southern you are.
Link Me Up(more stars is better)
**Excel 97 Proficient User Course Mappings
(Propoint Inc, Propoint Inc, publication date not known, 27 May 2001) www.propoint.com
An outline of various skill proficiencies that one might find useful.
** MapLand: Spreadsheet Mapping Software for Microsoft® Excel
(Software Illustrated, Software Illustrated, unknown, 27 May 2001)
www.softill.com/home.html
An add-on mapping program with more maps.
***(Annoyances, Excel 97)
Data Meets Geography in the Excel 97 Mapping Feature
(Prime Consulting, Prime Consulting, unknown, 27 May 2001)
www.primeconsulting.com/faqs/faq0050.html
A detailed description of the product, right after it first came out.
**** Creating Simple Maps with MS Excel
(Caitlin Dempsey, about.com, 2001, 27 May 2001)
gis.about.com/science/gis/library/weekly/aa100400a.htm
Step-by-step instructions for making a map.
**** The Excel Logic Page
(Xlogic, Aaron Blood, unknown, 27 May 2001)
geocities.com/aaronblood/pages/menu.html
A number of charting examples--more than you can shake a stick at.
This is an advanced page.
**** Beau Sharbrough's Genealogy Articles
(Beau Sharbrough, Beau Sharbrough, 28 May 2001, 3 June 2001)
www.sharbrough.net/genealogy/genarticles.htm
Specific examples demonstrating the concepts in this series of articles.
What Else?
Just one last thought—get creative with this option: You can "zoom" the map
in the area you chose, so that you only show a portion of the United States.
It's like looking through a window when an elephant walks by—you won't see
the whole thing. With a little luck and a lot of experiments, you will be able
to give your friends and relatives a look at your heritage that they've never
seen before.
Beau Sharbrough is the president of GENTECH, the founder of the GENTECH and
FGS Web sites, and a founder of the Lexicon Working Group. He would like to
hear from you at beau@sharbrough.net,
but due to the volume of e-mail received, he is unable to answer every e-mail
message received. Please note that he cannot assist you with your individual
computer problems. Visit Beau's Web site (www.sharbrough.net/)
for information about speaking engagements. Beau is the father of two college-age
girls and is a proud graduate of Texas A&M University.
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