StatPlanet has a wide range of features to cater to the requirements of different target audiences. It also comes with a set of tools which enable developers to (i) create interactive maps very efficiently, and (ii) customize them extensively. StatPlanet can be used to create anything from basic interactive maps to advanced infographics. • Features for users • Features for developers • StatPlanet components |
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Choose your visualization Easily switch between different types of visualisations with the click of a button. Data can be viewed as maps, bar charts, line graphs and scatter plots. |
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Select countries Select countries by clicking on them in the world map or country selection window. Statistics and details for the country selected are displayed inside popups and visualization components. |
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Animate changes over time Maps, bar charts and scatter plots can all be animated over time. |
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Zoom into map regions Select map regions such as Europe or Africa, or define your own custom region. Maps and visualizations will narrow down to the selected region and provide additional details. |
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Hide or reveal details Change the level of detail by hiding or revealing interface components, country names or statistics. |
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Customize |
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Export Export maps for use in other applications or publications. |
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Automatically import data Automatically import data using the Excel-based data editor to create new maps and visualizations within minutes. |
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Insert or design your own maps Use the included maps, load ESRI shapefile maps, or custom design your maps in Adobe Flash using the included map template. |
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Create different map types StatPlanet can used to create quantitative, qualitative and proportional symbol maps. |
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Customize the appearance Completely customize the appearance of StatPlanet by selecting the interface components you wish to include, the map details to be displayed, as well as the colors of the interface, maps and graphs. |
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Customize the experience There are numerous options to customize the experience users will have when using StatPlanet. For example, one can add mouse-over indicator descriptions, country popups displaying country-specific details, customized map regions, and automatic shifting to different map regions depending on the indicator selected. |
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Thematic map: (see also the Wikipedia article Thematic map)
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Choropleth Map This is the main thematic map type in StatPlanet. The map legend shows which map colors are associated with each data range (for example, higher values may be shaded in increasingly darker colors). Both the map colors and the data range can be customized. In version 2.1, the possibility of creating qualitative or descriptive maps was introduced. These types of maps convey non-numerical information, such as which languages are spoken in different regions. |
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Proportional Symbol Map A proportional symbol map scales symbols (usually circles) according to the indicator being mapped. In Statplanet the symbol can represent either a country or a region within a country. To create one, click the 'proportional symbol map' button in the bottom-left corner of the screen. The proportional symbol map is overlaid on top of the choropleth map. If you have bookmarked an indicator, the symbol map represents the data for the bookmarked indicator, whereas the choropleth map represents the data for the selected indicator. (If the bookmarked indicator is currently selected, both the symbol map and the choropleth map represent the bookmarked indicator). |
Select country on the world map
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Map legend
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Custom maps (national / regional / state maps etc.) You can use StatPlanet Map Maker to insert your own maps, using the included map template (map.fla). This requires the Adobe Flash software. See also: importing your own map into StatPlanet. |
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Save / export map You can find the save map button in the bottom-left corner of the screen. To change the image type, size or quality, use the options window. This feature is only available in the online version. However, it is possible to save an image of a map produced with your own data if you download StatPlanet Map Maker. You need to open StatPlanet in the directory 'Offline', click the icon shown on the left, and then follow the on-screen instructions. Please include a reference to StatPlanet when publishing the image. |
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Map navigation controls The map navigation controls are normally hidden from view. Move the mouse towards the bottom-right of the screen to make them appear.
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Graph window:
Bar chart | |
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Click the 'graph' button in the bottom-left corner of the screen to open or close the Graph window. You will find the same graph button in the graph window. Use this button to switch between horizontal and vertical bar charts. Use the "sort" button to sort the graph from lowest to highest, highest to lowest, highest to lowest starting in the middle, or alphabetically. |
Time series (line graphs) | |
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In the Graph window (see "Bar chart" above) you will find the time series button. When you click on this button, a list of countries appears which you can add to the time series graph. Click on a country to add it to the graph, and click on it again if you wish to to remove it. (See also Country selection window) Use the "sort" button to sort the time series labels. |
Scatter Plot | |
In the top left of the Graph window (see "Bar chart" above) you will find the scatter plot button. Clicking on the button will automatically use the selected indicator as the x-axis variable. You need to select a second indicator as the y-axis variable. Indicators can be selected either from the Indicator window, or in the graph window (see below). Use the drop-down menu in the top of the graph window to change the scale of the 'bubbles' according to a selected indicator. Note: the x-axis and y-axis indicators are shown in seperate windows to the left of the graph window. The y-axis indicator is shown in Indicator window, and the x-axis indicator in the Bookmarked window right below. |
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Select x-axis / y-axis indicator |
Adjust graph size | |
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To change the graph size, move the mouse to the sides or corners of the graph window until you see the cursor change to look like the one shown on the left. Click and hold down the left mouse button, then drag the window to the size you want . Release the mouse button once you have the right size. |
Adjust graph scale You can adjust the graph scale by selecting and editing the values. The graph updates as you type. |
Indicators window:
Select category |
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Use the drop-down menu in the top of the indicators window to select a new category (online version only). |
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Select region Use the drop-down menu in the top of the indicators window to select and zoom into a different region, such as 'Africa' or 'Europe'. It is also possible to select countries to define a custom region. |
Indicator bars | |
The bars are scaled in proportion to the maximum value of that particular indicator for all countries in the selected region. For example, if the value for country X is 20 and the maximum value for all countries is 100, the bar will be scaled at 20%. You can also scale the bars as a percentile by selecting 'Percentile' as the Visualization type in the options window. | |
Bookmark indicator | |
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Click the 'star' button in the indicators window to bookmark the selected indicator. The bookmarked indicator will stay even when you switch to another category. This allows you to (i) create scatter plot graphs, (ii) compare the bookmarked indicator with indicators from other categories, and (iii) compare two indicators through the choropleth map (representing the selected indicator) and the proportional symbol map (representing the bookmarked indicator). |
Indicator definitions If a definition exists for an indicator, the definition will appear in a popup when moving the mouse over the indicator. The definition only shows for the indicator which is selected or bookmarked. |
Countries can selected in various ways. An efficient way of finding and selecting a country is through the country selection window, as explained below. However, a country can also be selected by clicking on it in the world map, in the data table window, or in the bar chart or scatter plot graph. In each case the country will be highlighted in all of these StatPlanet components.
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To open the country selection window, click the 'select' button in the bottom-left corner of the screen. A list of countries will appear according to the region selected. Click to select the countries you wish to show on the map or in the graph window. To narrow down the list of countries, select a region from the drop-down menu in the indicators window. You can also press the first letter of a country name to quickly jump to a country in the list. |
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Select countries to create a custom region Press this button to create a custom region of the countries in your selection. Note: for the time series graph, there is no need to press this button as the countries will appear in the graph window as soon as you click on them. |
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Clear selection |
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Remove countries To remove countries, select the countries you wish to remove and press this button. |
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Click the 'table' button in the bottom-left corner of the screen to get a data table of the selected indicator. If an indicator has been bookmarked, the data for both the bookmarked and selected indicator will be displayed. The table also shows the mean, standard deviation and range. |
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Online version: Save / Export table You can save the table as a .CSV file which can be opened by most spreadsheets (such as Excel). You can find the save table button in the top-right corner of the table window. |
Offline version: Copy table |
Use the slider or click on the arrow buttons to change the year. Click on the play button to show changes over time as an animation, starting from the beginning. The animation speed can be set in the Options window (under the General tab). The 'play' button changes to a 'stop' button once the animation is running. You can press this button to stop the animation at any time.
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Click the 'options' button in the bottom-left corner of the screen to open the options window. |
Map:
Graph:
General options:
Save/export map: (online version only)
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Move the mouse over the 'View' button to see various options for showing or hiding StatPlanet map and graph elements and windows. | |
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Resize windows:
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Shrink / enlarge windows Use the buttons shown on the left to shrink or enlarge the StatPlanet windows. This may be useful for space management when you have several windows open at the same time, or to focus in on certain areas. |
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Minimize / maximize windows Use these buttons to minimize or maximize the windows. The indicators window has a special minimized state in which indicators can still be selected. |
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Adjust graph window size Drag and drop the graph window borders to adjust the size. Read more. |
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Fullscreen Click on this button in the bottom-left of the screen to either switch to fullscreen mode, or go back to normal window mode. |
Additional notes:
- When switching categories, StatPlanet will remember which year was selected and check if data exists for this year in the new category. If there is no data for this year, it will select the year closest to the previously selected year for which data is available in the new category.
- When switching from the world map to a regional map or vice versa, StatPlanet will check if the same category and indicator exist in the data set for this new map. If it cannot be found, the first category/indicator in the data set will be selected.