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Map Maker

Map Maker
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Create an interactive map in minutes


1. file download icon Download Download StatPlanet Map Maker and extract the files to your computer.
2. folder open icon Open In the folder 'World_Map', open StatPlanet_data_editor. Make sure macros are enabled. Press the 'Clear data' button to remove the example data.
3. database import icon Import Press the Import data button and select a file containing data you wish to import. You can also add data manually using any spreadsheet software.
4. save icon Save Press the 'Save data' button. This saves the data to the file data.csv.
5. world icon View Click on StatPlanet.exe Flash Icon to view the results.
6. publishing icon Publish Copy the contents of the folder 'Web' to your website to publish it online.


See also:


Loading shapesfiles (SHP) in StatPlanet
Designing your own maps using Adobe Flash
Examples of interactive maps created with StatPlanet

For a shorter video, see Create an interactive map in 60 seconds


Contents of StatPlanet_Map_Maker.zip:


Publish your data visualizations online:

To publish StatPlanet Map Maker online, all you need to do is to upload the contents of the folder Web to the website (web-server). This folder contains the following files:


Enable macros in Excel:

When you open StatPlanet_Data_Editor.xls you will normally get a message asking you whether you wish to enable macros. The message depends on the version of Excel.

If you do not receive this message, the macro security level in Excel is set to high. Follow the instructions below to change the security level to a lower setting.

See also these Excel help pages for Excel 2007 or Excel 2003.


User Guide - Table of Contents


StatPlanet_data_editor.xls: Excel worksheets

Excel worksheets


StatPlanet_data_editor.xls: Main screen

StatPlanet Data Editor

 

A: Importing data

Using the included StatPlanet Data Editor, it is possible to import data automatically (see also adding data manually). The Data Editor is Excel-based, so data can be imported from many different file formats (including CSV, TXT, XLS, XLSX, DBF and HTML).

The Data Editor automatically recognizes the structure of the data in the file being imported. It also recognizes the vast majority of the many possible variations of country names. The import should therefore go smoothly in most cases without having to make any changes to the data file.

The Data Editor uses the names in the Excel sheet ‘Country names’ and looks for corresponding names and statistics in the data file (in the world map version, this sheet contains country names, but it can also contain for example region names or district names, depending on the map used). The Data Editor automatically restructures the data in the format that is accepted by StatPlanet.

A criterion for the import to be successful is that any country name only appears once in the data file being imported. Also note that StatPlanet sees a "dot" as the decimal separator.

Importing HTML or PDF files

Headers not recognized

Headers (or variables) in the data file which are not recognized are displayed once the import is complete. For example, if in your data file the country ‘Afghanistan’ is indicated with the abbreviation ‘Afg', this abbreviation will not be recognized by the data editor. To fix the problem, go to the Excel sheet 'Country names' and add ‘Afg’ in an empty cell below the corresponding country - ‘Afghanistan'. You can use the same approach for other headers in your data set so that the import macro can correctly identify them. Then, run the import macro again to import the data correctly.

Note that the import macro removes spaces in country names and converts special characters (e.g. "é") into regular characters (e.g. "e") during the import. This allows for a wider range of country name spellings to be detected. Whether country names use upper or lowercase does not matter. The data import macro recognizes English and French country name spellings and a number of variations of these spellings. Automatic data importing has been successfully tested with many different sources of data with different data structures and country name variations, including the CIA Factbook, Ethnologue, IMF, ITU, Nation Master, OECD, UBS, UIS, UNAIDS, UNDP, UNESCO, UNICEF, UNSTATS, WHO and the World Bank.

The Data Editor is registered as an open source project on SourceForge and any contributions or improvements you make to the software are very welcome. (For more information, contact Frank van Cappelle:

B: Troubleshooting

The following issues can cause the import to fail:

  1. Spelling of country names: If the spelling of any of the country names cannot be identified, the data for these countries will not be imported. See the text above to solve this problem.

  2. Merged cells: Most commonly the merged cells are 'headers' For example, two columns or rows of data may have the same header (e.g. "Life Expectancy"). To fix this problem, split the merged cells (Right click -> Format Cells -> uncheck the box 'Merge cells'). One of the two cells will now be empty, leaving one of the columns (or rows) without a header. To fix this, copy and paste the header into the empty cell as shown below.

    Life Expectancy
    2000
    2005
    76
    76
    59
    62
    ->
    Life Expectancy
    Life Expectancy
    2000
    2005
    76
    76
    59
    62

  3. Country names appear more than once: If country names appear more than once in your data file, the import macro will only import the data associated with the first one. The easiest way to fix this problem is to create separate files for each list of country names, and import them one by one.

  4. No year indicated in the data file, or cannot be detected:
    All indicators are arranged according to year. You need to add the year to your data set as the header of a row or column (depending on how your data is structured). Alternatively, you can import the data and add the year afterwards. The data needs to be structured as follows (see for example the structure of the sample data in StatPlanet_data_editor.xls):

C: Decimal point

StatPlanet reads a "dot" as decimal separator (for example 0.75), and a "comma" as a thousands separator (for example 1,000). This Wikipedia article on decimal points explains the notational system used in different countries.

D: Optional parameters

E: Custom maps (e.g. province / state / region maps)

StatPlanet Map Maker comes with a map template for importing your own map. This requires Adobe Flash CS3 or later. For more information, see importing your own map into StatPlanet.

See below if you wish to add a few territories using the included world map.

Adding territories (or other categories of data) to the world map version:

You can include new territories (or other data categories, such as averages) in the world map version of StatPlanet Map Maker, which will appear in the 'graph window'. This can be done as follows:

  1. Open StatPlanet_data_editor.xls and in the worksheet "Import" go all the way to the last country at the end of row 2.
  2. In the empty cells in row 2, add the names of your new data types (for example “Sub-Saharan Africa”).
  3. Press the button Save data. The names of your new data types have now been added.

You may also wish to download StatPlanet Graph Maker to visualize other kinds of data.

F: Custom regions
You can add, remove or change the region names in the worksheet ‘Data’. To define which countries are in your custom region, add the ISO3 codes for those countries in the same row as your region. You can also define the region coordinates and zoom level so that the map will zoom into the region you have defined. In StatPlanet you can get the map coordinates and zoom level by moving the mouse to the bottom-right corner of the screen (so the zoom controls appear). The map coordinates and zoom level will be shown in the bottom of the screen.

If you are using a custom map (see above), you can define regions in your map in the same way. In this case, use the codes (names) which identify the different territories in your map.

G: Adding data manually / without macros
You can also edit the data file directly (for example, if you are using software other than Excel). Open the file data.csv and add or copy your data below the header “GLOBAL” i.e. from row 16 onwards.

If the software you are using can open Excel files (e.g. Open Office), it may be easier to add your data through the file StatPlanet_data_editor.xls, inside the worksheet ‘data’. This worksheet has been formatted for easy editing.

When you are done, save the data as a 'Comma seperated' txt file and replace the file data.csv.

H: Changing settings and appearance
Go to the worksheet ‘Settings’ to customize StatPlanet, such as the appearance of the map. It may be useful to first try out various settings ‘live’ in StatPlanet (for example, see the ‘Appearance’ tab in the StatPlanet “Options” window).

After making any changes to the settings (in StatPlanet_data_editor.xls), press the button Save Settings.

I: Translation
Besides English, StatPlanet is available in French, Spanish, German, Bahasa Indonesia and Dutch. You can use any of these translations or create your own translation in the worksheet ‘Text-Translation’. Click the corresponding save button to save the translation you wish to use.

The Bahasa translation has been kindly made available by the Indonesian Government.