Map Maker

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Create an interactive map in minutes

1.		Download	Download StatPlanet Map Maker and extract the files to your computer.
2.		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.		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	Press the 'Save data' button. This saves the data to the file data.csv.
5.		View	Click on StatPlanet.exe to view the results.
6.		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

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Contents of StatPlanet_Map_Maker.zip:

• Docs
  - User Manual (User_Manual_StatPlanet.pdf)
  - StatPlanet Map Maker Software License (License_Terms.pdf)
  
  
• World_Map
  - Create interactive maps using the included World Map.
  
  
• USA_Map
  - Create interactive maps using the included USA Map.
  
  
• Custom_Map
  - Design or import a map using the map template (map.fla).
  (requires Adobe Flash CS3 or higher)
  - Includes an example map (map_example.fla), a province map of Kenya.

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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:

• StatPlanet.html   (the webpage which displays your interactive map)
• StatPlanet.swf   (file which shows loading progress)
• content.swf   (the actual software)
• data.csv    (the data)
• AC_RunActiveContent.js  (required to run Flash content)

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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.

• Excel 2007 or newer: In the top of the screen, next to 'Security Warning', click the button 'Options'. Select 'Enable this content' and click on 'OK'.
• Older versions of Excel: Select 'Enable macros' in the popup window.

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.

• Excel 2007 or newer: Click the Microsoft Office Button (top-left) and click Excel Options. In the Popular category, check 'Show Developer tab in the Ribbon' (if it is not already checked). Click on 'OK', then select the Developer tab. Click on 'Macro security' (on the left). Select 'Disable all macros with notification'.
  
• Older versions of Excel: In the Tools menu, go to -> Macro -> Security. Change the security level to Medium.

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

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User Guide - Table of Contents

• A: Importing data
  
  
• B: Troubleshooting
  
  
• C: Decimal point
  
  
• D: Optional parameters
  
  
• E: Custom maps (e.g. province / state / region maps)
  
  
• F: Custom regions
  
  
• G: Adding data manually / without macros
  
  
• H: Changing settings and appearance
  
  
• I: Translation

StatPlanet_data_editor.xls: Excel worksheets

StatPlanet_data_editor.xls: Main screen

 

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

• HTML: To import data from a web-page, simply save the web-page and import it like any other file. If the import fails, it could be that the country names and statistics are too far down in the page. In this case, open the file in Excel, and remove the rows up to the point that the data starts. Then import the file again. Alternatively, copy and paste the tables in the web-page into a new Excel document.
• PDF: Tables in PDF files can usually be copied and pasted into an Excel file. Select (highlight) the table with the mouse, right-click and select “Copy as Table” or “Save as Table” from the menu. See also this helpful guide from McGill University.

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

• See also: Error on pressing 'Save' Button

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):

• Group (sort) your indicators according to year. Insert a new row above each group of indicators. In this new row add the year in the YEAR column. Leave the neighbouring cell in the INDICATOR column blank;
• Note that the YEAR column should be blank in the cells next to the indicators:
  
  

  YEAR	INDICATOR
  2000
  	indicator1
  	indicator2
  2001
  	indicator1
  	indicator2

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

• SOURCE
  The source of your data can be added in the same row as the year, and can optionally be specified for each year in the dataset (otherwise it is assumed that the source specified for the first year in the series is the same source as for the other years). You can choose to use HTML code if you want to add a link to the source website, for example: <a href=’http://www.mysource.com’>My Source</a>
  
  
• DESCRIPTION
  Add a description for each indicator in this column, which will appear as a popup in StatPlanet when moving the mouse over the indicator.
  
  To reduce file size, you never have to repeat a description more than once:
  
  
  • If you have data for several years, you only need to add a description for the list of indicators below the first year in the series. When a different year is selected, StatPlanet will automatically grab the description from the first year. (Note that for each year you need to have the same list of indicators, in the same order).
  • If you have two or more indicators with the same description, you only need to enter the description once. For the other indicators, instead of a description enter the Excel row number where the description you want to re-use is located.
    
    
• UNIT
  
  
• MAP
  In this column you can customize the map legend for each indicator. The following types of custom map legends are available:
  
  
  • Map legend with custom values
  • Map legend with custom colors
  • Map legend with custom colors & values
  • Qualitative map legend: custom colors and labels

  These examples are included in StatPlanet Data Editor, using the ‘Life Expectancy’ data from WHO to illustrate the first three types of map legend. The Qualitative map legend uses fictional data. Additional customizations can also be specified in the sheet ‘Settings’.
  

  (i) Map legend with custom values

  Use the following format to specify the values for the map legend, as well as the number of color classes:
  0=[value0] 1=[value1] 2=[value2] 3=[value3] 4=[value4]
  etc.

  • Example 1a: A legend with 4 color classes:
  0=[55] 1=[40] 2=[20]

  • Example 1b: A legend with 5 color classes:
  0=[70] 1=[65] 2=[60] 3=[55]

  (ii) Map legend with custom colors

  Use the following format to specify the colors for the map legend, as well as the number of color classes:
  0=[color0] 1=[color1] 2=[color2] 3=[color3] 4=[color4]
  etc.

  • Example 2: A legend with 4 color classes:
  0=[0x238B45] 1=[0x66C2A4] 2=[0xB2E2E2] 3=[0xEDF8FB]

  (iii) Map legend with custom colors and values

  Use the following format to specify the colors for the map legend, as well as the number of color classes:
  0=[color0][value0] 1=[color1][value1] 2=[color2][value2] 3=[color3][value3] 4=[color4]

  Note that this format is slightly different from the previous ones, because 5 colors are specified (colors 0 to 4) but only 4 values (values 0 to 3). As illustrated in example 1b above, a legend with 5 color classes requires only 4 values to be specified (a legend with 4 color class requires only 3 values, and so on).

  • Example 3: A legend with 4 color classes:
  0=[0x2171B5][70] 1=[0x6BAED6][60] 2=[0xBDD7E7][50] 3=[0xEFF3FF]

  (iv) Qualitative (descriptive) map legend

  Use the following format to specify the map legend colors, the corresponding labels, as well as the number of color classes. Countries are assigned a value which corresponds to one of the numbers below. For example, if the country ‘Afghanistan’ is given a value of ‘0’, it will be associated with ‘color0’ and ‘label0’.

  0=[color0][label0] 1=[color1][label1] 2=[color2][label2] 3=[color3][label3] 4=[color4][label4]
  etc.

  • Example 4: A legend with 5 color classes:
  0=[0xE41A1C][Category 1] 1=[0x377EB8][Category 2] 2=[0x4DAF4A][Category 3] 3=[0x984EA3][Category 4] 4=[0xFF7F00][Category 5]
  

• GRAPH
  If you wish to use your own maximum and minimum values for the graph, you can set them here. Specify the minimum and maximum values in parentheses in the following format:
  
  [min value][max value]
  
  For example, for a minimum value of 0 and a maximum value of 80, enter the following:
  
  [0][80]
  
  
• SYMBOL
  You can specify the symbol you wish to use for the proportional symbol map. If none are specified, StatPlanet will use the circle symbol. To indicate that you want to use a different symbol for a particular indicator, enter one of the following in this column:

• book
• electricity
• pc
• phone
• stickfigure
• typewriter
• water
  

• OPTIONS / TYPE
  A number of new options are currently being implemented to enable greater control over the visualizations in StatPlanet. In future versions the two columns OPTIONS and TYPE will be used to specify these options.
  
  
• Country information on mouse over country
  Country-specific information can be shown in a popup when the mouse moves over the country on the world map or in the graph window. This information needs to be added in the very first row in the empty cell below the corresponding country name. (These cells are empty, because country data starts in the next row).
  
  You can insert plain text, for example:
  
  
  • My text
    
  
  Or you can insert text as HTML with formatting, for example:
  
  
  • <font  size="15" color="#347C17">My text</font>

• Link to to web-page or document when clicking on a country
  Links to documents or web-pages can also be specified in the row below the corresponding country name. The document or web-page will open when the user clicks on a country for which a link has been specified. An example of a link would be:
  
  http://www.mywebsite.com/document.pdf
  
  It is also possible to have both text and a download link, by inserting the link as HTML code. For example:
  
  <a href=http://www.mywebsite.com/document.pdf'>Insert additional information here</a>
  
  

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.