MapInfo Professional 11.0: getting started

Xiaogang (Marshall) MaSchool of Science

Rensselaer Polytechnic InstituteFriday, January 25, 2013

GIS in the SciencesERTH 4750 (38031)

Acknowledgements

• This lecture is partly based on:– MapInfo Professional 11.0 User Guide– The online learning course of MapInfo Professional

• Review and edits by Anastasia Rodzianko (TA)

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• Session 1

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Contents of Session 1

• Install MapInfo Professional 11.0 and sample data• MapInfo Professional file types

– e.g., .TAB, .DAT, .MAP, .ID, .IND., .WOR

• View data in MapInfo• Save a workspace

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1 Install MapInfo and sample data

• RPI has an on-site license of MapInfo– http://www.rpi.edu/dept/arc/web/software/

sw_available.html

• Sample data– http://www.pbinsight.com/training_data– Download the package ‘Training Coursework for

MapInfo Professional -> Introduction to MapInfo Professional (approximately 25 MB)’

– Install it in a folder that you can find later– Suggestion: build a persistent working folder

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• Set working directories to the dataset folder– Menu: Options -> Preferences, a dialog box displays– Click Directories– Set the Directories of Tables and Workspaces to the

folder where the downloaded sample data are installed

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2 MapInfo Professional file types

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Relationships between file formats

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3 View data in MapInfo

• Open a .TAB file– Menu: File -> Open…– Example data folder:

.. \Training_Data\World\– Choose Grid15, World and Worldcap and open– Choose multiple files using CTRL key

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• Browser window for tabular data and map window for geographic data

• Table view– Menu: Window -> New Browser Window– In the list, choose World and click OK

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• Map view– Menu: Window -> New Map Window– In the list, choose World and click the right arrow– Click OK

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• Navigating the map view– Zooming, Panning, Change view

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• View entire layer– Menu: Map -> View Entire Layer

• Previous view– Menu: Map -> Previous View

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4 Save a workspace

• Create a snapshot of your current working environment (including all open files) and save it into one file (.WOR)– Menu: Window -> Tile Windows (simulate multiple

windows and views)– File -> Save Workspace, a dialog box displays– Choose a folder, enter a name, and click Save

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Re-open a workspace

• Menu: File -> Close All• File -> Open, the Open dialog box displays• In the Files of type drop-down list, choose

Workspace (.WOR)• Find and choose the workspace file just saved• Click Open

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• Now, dare you to open a .TAB or .WOR file with Notepad and read the scripts inside it ?

• BUT, DON’T MAKE ANY CHANGES TO THE SCRIPTS

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• Session 2

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Contents of Session 2

• External file types handled by MapInfo– e.g., Microsoft Access or Excel, dBase, CSV, etc.

• Geocode address data• Create points from coordinate information• Save a copy of data

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Before we start

• Sample data installed?

• http://www.pbinsight.com/training_data• Download the package of ‘Introduction to MapInfo

Professional (approximately 25 MB)’ • Install it in a folder that you can find later

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1 External file types handled by MapInfo

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• Open a Microsoft Excel file– Menu: File -> Open, a dialog box displays– In the Files of type drop-down list, choose Microsoft

Excel (*.XLS, *.XlSX)– Tag Create copy in MapInfo format for read/write

– Go to the \Training_Data\Exercise_Data folder, choose US_Customer and click Open. The Excel Information dialog box displays

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– The diagram allows you to specify the range of data to be used

– Or, you can select from Other from the Named Range drop-down list to specify the range

– Tag the Use Row Above Selected Range for Column Titles, the range of the Excel file will start at the second row

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– Tag the Use Row Above Selected Range for Column Titles and click OK, the Set Field Properties dialog box displays

– This dialog box allows you to specify the field (column) name and data types when importing Excel data. Ensure that the ZIP field is set to Character (5) and click OK

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– Menu: Window, notice that the New Map Window is not an option, because there are no map objects associated with this table yet

– We need to geocode the table file just opened

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2 Geocode address data

• Geocoding is a process that adds map objects to tabular data– With data that has addresses (or cities, states,

provinces, ZIP codes, postal codes, etc.) you can geocode it

– Geocoding uses data from another table (i.e., the search table) that has existing map information already and compares it to the data in the table without map objects (i.e., the table loaded from an Excel file)

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– We already have the US_Customer table loaded from an Excel file

– Now, a Search table is needed. Here we use US ZIP codes as that information.

– Menu: File -> Open, a dialog box displays– Choose MapInfo (.tab) from Files of type– Go to \Taining_Data\US folder, choose US_ZIPS and

click Open

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• To geocode the US_Customer table– Menu: Table -> Geocode, the ‘Geocode’ dialog box

displays

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– In the Geocode Table drop-down list, choose Us_Customer

– In the Using Column drop-down list, choose the column that contains the information we want to use for geocoding. Here, choose Zip

– Leave the Boundary Column drop-down list as None– In the Search Table drop-down list, choose the table

that contains the existing map objects. Here, choose US_ZIPS

– In the For Objects In Column drop-down list, choose the column from the Search Table that contains the information to be used for geocoding. Here, choose ZIP

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– Under Optional at the bottom of the dialog box, leave both drop-down lists as None

– Under Mode at the top right corner, choose Automatic– Click on the Symbol button to change the appearance

of the data to be geocoded. The Symbol Style dialog box displays

– Choose the font, color and size of the symbols to appear when the geocode is finished, click OK

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– In the Geocode dialog box click OK. The geocoding progress will start.

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• View geocoded address data– Menu: Window -> New Map Window– Select Us_Customer and click the right arrow, click OK

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• To make sure that they have been geocoded properly and make the map look nicer, we can overlay another layer with it– Menu: File -> Open– Choose MapInfo (*.tab) in Files of type– Choose Current Mapper in Preferred View– Go to \Training_Data\US, choose States and click Open

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3 Create points from coordinate information

• We will use another external file format– Microsoft Access (.MDB or .ACCDB)– Example datasets: World.tab and Pro_team.mdb

– First, open World.tab– Menu: File -> Close All– File -> Open, a dialog box displays– Choose MapInfo (*.tab) from the Files of Type list– Go to \Training_Data\World folder, choose World.tab

and open

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– Now get data from Pro_team.mdb– Menu: File -> Open– Choose Microsoft Access Database (.MDB) as format– From Preferred View list, choose Browser– Go to \Training_Data\Exercise_Data folder, choose

Pro_team.mdb and click Open, the Open Access Table dialog box displays

– Choose UK_FOOTBALL_TEAMS and click OK. The Access table opens in a MapInfo browser window

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• UK_FOOTBALL_TEAMS contains both address and coordinate information. – Because we do not have a Search table (see

geocoding), we will use the coordinate information to create points.

– Here the coordinate information refers to Longitude and Latitude

– We often use X for Longitude and Y for Latitude

37Image source: Wikipedia

• Longitude and Latitude

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– MapInfo Professional can read the coordinates and place a point at the location by using a command called Create Points

– The X and Y coordinates should be in a format that MapInfo can use (i.e., decimal degree format)

– Menu: Table -> Create Points, a dialog box opens– Choose UK_FOOT_TEAMS from the drop-down list– Set symbol style with Using Symbols– Choose X_longitude from Get X coordinates list– Choose Y_latitude from Get Y coordinates list– Leave the two Multiply… text boxes as the default

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– Un-tag the Display Non-numeric Fields and Overwrite Existing Points

• The Display Non-numeric Fields checkbox allows you to use coordinate pairs that may have been created as test fields (not the case for our sample data)

• The Overwrite Existing Points checkbox allows you to recreate points if you are not satisfied with the created points

– Click Projection. The Choose projection dialog box opens

– Choose Longitute/Latitute in Category list and Category Members list. Click OK

– Click OK to create points

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• To view the created points– Menu: Window -> New Map Window– Select UK_FOOTBALL_TEAMS and click the right

arrow– Also select World and click right arrow, the World map

will serve as a background.– Set World to below UK_FOOTBALL_TEAMS by using

Up and Down under Recorder Layers– Click OK

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4 Save a copy of data

• The Save Copy As command– Sample data: Us_Customer.tab– Menu: File -> Close All– File -> Open– Choose MapInfo (*.tab) as format– Go to \Training_Data\Exercise folder, choose

Us_Customer and click Open– File -> Save Copy As– Go to the directory in which you want to save the file– Specify a new name for Us_Customer.tab– Leave the Save As Type list as MapInfo (*.tab)

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– If required, click the Projection to set a new projection– Click Save

– You must open the saved file if you want to use it (i.e., it is not automatically opened after saving)

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