Inserting a map

Before you can insert a map, you need to create a tabular report or a banded object.

To insert a map into a report:

1. Select a tabular cell, or the banded header/footer, group header/footer, or banded page header/footer panel of the banded object.
2. Click Insert > Map on the menu bar, or the Insert Map button on the Insert toolbar. The Map Editor window appears. See the window.

   

3. If you want to use an image as background of the map, click Insert > Background Image on the menu bar of the Map Editor window, then click in the Map Background Image dialog to specify the image as required.
4. Next is to add areas to the map. You can do this either by importing from an previously saved XML file or an ESRI file which has been defined with some area information, or by drawing the areas manually, or using a combination of these two.
   • To import the predefined map areas, click File > Open in the Map Editor window, then in the Import Map Area dialog, specify the .xml file or .shp file that contains the required area information and click Open to import the areas. If you choose to import the map areas from a .shp file, you need to further specify a field in the ESRI shape file to define area name of the map.
   • To draw the areas manually, first check the Insert Mode item on the Edit menu to switch the Map Editor to insert mode.

     To draw an area, click the left mouse button to pick the start point of the area. Move the mouse pointer and click the left mouse button to select the other points. The points will be connected automatically. When you move the mouse pointer to the start point, a square will appear indicating that the area will be closed. Click the left mouse button to finish drawing the area. If you want to undo your last line, click the right mouse button.

5. If you want to further change the shape or position of the areas, uncheck Insert Mode on the Edit menu to make the Map Editor in edit mode.

   To change the shape of an area, move the mouse pointer over the border or the points of the area. When it becomes a cross, choose a point on the line and drag it to create a new point. You can also choose a point of the area and drag it to a new position. If there are three points on one line, the middle point will be deleted automatically.

   To move an area, move the mouse pointer close its border. When it changes to a four-headed arrow, drag the area to a new position.

   Tip: If you have specified a background image for the map, and the size of it is not the same as that of the map object, you can click Insert > Match Background Image in the Map Editor window to resize the map object so as to make it match the size of the background image.

6. To bind data to the map areas, click Insert > Bind Data, then specify the settings according to your requirement (for details, refer to Binding data to a map).
7. If you want to add some conditional formats to the map areas, click Format > Conditional Formatting, then define the conditions and formats as required (for details, refer to Adding conditional formats to map areas).
8. To make the map areas linked with other reports, URLs or emails, set the Detail Report or Link property on the map areas as required (for details, refer to Binding links to map areas).
9. In the Map Area Inspector panel, edit properties of any area, label, summary field and line in the map if necessary.
10. If you want to save the area information you have defined in a file for future use, click File > Save As. In the Save Map Area dialog, specify the directory where to save the file and a name for it, then click Save. Then, when you create map next time, you can choose to import areas from the saved XML file.
11. When done, click File > Save to save the changes to the map and close the Map Editor window.
12. Click the mouse button in the tabular cell, or banded panel to insert the map.

When a map has been inserted into a report, you can customize its appearance and behavior by setting properties in the Report Inspector, which can be saved as a CSS style for future use (for details, see Creating a CSS style).

See also Map Editor window for details about options in the window.