The Powerful “Choose Columns” Button

The MapBusinessOnline Data Window contains a powerful function available with every datasheet view. From the Master Toolbar, click the Data Window icon and select any of the data drop-down options in the upper left. Now, cast your beady eyes down to the lower right-hand corner of the Data Window, where you will find the deceptively simple Choose Columns button. This button is a gem of a business mapping tool.

Choose Columns could be the most potent function available in MapBusinessOnline. It is no less than a geospatial database management tool. No matter what data layer you view in the Data Window, clicking Choose Columns opens up an easy-to-use database management tool that allows the MapBusinessOnline user to add or remove data layers to the datasheet view. Choose Columns is especially useful for Sales Territory Mapping.

Clicking Choose Columns opens a database selection panel listing additional data column options you can add to your analysis. Other data options are listed on the left side of the panel. Your existing data columns display on the right. By selecting and moving the available columns, the user can use the move arrows in the middle section to change the data layers available for any business analysis and any MapBusinessOnline map layer, such as ZIP codes.

The More Data Button – lower left

Many of us break out into a cold sweat at mentioning those two words – Database Management. No worries. MapBusinessOnline’s more data is a simple tool you’ll be hard-pressed to break. You’ll find various easy options for adding data to or removing data from your analysis.

Map-Based Analysis

MapBusinessOnline is a cloud-based business mapping software service. We do not categorize MapBusinessOnline as a Geographic Information System (GIS). GIS is more sophisticated and can provide advanced and complex data analysis. That said, a simple tool like MapBusinessOnline offers some essential geographic analysis tools, one of which is Choose Columns.

Any business map will include a dataset of ZIP codes, Counties, States, and perhaps other administrative district layers. These geo-databases are natural location-based data structures for visualizing demographic, sales, and marketing data. It just makes sense to view USA Census data against a data layer of ZIP codes or counties.

The Choose Columns button in MapBusinessOnline’s Data Window is the tool that opens up options around the merging of these symbiotic data layers. With Choose Columns, you will be able to:

  • Add or remove associated data layers to sales territories. Pull in population or median income from included demographic data options. Move imported data columns like monthly sales results or marketing response rates into your sales territory analysis.
  • Simplify map-based analysis by removing redundant data layers. Imported data, MapBusinessOnline default data, and rich datasets; they can all get complicated. Make analysis easier on the eyes of your map viewers by removing data columns that do not add value to your project. Remember, mapping less is often more.
  • Find out how many territories contain accounts that purchased XYZ products last year. Import that data layer using More Data, then use the Data Window filter to determine which territories could stand to benefit from marketing support. Add selected data layers and conduct filter queries.

The More Data Database Management Panel

It’s All Exportable

Keep in mind that all of this database work is exportable. Click the rightmost button on the Data Window toolbar to export the results from your Data Window view to a CSV file.

This means you can export compiled data from your project – perhaps your data supplemented with demographic and MapBusinessOnline map layers. Create data queries showing all ZIP codes per territory, add population or median income data, and export for use outside MapBusinessOnline.

I bet MapPoint never did that for you. (Stuck at MapPoint 2010? Take the free trial.)

Calculated Data by Column

On occasion, MapBusinessOnline’s Choose Columns functionality can be used to set up even more exciting data operations. For example, a customer could import a dataset that includes a unique segment of the general population – owners of Toyota sedans by county.

Using the Choose Columns button, the ZIP code layer could be selected, and that unique Toyota Sedan population could be added as a column to the ZIP code data layer. That data layer could be exported and reimported as a new data layer in the application, allowing the data to be accessed through ZIP code functions.

Now, with the data accessible, another effective operation can be generated using the Toyota Sedan owners by ZIP code column. Each map layer has a function in Map & Data called Calculated Data Columns. It offers summation, multiply or divide operations to be associated with that geographic unit – in this case, ZIP codes. Within Map and Data, the ZIP Code layer is selected by clicking the Property Edits Gear.

The MapBusinessOnline user chooses to open Calculated Data Columns. Here the Toyota Sedan Owners data can be selected and applied as the Dividend in a division operation where the divisor is the Demographic Data Population, resulting in a ratio of Toyota Owners to the general population. Once created, Calculated Data Column data can be brought back into Data Window Analysis views or used to color-code map layers or supplement data layer labels in Map Business Online. Your unique data calculation is available throughout the business mapping software.

MapBusinessOnline database management options are advanced, simple, and available for MapBusinessOnline users to apply to their business challenges. Get creative and see what more you can derive from MapBusinessOnline.

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Discover why over 25,000 business users log into www.MapBusinessOnline.com for their business mapping software and advanced sales territory mapping solution. The best replacement for Microsoft MapPoint happens to be the most affordable.

To access MapBusinessOnline, please register and download the Map App from the website – https://www.mapbusinessonline.com/App-Download.aspx.

After installing the Map App, the MapBusinessOnline launch button will be in the Windows Start Menu or Mac Application folder. Find the MapBusinessOnline folder in the Start Menu scrollbar. Click the folder’s dropdown arrow and choose the MapBusinessOnline option.

The Map App includes the Map Viewer app for free non-subscriber map sharing.

Please read customer reviews or review us at Capterra or g2crowd.

Contact: Geoffrey Ives at geoffives@spatialteq.com or Jason Henderson at jhenderson@spatialteq.com

About Geoffrey Ives

Geoffrey Ives lives and works in southwestern Maine. He grew up in Rockport, MA and graduated from Colby College. Located in Maine since 1986, Geoff joined DeLorme Publishing in the late 1990's and has since logged twenty-five years in the geospatial software industry. In addition to business mapping, he enjoys playing classical & jazz piano, gardening, and taking walks in the Maine mountains with his Yorkshire Terrier named Skye.
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