Section Three: Creating Thematic Maps

Part Three: Creating Layouts

Creating layouts

Layouts may also be created in stage 4, Publish, of the Mapping Wizard Tool.

Layouts of maps, graphs, legends etc may be produced in MapInfo.

Make sure all the windows you wish to include in your layout are open. Restore the windows and drag the edges so that the least possible amount of white space is showing around the features of interest.
Select Window > New Layout Window, or alternatively choose the New Layout button on the toolbar. The New Layout dialog box appears.
If you wish to make a layout containing just one frame, choose the frame from the drop down menu now, and click OK. Creating a layout for one frame is better than printing it directly as you can resize and reorientate it in relation to A4 paper, as well as adding text boxes such as titles.
If you are including a map in a layout, MapInfo automatically includes its legend.
If you already have a number of items which you wish to include in your layout, it is better if no windows other than these are open. Choose Frames for All Currently Open Windows, and click OK. A layout window is produced with all the required frames which may be moved, aligned, and resized.
If you wish to produce a blank layout, which you may use for text, choose No Frames, and click OK. However, it is probably better to use a word processing package.

Once you have created your layout there are a number of things you can do to improve the presentation. It may look a bit of a mess at this stage, especially if you created a layout for many open windows.

Moving and resizing frames: Click anywhere in the frame to select it. Frames may be moved by dragging with the mouse, and resized using the handles at the corners. Click outisde the frame to deselect it.
Aligning frames: Aligning frames is an important part of presentation. Frames may be aligned horizontally or vertically. Select the frames you wish to align, holding down the shift key to select multiple frames. Right click in the layout, and choose Align Objects. A dialog box appears. It is advisable not to try to change the horizontal and vertical alignment at the same time. Choose which you want to change, and select which edges you wish to align from the drop down menu, for example, for vertical alignment you may wish to align either the top or bottom edges, and if the frames are the same size both will be aligned anyway. Leave the With Respect To menu option as Each Other, and click OK. If you wish to move the aligned frames, select them all, and they can be dragged as a block.
Adding text: Select the text tool on the drawing toolbar, which by default is floating. The text tool is the A. Click on the layout where you want the text, and type. Select the pointer tool on the main toolbar, which is also floatng by default. Double click on the text to get the text object dialog box. From here the text, spacing and alignment may be altered. The font may be altered using the Style (Aa) button. Click OK when you are happy. The pointer tool may also be used to drag the text. Text objects may be aligned with other objects in the layout using the method discussed above. Some items of text which you may need to add are discussed in the Standard Practices section below.
The zoom in and zoom out tools on the main toolbar, the magnifying glasses with plus and minus signs, are always useful when working with layouts.
If you find you need more pages for your layout, choose Layout > Options, where you can alter the layout size in terms of number of pages, then click OK.
You can also use Layout > Options to produce a Layout Template which may be used to make multiple layouts with the same structure. This is useful for uniformity in major pieces of work.
The layout may appear to be blank or made up of boxes of plain colours when the layout is not the active window. Don't worry, you have not lost your work! If you wish to be able to view the contents of a layout window when it is not the active window, go to the Layout menu and choose Layout > Options, and set Show Frame Contents to Always. Click OK.
Most of the commands from the Layout menu may also be accessed by right clicking anywhere in the layout window.

Standard practices

We have already touched on some issues of standard practice throughout the tutorial, such as always having a legend for each map. However, there are a number of other issues relating to standard practice which are important.

North Arrow: Including a north arrow on maps is standard practice. Go to Tools > Tool Manager. Scroll down the list to North Arrow, and tick the two checkboxes beside it. If the checkboxes next to ScaleBar are not checked, check those too. Click OK. The floating toolbar Tools appears.
Choose the icon for North Arrow. Click on a map in a map window or layout where you want your north arrow to be. A dialog box appears. There are 19 styles of north arrow to choose from, which are previewed in the box on the left.
You can change the colour of the north arrow. The default is red. It is advisable to change the foreground brush colour to black, but to leave the foreground pen, background brush and background pen as they are.
The north arrow may be resized using the box at the bottom right. The default is 15% of the window size.
Important: Leave the Rotate north arrow to match projection radio button pressed.
You can also show the Magenetic Declination by selecting the button. This is unnecessary for maps of small areas such as one district, but would be important for maps of larger areas, for example, the whole of the British Isles.
Choose OK when you are satisfied with the settings for the north arrow. The north arrow appears where you initially clicked.
Scale: If you have not already done so, go to Tools > Tool Manager and enable the ScaleBar tool by checking the boxes beside it and clicking OK.
Select the ScaleBar tool on the floating Tools toolbar. Click where you would like your scale bar on a map in a window or layout. A dialog box appears.
Choose the width of your scale bar, preferably a round figure. Choose the units of distance which you would like your scale bar to represent, for example, kilometres. Leave the colour settings as they are. If you wish to change the font of the scale labels, select the font (Aa) button on the right, make your changes, and click OK.
Choose OK when you are satisfied with the settings for the scale bar. The scale bar appears where you initially clicked.
If you wish to change the units of your scale go to Map > Options. However, you will have to create a new scalebar with the new units as any existing scalebar will not automatically change.
North arrows and scale bars are not easily editied, moved or removed in MapInfo. Make sure, therefore, that you have selected the right location and settings before clicking OK.
Scales may be represented in three ways: verbally, such as "one metre equals fifty kilometres", graphically, using a scale bar, and by what is known as a representative fraction, such as 1:50,000. In cartography, it is good practice to include all three representations of scale on a map. However, this is not usually possible for the thematic maps created in software packages such as MapInfo. It is therefore all the more important to include the graphical representation of scale on your maps since the verbal representation and representative fraction are missing.
Data Sourcing: Including the source of the data is standard practice in mapping, and in some cases is a legal requirement. Online data sources will tell you how to cite their data, and it is important that you do this. For example, for 2001 census data obtained from Casweb you must include the following citation, as stated in Section Two, Part One.
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Census output is Crown copyright and is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland
Source: 2001 Census; Dataset
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Where Dataset could be either 'Key Statistics', 'Census Area Statistics' or 'Standard Tables'.
Map Projection: Including the map projection is also standard practice. The map projection can be found by going to Table > Maintenance > Table Structure and choosing the projection button. For the types of data we have used in this tutorial, the projection will normally be British National Grid.
Including these things is necessary in order to make your map look professional.

On to Section Three, Part Four: Exporting Data

Section Three
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