7/24/2019 The MapInfo Professional Journal Intro

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/the-mapinfo-professional-journal-intro 1/2

 

(c) 2012 Pitney Bowes Software

Every connection is a new opportunity™ 

The MapInfo Professional

Introducing “The MapInfo Professional”

A journal full of Tips, tricks and advice for MapInfo Professional Users!

“The MapInfo Professional” is an online monthly journal designed to help MapInfo Professional users get the most

from the software. The following are examples of what you can expect if you sign up to receive the journal.

To be added to the e-mail list to receive this survey, please visit our Web site here:

http://www.pbsoftware.eu/miprosignup 

Tom Probert, Editor

Easy tip - Check out the free video tutorials!The first tip we want to share is a link to a whole host of video tutorials. So

don’t think of it as just one tip but a link to a lot of help to learn how to use

different aspects of MapInfo Professional.

Tutorials are available in English, French, German and Spanish

http:// www.pbinsight.com/miprotutorials 

Rummaging in the Toolbox ...

Find the tools to help you do more!

Did you know that MapInfo Professional includes a host of tools and utilities

to help you to get more done? To find these, click on Tools > Tool Manager.

In each full issue of the journal, we will highlight one of the tools or utilities in

detail.

The Tool Manager is accessed from the Tools menu in MI Pro.

Featured Link:

Each issue of the journal will

include one or more afeatured links to a useful

resource.

Sign up to receive “The

MapInfo Professional” 

http://www.pbsoftware.eu/

miprosignup 

It is quick and easy! We only ask

you for basic contact details and

this list will only be used for

sending out the journal.

Quick Tip

In the map window, if you are

using the cross-hair cursor (such

as with the ‘Info’ tool, you can

switch between 3 different

cusrsor styles. Press the “x” key

on the keyboard.

Subscribe

Now!

7/24/2019 The MapInfo Professional Journal Intro

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/the-mapinfo-professional-journal-intro 2/2

 

(c) 2012 Pitney Bowes Software

Every connection is a new opportunity™ 

The MapInfo Professional

Something a bit more advanced...

Using conditions in labelling

To understand this tip it is helpful if you have some knowledge of creating labels, especially labelexpressions in MapInfo Professional.

MapInfo Professional does not provide a direct way to label only certain records in a table. Oneworkaround to this is to create a selection from the table with the desired items to be labelled. You canadd this selection to the map window and turn labels on for it. However, there is another way!

 Another possibility is to use a label expression that incorporates a condition within the Int() function. TheInt() function returns an integer, given a number. This will be used in a clever way to ensure only certainrecords in a table are labelled.

The following are some examples:

Given a column containing numeric values, the following expression will avoid labelling any value that iszero:

Left$ ( Str$ (COLUMN_NAME  ) , Int (COLUMN_NAME  > 0 ) * Len ( Str$ (COLUMN_NAME  ) ) )

This basic technique can be used in a number of different ways. Here are some more examples:

1) The following expression will label any value above 50000.

Left$ ( Str$ ( COLUMN_NAME  ) , Int (COLUMN_NAME  > 50000 ) * Len ( Str$ (COLUMN_NAME  )))

2) Given a character column containing classified data (“type” data), you could avoid the labelling of oneof the types. Let’s say a set of points represents different types of medical practices. The types are

GPs, paediatricians, cardiologists, neurologists, etc. The following expression will label all of the differenttypes except for GPs.

Left$ ( Str$ ( COLUMN_NAME  ) , Int (COLUMN_NAME  <> “GP ” ) * Len ( Str$ (COLUMN_NAME  ))) 

3) Finally, in the above example, to label only the GPs, just change the <> expression to =

Left$ ( Str$ ( COLUMN_NAME  ) , Int (COLUMN_NAME   = “GP ” ) * Len ( Str$ (COLUMN_NAME  ))) 

The trick to this is that this evaluation will result in a value of either

zero or one and this is multiplied by the result of the Len()

function. Therefore, if the result is zero then there will be no label

because the number of characters to return will be zero. If it is one

then a label is created.

A numeric column

We hope you find the examples on this page useful. For more, please be sure to sign up to

receive “The MapInfo Professional” monthly journal.

http://www.pbsoftware.eu/miprosignup