Pitney Bowes MapInfo Professional - Manual (Page 22)

What is MapInfo Professional?
With MapInfo Professional, the power of computer mapping is at your complete disposal. You can display
your data as points, as thematically shaded regions, as pie or bar charts, as districts, etc. You can perform
geographic operations such as redistricting, combining and splitting objects, and buffering. You can also
make queries against your data and access your remote data directly from MapInfo Professional.
For example, MapInfo Professional can show which branch store is the closest to your biggest customers.
It can calculate the distances between customers and stores; it can show you the customers who spent
the most last year; it can color-code the store symbols by sales volume. What makes it all come together
is a visual display of your data on the map.
Mapping at a Glance
Huge quantities of information are available today, far more than ever before. Data abounds in
spreadsheets, sales records, and marketing files. Paper and disk store masses of information on
customers, stores, personnel, equipment, and resources. Thematic maps and graphs show distribution
of customers for a marketing campaign.
Figure 1: Thematic Map Example
Nearly all data has a geographic component. An estimated 85 percent of all databases contain some
sort of geographic information such as street addresses, cities, states, postal codes, or even telephone
numbers with area codes and exchange numbers.
Computer mapping can help you sort through all of this information, and using the geographic components
in your data, display your results on a map. This lets you see patterns and relationships in the mass of
information quickly and easily without having to pore over your database.
Using Your Own Data
To begin with, you can use the data you already have, in the form it is already in - spreadsheets such
as Excel, databases such as Access, popular CAD packages, and other GIS applications, to name just
a few. If your data is on a remote database, you can access it directly from MapInfo Professional. If you
have data that is not already online, you can create database files right inside the product, or use data
supplied by Pitney Bowes Software Inc. - such as census data.
Similarly, you can use any of thousands of maps available from Pitney Bowes Software Inc., everything
from street and highway maps to world maps. You can also create your own maps, either in MapInfo
Professional or with a drawing package. You can diagram anything - floor plans, flow charts, even brain
anatomy - can be treated as a map and entered into the product.
MapInfo Professional 12.5 22
What is MapInfo Professional?