How do i get my data on the map, Creating a mapinfo .tab file of your data, When do i geocode vs. create points – Pitney Bowes MapInfo Professional User Manual

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How Do I Get My Data on the Map?

There are three steps to putting your organization's data on a map:

• Creating a MapInfo .tab file of your data

• Geocoding or creating points for the data

• Displaying your points on a map

Creating a MapInfo .tab File of Your Data

The first step in using your data in MapInfo Professional is to create that .tab file from your data. This
process takes the data you have created (either a spreadsheet or database) and extracts the information
into a .tab file that MapInfo Professional can use. Your data remains in tact as we go through this process.
The process that MapInfo Professional uses depends upon the type of format your data is in. You can
create a MapInfo table of the following data file format types:

• Microsoft Excel (.XLS or .XLSX)

• Microsoft Access (.MDB or .ACCDB)

• SQLite (.SQLITE)

• d-Base (.DBF)

• Lotus 123 (.WKS, WK1)

• ASCII (.TXT)

• Comma Delimited files (.CSV)

• RDBMS (Oracle, SQL Server, PostgreSQL with PostGIS)

• XML (Web Map Service)

For database versions that MapInfo Professional supports, see the MapInfo Professional Install Guide.

The process for creating a .tab file from ASCII data is called "registering" instead of creating
because we are actually making a series of pointers to the ASCII data. The process is different
but your resulting files behave the same way.

Note:

Once you have a Mapinfo .tab file of your data, you need to either geocode or create points for the data.
You care then ready to display your data on a map, as described under

Displaying Your Data on the

Map

.

The Help System contains these related topics:

Displaying your Excel (.XLS or .XLSX) Data

Displaying your Access (.MDB or .ACCDB) Data

Displaying your SQLite Data

Displaying your Comma Delimited Data

Displaying your dBase Data

Displaying your Lotus 1-2-3 Data

Displaying your ESRI Shapefile Data

Displaying and Registering Your ASCII Data

Importing and Displaying GML File Data

Displaying Your Remote DBMS Data

Displaying and Importing Data from a Web Map Service

When Do I Geocode vs. Create Points?

There are two processes that MapInfo Professional uses to identify and plot your data on a map.

MapInfo Professional 12.5

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How Do I Get My Data on the Map?

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