Pitney Bowes MapInfo Professional - Manual (Page 88)

Other programs, such as word processing programs and spreadsheets, typically open files as one
compound object, without trying to explode them into component objects. These programs usually honor
the clipping information and clip the contents appropriately.
For example, if you are exporting a Map window that displays part of Germany, but not all of it, the
exported file contains the entire image of Germany. It also contains information about where MapInfo
Professional clipped that image in its Map window. But when you open the exported window in your
target application, a drawing package for example, the image of Germany may not be clipped.
Exporting to ASCII Format
MapInfo Professional also allows you to export your tabular data to a delimited ASCII file. This file can
later be edited with a text editor or imported into another package. When you export to ASCII, MapInfo
Professional displays the Delimited ASCII Information dialog box, where you choose your delimiter
character. You can also choose to have the first row of the ASCII file become column titles.
MapInfo Professional also displays a dialog box that you use to indicate the character set for the exported
ASCII file. Different platforms use different character sets. MapInfo Professional must know the platform
where you are going to use the exported file in order to provide the appropriate character set. No graphical
data is exported to ASCII.
Exporting to dBase (*.DBF) Format
MapInfo Professional can export tabular data into dBASE DBF format. Exporting to DBF creates only
the .DBF file. No graphical data is exported to dBASE. When you save your table in DBF format, you
create a .DBF file, as well as some other files. These other files contain graphic information (for example,
MapInfo Professional indices and other information that MapInfo Professional uses).
MapInfo Professional also displays the dBASE DBF Information dialog box that you use to indicate the
character set for the exported DBF file. Different platforms use different character sets. MapInfo
Professional must know the platform where you are going to use the exported file in order to provide the
appropriate character set.
Smoothing Map Images during Export
You can anti-alias a table during the export process to give you more control over your map images.
This is particularly important when you are saving maps created in MapInfo Professional for use in other
Windows-based applications, in particular in slide presentations or for web pages.
Anti-aliasing allows you to smooth images in all types of windows such as Map windows, layouts, legends,
and graphs.
You cannot anti-alias images you are exporting to .EMF or .WMF format, because these are not
true raster formats. Note:
There are three smoothing options you can use to customize your raster image:
1. Smooth using a Filter value. You can set a flag that selects one of six filters that allow you to choose
the direction the filter is applied to the image from.
2. Smooth using a Mask value. You can select a value that indicates the size of the area you want to
smooth. For example, to create a 3x3 pixel mask value, you would enter a 3 in this field. This would
limit the amount of change in the color of the pixels. Typically mask sizes would be 2-3 pixels when
exporting at screen resolution. If you are exporting at a higher resolution, a larger mask might be
appropriate.
3. Smooth using a Threshold value. You can select a threshold value to indicate which pixels to smooth.
Each pixel in an image has a value based on its color. The smaller the pixel value, the darker the
color. Select this option to smooth all of the pixels above the threshold you enter in this field. When
you set this value to 0, MapInfo Professional will smooth all of the pixels.
MapInfo Professional 12.5 88
Saving, Closing, and Exporting Your Work