Hi. In this Excel tutorial, we’ll go over how to use Map Charts in Excel to create a map directly in your spreadsheet.
And, by the way, if you enjoy this tutorial, don’t forget to Like the video and subscribe to the channel for even more tips.
So, before we start, some important things to know about the Map Chart feature in Excel:
First, currently, this is available only in newer versions of Excel. So, 2016 or better or if you use one of the online subscriptions.
And, for now, there are only 2 types of map charts you can make in Excel. So, either based on values, for example dollars. Or by category.
And an example would be by product.
And you can only have 1 variable in a map. So you couldn't map, for example, dollars spent and dollars generated. You would have to map
one or the other. And, as far as the geography you can plot, it’s currently only available to do higher level geographies. That is, you can’t
currently plot individual addresses. And, if you use counties or cities,
there’s a chance you could get incorrect data if other counties or cities share the same name as the one on your data list.
In this case, you can add a column for country. But, for this example, we'll be using zip codes. And, also, the mapping in this type of chart is
supported by Bing Maps. So, while you can add or remove data from your data set, to update the map, you’ll need an internet
connection so that your map can connect with Bing Maps.
So, as with any technology, these things could change. I wanted to make you aware of some potential limitations as of the time of this
recording. So, what you see on my screen are zip codes in the Miami area of Florida along with some products and the amount of dollars
each product generated in that zip code. So, let's first make a Category Map. To map the data, select the data that you would like to
map. And, keep in mind, you can only select 1 variable at a time. So, I'm highlighting the zip code
and the product because this is a category map. Then, in your Insert tab, go to the Charts section and click on Maps.
Once you have your map chart, double-click on it to bring up your map options. This will bring up
the usual options for changing the fill color, shading, and other types of formatting.
So, if you double-click on the actual map, not the space around it, you'll also see options for formatting the type of map.
And Map Projections are types of map layouts. If you'd like to know more about them, I included more info on each in the description
of this video. The Map Area is how much of a map you'd like to show. So, you can show a World Map, Multiple Countries of the Region,
you can show just a Country where your data is, the State or Province, or what we're going to choose, Only the Region with Data.
You can then select if you'd like to display Labels. In this case, the labels are the zip code. I'm actually not going to
select them for now. Instead, we'll come up here to the + on the map and select Data Labels / More Data Label Options
to get, well, more options.
So, here we can decide if we want to see the Series Name, the Category Name and/or the Value and then how we'd like to separate
these. If we want to separate them by a comma, semicolon, period, a new line, or a space.
I'm only going to display the Value, which, in this case is our Product names.
So, the second type of map, a Value Map, is very much like a heat map. So, using the same data that as in our last example, our data
is still highlighted, but if it wasn't, I would just select the chart to highlight it. And, I'm going to drag the highlights on Products to Dollars Sold.
So, notice how the legend has changed to a gradient shading based on the dollar amount. This means that the higher the amount of
Dollars Sold, the darker that area will be on my map.
So, again, by double-clicking on just the map, I can bring up options for how much geography I'd like to show on this map. So, I'm again
going to select only Regions with Data. So, from here you have the same options as in our last example, as far as formatting your map
and if you would like to see any labels for your map.
So, I hope you found this tutorial helpful to learn how to add a Map Chart in Excel. If you enjoyed it, please make sure to Like the video
and don’t forget to subscribe to this channel. Thanks!