MapForums

Ok so very new to this. I need a program that can do the following for me to create a map for my director. Before I get the company to part with the money I want to make sure that this can be done in mappoint.

Map of UK showing all postcodes (at least the first 3 numbers, does Mappoint have this function or is it something I would have to upload to it)
Add pins via spread sheet data base (pretty certain that can be done OK)
County boarders
Change colours for specific areas

I'm sure there will be lots of other things I will need to do but these are the first main ones.

Thanks

There's a free trial and Online Test Drive you can try.
http://www.microsoft.com/mappoint/en-us/trial.aspx

I think they are only for the North American version, but at least you could check if you get the functionality you need.

I think you can do everything you want, albeit with some limitations.

Eric

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Additionally to what Eric suggests, my experience of MP Europe is this.

On postcodes you’ve got no problems. MapPoint Europe has postcode boundaries at Area(eg KT), district (eg KT17) and sector(KT17 4) levels. It also allows you to locate individual postcodes (eg KT17 4AL) on the ground and plot as points.

Add pins via spread sheet data base – no problem, very straightforward.

County borders – slightly more problematic. I think the UK administrative geography built into MapPoint is Counties and Unitary Authorities. In England a lot of counties have unitary authorities within them and if you plotted shaded data for counties alone then these areas would appear unfilled eg the county of Somerset excludes the unitary authorities of North Somerset, Bath and North East Somerset and City of Bristol. Kent excludes Medway. Wales is mainly unitary authorities and the MapPoint administrative geography for Scotland is council areas which are normally subdivisions of counties. The geography does however (and thankfully) include all the London boroughs.

There is a map that illustrates this here:

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/geograp...k_laduacty.pdf

Basically, based on my experience which is by no means complete, the MapPoint geography contains all the subdivisions in the darker shaded areas, but just the county boundaries in the lighter shaded areas in England and Northern Ireland.

All these comments relate to experience with MP 2006, so I don’t know if MP 2009 will be any different.

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David