MapForums

Hi- I'm looking into purchasing MapPoint and would greatly appreciate some advice on my current situation.
-I do not have any programming background
-I work in the real estate field, and have several databases (Excel file) with residential listings, given by Street Address/City/Zip Code; I have additional fields for each listing, such as listing price, broker, & sales agent

I am looking to 1) plot these residential listings onto a US Map and 2) perform data analysis.

1) I have seen that MapPoint can plot these addresses onto an interactive map, however hte map seems rather cluttered - is there a way to remove other town names?
2) For data analysis, could I perform data analysis by pool? Ideally I would like to be able to export a report showing # of houses/avg price per MSA/zip code. Also, it would be nice to calculate the distance to the closest house within the pool. Can I perform these tasks in MapPoint? I am also exploring MapInfo & ArcView....any suggestions on which software would work best?
Many thanks

If you have the budget, I would really recommend a combination... there's a lot MapInfo Pro does MapPoint cannot and vice versa.

MapPoint gives you inexpensize street data, geocoding, and routing capability.

MapInfo Pro gives you a lot of sophisticated analysis capability with the Spatial SQL functions.

There are tools for bringing layers back and forth between MapPoint and MapInfo mif/mid or tab files.

Also, there's a nifty program called Map-in-a-Box from Mapping Solutions that let's use use MapPoint street maps directly in MapInfo Pro, but this adds another $1000 or so. The have a free trial MapInABox


by the way, unfortunately you cannot turn off all labels on a map in MapPoint, that is something we're hoping they fix with MapPoint 2008!

Regarding support for MapInfo Pro, I am pretty good at it I think and could answer any questions here - just put MapInfo in the title of your question - or there is a dedicated Google Groups list called "mapinfo-l".

hope this helps,
Eric

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Many thanks Eric. Are there any other comparable programs that you might recommend? I've also been looking at ArcView as well-are you familiar with that software?

Also, I have absolutely no programming background- how easy is MapPoint/Arcview to use for a novice user?

Thanks

I haven't used ESRI products since the late-90's so I'm not in a position to comment... but I did learn my chops on it (learning GIS / business geographics) and I know they very good.

However, I use MapInfo Pro regularly for a Fortune 500 client and all the analysts use it there..

From my experience, you can't go wrong with MapPoint because of the cheap price, it's might be enough to get you started, but for serious analysis, I still recommend all of the three products MapInfo Pro, MapPoint, and Map-in-a-box.

Eric

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DBLAwren

I have worked with a good many GIS packages, MOST from the developmental/programming perspective, but I've also witnessed 'reaction' to some of the user front end's for these packages for novice (I always consider myself a novice, keeps me looking) users.

I can say- MapPoint by leaps and bounds is extremely easy to use- comparable to Office.

You can import data very easily, so long as you name your fields according to MP specifications, you can EASILY import data from MS Office. Once you have your pts imported, you can also easily use FreeForm to draw custom shapes, or built in shapes (Oval, Circle, Rectangle), right click - and there it is - Export to Excel. BAM.

Makes for easy map generation for presentation
Makes for easy geo-spatial analysis - literally just a few clicks.

NOW, I actually am in Eric's boat too with ESRI, not used it for some time, but they started off getting their product into universities, so every university Geography department is ESRI centric in some ways and TO that, there is a HUGE community surrounding ESRI products.

On the other hand, I would be surprised if this very forum could not handle any questions you encounter.

Hands down for what's out there I would recommend MapPoint for someone who is comfortable using Excel.

Alternatives ? there are some free solutions, such as Grass etc for mapping, my opinion most bang for your buck is Manifold. But Manifold, although created by some highly highly qualified professionals in the GIS industry does have a respectable learning curve.

Map Info indeed is powerful but can cost you. I used to work fro a company that used Map Info to create a geocoder, they were all excited about it, took some time and some development money to work out. MapPoint ? with help from reading just 2 or 3 threads in THIS forum ? I was able to code my own geocoder in a matter of hours. Handles everything but P.O. Boxes from MP's perspective, but if you can if you want get the post office addresses and then use that for any PO box, or as I did, I went centroid on zip5 for simplicity.

Again and again, I find MapPoint to be MS's MOST undervalued product.

Those are my thoughts.