In MapPoint 2006, are you still limited to 8 unique identifiers when using "Multiple Symbol" map type in the data link wizzard?

This would be a great feature if it would allow more than 8 symbol sets.

I agree this would be a nice feature.

I can think of three workarounds

- pre-group your data so there are 8 or less symbols per category. I do this sometimes. For instance, if you have red fords, yellow fords, purple fords, green fords, pink chevys, green chevys, blue chevys, aqua volkswagens, and turquiose volkswagens (9 categories), first separate your data into three lists: fords, chevys, and volkswagens.

- if you have a lot of unique identifiers that don't group nicely, you might consider looping through in code and drawing each pushpin individually.

- finally if you have say 9 categories as above, just separate into nine lists and use the "Pushpin" map type instead of "Multiple Symbol".

hope this gives you some ideas.


Finally, there is a tool called MapInfo Pro which has none of these limitations and can be used with MapPoint via some slick software called Map-In-A-Box, see this article -
Map-In-A-Box Puts MapPoint Maps Into MapInfo
It basically gives you the best of MapInfo Pro in combination with the ease of MapPoint. If you have a couple thousand dollars and do a lot of mapping it might be worth looking intoo.. I know Map-In-A-Box has a thirty data eval, not sure about MapInfo Pro.

Thanks for the info.

I have always used the individual pushpin sets for my data, but I thought I would try the multiple symbol method to consolidate all the files into 1.

I like to functionality, but I have about 12 pushpins sets (in this scenario) so I guess this is not an option.

Anyone have any idea why they would limit you to 8? I am sure there is a reason, I just cant think of one.

I use 2004 and was thinking of upgrading to 2006 if this feature had been upgraded, but oh well.

Would there be a logical grouping to break the 12 into a couple or few sets ? High Low, East North West, Autobots Decepticons Humans, etc.

I honestly don't think it's a priority for MS to change this part of the program, it would require changes to the API as well and it seems they are very keen not to make changes that could potentially break existing apps.

I don't think they thought of it as a limitation, just a practical limit to keep things simple and be enough 80% of the time, e.g. see this classic article -
The 80/20 Rule

Anyway, since it sounds like your mapping needs go beyond what MapPoint does, take a look at MapInfo Pro - it turns out they do have a demo, see
MapInfo Professional - Demo/Download

The link for Map-In-A-Box is
MapInABox

Eric