I just got really started with MapPoint last night, and I'm starting to get that really bad, cold-in-the-pit-of-your-stomach feeling that comes on when you realize that the software you were so excited about maybe isn't the solution after all.
I'm on my 30-day trial. I've uploaded 47,000 points to my account, and they all geocode nicely. Well, when I say "all", I mean 100 at a time.
That's the big problem. I'm a newbie, and I don't know for sure, but it looks like MapPoint is really just for finding your (finite number of) stores and showing them on a map.
My 47,000 points represent gasoline and convenience store sites all across the U.S. Whereas MapPoint seems to be centered around "Hey, let's find some sites near your area of interest", what I'm wanting to do is more like, "Hey, show ALL of my points within the user's field of vision--wherever he may be in the country--and make all of them that are on-screen to be clickable."
There seems to be a limit of 250 pushpins you can have loaded at a time, and only 100 "hot spots" (clickable areas). My users come in at the (x,y) location they prefer to start at, and I show them as many points as I can around that area. But once they zoom out and move away, the points end. Since I can only show 100 at a time (unclickable points are useless to me), they find the "end of the world" rather quickly.
I'd like my points to just always be there. Just as you don't have to run a FindNearby to show streets and such, so I would like my points to just always be viewable. Moreover, when on-screen, my points need to be clickable as well.
Am I just barking up the wrong tree here with MapPoint?
Thanks for taking the time to read this and respond. I love Microsoft, and I'm just trying to fend off this dark cloud of disappointment over MapPoint.