Making a pin map to show US city locations is easier than ever! In addition to the ability to make pin maps from X, Y coordinates or from ZIP codes, you can now make a pin map based just on city and state names. One of the new features of MapViewer 7 is the ability to create a Pin Map using City and State information as the locator method.

The US City and State locating method places pins on the map based on city and state names from two columns in your data file. The location coordinates are read from the CityState.csv file included with MapViewer. By default, this file is located in the C:\Program Files\Golden Software\MapViewer 7 directory. The state can be specified as the full name or the two letter abbreviation. The CityState.csv file has over 30,000 city and state names. Cities can be added to this file if needed.

Creating a US City and State Pin Map of the Lower 48 United States Capitals

1. Create a data file that has the City, State, Longitude, and Latitude values in separate columns. Save the file as US48LL – Capitals.xls or US48LL – Capitals.dat.
   
   Enter city, state, longitude, and latitude values into an .XLS or .DAT file.

2. Open MapViewer 7.
3. Create a base map of the lower 48 states, by selecting the Map | Base Map command.
4. Select the US48LL.GSB file and press the Open button. TheMapViewer Samples directory, by default, is located at C:\Program Files\Golden Software\MapViewer 7\Samples.
5. Click OK in the Import Options dialog that appears and the map is created.
6. Add a second layer to your map by right clicking in the Layer Manager dialog and selecting New.
   
   Right click in the Layer Manager to add a new layer to your map.

7. The new layer will automatically be selected as the active layer. Select the Map | Pin Map command.
8. Select the US48LL – Capitals.xls or US48LL – Capitals.dat file that you created in step #1 and click the Open button. The Pin Map dialog box appears.
9. On the General tab, select US City and State as the Locating method. In the Data columns section, change the City and State to correspond with the data columns in your worksheet. In this example, the City is column A and the State is column B.
   
   Choose the Locating method and appropriate Data columns.

10. On the Labels tab, check the Show label box to display the city name next to the symbol. Select the city column (Column A) for the Label in the Data source column section. Change the Position relative to symbol. In this instance, I will select User Defined, change the X offset to 0.05 inches, and the Y offset to 0.00 inches. The Font, Format, and Label angle may also be defined.
    
    Use the options available to add and customize pin labels.

11. On the Classes tab, you can choose the symbol and symbol size. Select Use uniform symbol as the Pin method. In the Data classes section, double click on the existing symbol to open the Symbols Properties dialog box.
    
    Select a Pin method and click the symbol to change properties.

12. In the Symbol Properties dialog, change the Symbol set to GSI Default Symbols, if it is not already the set. Select symbol number 33 to show each city as a star symbol. Change the Size to .10 inches. You could select any symbol, color, or size to fit your needs. Click the OK button when you are done. You are returned to the Pin Map dialog box, Classes tab.
    
    Select a Symbol set, symbol, Color, and Size.

13. In the Pin Map dialog box, select OK and your pin map will be created.
14. If you want to edit any options for the pin map, select Map | Map Properties to open the Pin Map dialog again.
15. Make any other adjustments to the map to create your final presentation. For example, I have selected the View | Show Objects command and selected Primary ID to show the state abbreviation for each state on the base map.
    
    The final pin map displays cities and names listed in the original worksheet.

Creating a Condition to Filter Data points

1. A condition can be specified to filter data points. Follow the above steps to create a base map. Instead of using the US48LL.GSB file, use a specific state file like CO2000.GSB to display only a single state. Using the CO2000.GSB file would create a map of only Colorado.
2. Follow the above steps to create a pin map.
3. In the Pin Map dialog, on the General tab, check the Condition box. This allows you to create a pin map using values that only fit the condition.
4. For example setting “Column B: State = CO” would create a pin map with only the cities in Colorado. You have the ability to select any column and a variety of conditions such as =, <>, <, >, <=, >=.
5. Click OK to show only the selected items.
   
   Specify a Condition statement.