MapViewer 8 New Feature Series: Legend Properties

This week concludes the MapViewer 8 new feature series. Today, we'll take a look at all the options to display the legend exactly as you want it! In MapViewer 8's thematic mqapping software, you can make all the necessary edits from one convenient location--the Property Manager!

To add a legend to the map, select the map and click the Map | Add | Legend command. Below, you can see the default legend added to a hatch map displaying population in Europe for 2014.

Default legend

Select the legend to access the Property Manager for the legend. On the Layer page of the Property Manager, layers can be added, removed, and repositioned from the legend in the Layers in Legend section. When multiple layers have been added to the legend, you can toggle between them in the General section, and customize each layer individually! In the General section, you can also specify the orientation of variables if there are multiple variables in the legend and choose to show just the legend title and samples, or to also display the data column used. Let's add another layer to the legend by clicking the Add button. I prefer that the layers be in the reverse order, so I'll click the Move Down button to change the order and move Layer #1 to the bottom of the legend. To show the customization options, I'll leave the top layer (Layer #2) with the default settings and change some of the properties for the bottom layer (Layer #1). For Layer #1, I've checked the Show basic information only box.

In the Title section, you can edit the title text directly from the Property Manager, or you can open the Text Editor by clicking the Text Editor button . I've changed the Text to reference what is shown on Layer #1, Total Population 2014, and I've bolded the text, made it larger, and changed the Font.

The Samples section will change according to the map type specified in the General section. You can use this section to display the legend entries in the format of your choice! I've unchecked the Space between box. I could also remove the outline from the samples by unchecking the Show outline box or specify more than one column to display the samples with the Number of columns field.

The Labels section allows you to customize the display of the sample text and numbers. I have made several changes to the display of the samples in this section. I changed the Font, increased the Size (points), checked the Show on left of sample box to reverse the position of the labels and samples, checked the Use class name box to display the name assigned to the class from the hatch map properties, and checked the Show class hits box to display how many items are in each class. When the Use class name box is not checked, the Label Format section will give you customization over how the numbers are displayed.

On the Legend page of the Property Manager, you can make changes to the entire legend. Specify whether the layers should be arranged horizontally or vertically with the Arrange legends option. If you'd like to modify each piece of the legend individually, click the Unlink button. Do note that once a legend is unlinked, it will no longer update with changes made to the map. I recommend using this option once the maps are complete. In the Frame Line section, I set the frame of the legend to be a rectangle and increased the Width. In the Frame Fill section, you can specify a fill for the legend. You can choose from colors, patterns, and gradients, or you can add images of your own! I clicked the File button to fill the legend with an image and adjusted the Foreground opacity. If an image is copied to the clipboard, you can click the Clipboard button to fill the frame with the image. You can even change the way the background image is displayed with the Stretch, Pattern Offset and Pattern Scale options!

Legend, default on left and modified on right

I hope you've enjoyed this tour of new features in MapViewer 8! Stop by next week for a sneek peak into Golden Software President Pat Madison's recent trip to Antarctica!

Do you have any questions about this post? Do you have an idea for a blog post or have a topic you'd like to see featured? Let me know! Leave a comment, or send an email to jennifer@goldensoftware.com.