Chances are, your business map is carefully crafted. You’ve spent time thinking about visualizing your business, adding a variety of layers, and importing the key elements of location data that support your map purpose. Now you want to print or save map views for sharing.
With MapBusinessOnline you’ve got a variety of options. You will find the below options available in MapBusinessOnline:
- The Print Button on the master toolbar – Print to your desktop printer or save as a Large Format PDF
- The Export Map Image file button – save as either PNG or Jpeg files
- Windows Snippet or Mac capture image tools
- Interactively share the map view with constituents as public or privately shared maps
I suppose you could conduct a screen capture using your Print Screen button, but so many of us have multiple screens these days, making this happen is a time-consuming option.
Read More About Map Visualizations
Your Default Print Orientation is Landscape
MapBusinessOnline printing or image file views are by nature, landscape views. That is, the map layout lies across your screen as a rectangle, long-side down. So, to maximize your printing area output you want your printer settings set to landscape. By approaching all print operations as landscape first, you will save time and paper. Every so often a state view like California or Texas may require a modified portrait view, but that will be an exception. Keep things set to landscape.
Printing to 8-1/2 x 11 sheets of paper to your desktop printer should be pretty easy. Click the print button and choose the top option, “Print current map view – the Printed map will fit to printer paper.” Once the print file is rendered and a map title is selected, MapBusinessOnline hands the file off to your desktop printer. That’s where you control the process on the printer side – be sure to set up the landscape layout option.
Wall Maps from Large Format PDF Files
The lower option within the Print button is to create a large format PDF file for a plotter print. This approach requires some experimentation and patience. We’ve included this because it gives the MapBusinessOnline user the ability to generate wall maps.
I’ve outlined this process in detail in this earlier blog post. We’ve tried to make this large format process as intuitive as possible, but it is complex. Take your time. follow the instructions and experiment with the following settings to get things to your liking:
- Print the Map to Multi-Page PDF – Center on Current map View or Print the Map Area by Selected Draw Tool – try both. I prefer center on current map view.
- Map zoom level – how far zoomed in you are, makes a big difference. Try it at over zoom and under zoom levels.
- Paper sizes – You can go up to 60″ x 60″ or 5 feet by five feet. you see the Custom options. And here you can tweak the sizes to force a portrait or more landscape perspective.
- The Legend placement in your PDF map is now user configurable. As you process your map set-up you can select which corner you’d like your Map Legend to be placed in. Or select to not include a Map Legend.
Remember the large format PDF process saves as a PDF. It takes a few minutes for a large wall map file to format. But then you’ll be able to tell if its right for you by viewing the PDF – as opposed to printing a humungous print job. If it ain’t right – delete it and start again.
And for printed maps of Texas or California, the large format print options with the totally customizable paper sizes, may be your best way to go.
Image Files
To the right of the Print Button in Map Business Online is the Export Image File button. Use this option to save your map view as a PNG or Jpeg image file. These files are great for email attachments or presentation graphics. But keep in mind, these image file views do not include Data Window or Map & Data shots. MBO image files only display the map graphics.
If you want an image file to include a Data Window view, use the Snippet tool or the Mac equivalent. Set your map up with your data component as desired and then create a Snippet shot. That’s what I use when I want to show you images of the Map Business Online user interface in my blog.
A Snippet file insertion
Data Window Copy & Paste
You do have the option to copy the Data Window tabular views into an Excel document. Simply pull up the data window and then click the Copy Past button in the lower right; just to the left of More Data. That opens up the copy options. Click copy when ready and paste into Excel.
Sharing Maps
If sharing static map images isn’t the best solution for your business, perhaps sharing an interactive map would do it. MapBusinessOnline allows a vast amount of free sharing options designed to get interactive maps in front of your constituents quickly and efficiently. These shared maps do not necessarily require subscriptions, every Map Business Online user gets to share 100 map share sessions a month at no cost. In addition, these shared maps include routing and the ability to print maps. Read more on map sharing here.
Printing maps is really just another way of sharing your work. Maps are for sharing and communicating concepts and business plans. Enjoy your map work.
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MapBusinessOnline access has officially transitioned from Web Browser (Adobe Flash Player) access to the Map App download access.
- Please download the Map App from the website – https://www.mapbusinessonline.com/App-Download.aspx.
- After installing the Map App, the MapBusinessOnline launch button will be in the Windows’ Start Menu or Mac Application folder. Find the MapBusinessOnline folder in the Start Menu scrollbar. Click the folder’s dropdown arrow and choose the MapBusinessOnline option. You can drag the icon to the taskbar for a quick launch button.
- All saved maps will be available through your Map Library Folder, the second button in from the left on the Master Toolbar. (Green File Folder icon.)
Map App access to MapBusinessOnline.com provides enhanced features and a better user experience.
The Map App includes the new Map Viewer app for free non-subscriber map sharing.
Value-Added Resellers – Offer the tool to your customers as a reseller. Make money on training and consulting. Contact us with further interest in reselling MapBusinessOnline.
Find out why over 25,000 business users log into www.MapBusinessOnline.com for their business mapping software and advanced sales territory mapping solution. The best replacement for Microsoft MapPoint happens to be the most affordable.
Please read customer reviews or review us at Capterra, or g2crowd
Contact: Geoffrey Ives geoffives@spatialteq.com or Jason Henderson jhenderson@spatialteq.com
