Custom Map with Power Map for Excel

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Scenario

Since the September 2014 update to Power Map, it is possible to visualize data in Excel on top of any map (e.g. picture) right from Power Map. How does it work?

In this post I’m using the STM’s map, Montreal’s subway system. I’ll overlay this map with randomly generated data points that could represent delays of different severity for example.

How it works

You need two things to get this to work: a picture to use as the background, and a table of elements with x and y coordinates.

In this example here’s what the source data looks like:

  • To launch Power Map, go to the Insert tab of the Excel ribbon and click on Map.

  • In the scene options, select Change Map Type

  • In the popup select New Custom Map. Then select your picture to use as background.

  • In the layer option, use the X and Y data elements from your data table and select X and Y Coordinate as the mapping option.

  • From there you can select the visualizations on those locations as normally done on the world Bing map.

  • Look at the resulting Power Map video or download the Excel file from this example!

STM PowerMap.xlsx

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