Question
When creating maps in Data Buffet, you can zoom-select to focus on portions of specific interest.
Answer
Data Buffet provides a Map module with templates for the major statistical subdivisions of the U.S. and for select other countries: All the counties in the U.S., all the provinces and territories in Canada, etc. When you pick a concept to plot, areas that have data are shaded; areas with no data are left unfilled.
You can't selectively omit areas; there's no equivalent to the "geo lists" used in the Basket module. Instead, you can zoom into specific portions of the map. For example, if a dataset is reported only for Canada's 10 provinces, the three territories will be blank -- and the territorial outlines occupy the unwanted upper two-thirds of the graphic.
Zooming is an optional function that you must specially activate:
- Open the "Options" panel.
- Switch to the "Output" group.
- Select the "Interactive" checkbox.
- Press "OK" to close the Options panel.
- A cluster of move/zoom/reset controls appear in the upper-left corner of the map.
Once activated, you can marquee-select areas:
- Click-drag-release with your mouse to draw a rectangular selection frame. The frame isn't visible until you release. It's yellow and translucent.
- Click inside the frame to zoom the map.
- To zoom further, draw another selection frame.
- To slide the selection, use the arrows in the control cluster.
- To see the whole map, click the "Reset" button, located in both the control cluster and the Options » Output group.
Your zoom-selection will save with all the other map attributes.
Tips
When using the slide-arrows, the map has to redraw each time. You may find it faster to reset the map to zero-zoom and drag-zoom anew.
If using area labels, you may need to resize them to suit the new zoom scale. Go to: Options » Appearance » Labels » Edit Font Style.
Background
The Data Buffet Map module generates choropleth maps, in which the value of a statistical variable for a region is indicated by color. In our case, it's the value of a time series for a specific period. (If the period has no value, the area will be unshaded.)
In Map's simplest use, you pick a concept code (e.g. ET, employment) and a template (e.g., states), and the concept is duplicated across all the regions (ET.ME, ET.VT, ET.NH, ..., ET.AK). You can also plot synthetic series, by entering formulas that process a single concept or combine multiple concepts.