Getting Started With Microsoft Power Map For Excel

Introduction

What is Power Map for Excel

According to Microsoft:

Microsoft Power Map for Excel is a three-dimensional (3-D) data visualization tool that lets you look at information in new ways. A power map lets you discover insights you might not see in traditional two-dimensional (2-D) tables and charts.With Power Map, you can plot geographic and temporal data on a 3-D globe or custom map, show it over time and create visual tours you can share with other people.

You can download and install the Microsoft Power Map for Excel add-in for free from the Microsoft Download Center.

After installing the Excel add-in, you will see the Map icon appear under the Insert ribbon tab as shown below.

For creating visualizations, I am using an Excel sheet (city-wise population in India) data as a data source that you can download from my Microsoft OneDrive.

Here is the screenshot of the Excel sample data.

The sample data set must contain at least one piece of geo-spatial data (Post Code/Zip Code, City, County, Country/Region, Longitude, Latitude and so on) that allows the Measurable data (Measures) to be plotted on the map.

Each Power Map report is called a Tour where each Tour can consist of a single or multiple Scenes. Multiple Scenes are used to represent the same data with different angles. Multiple Measures can be represented on one Scene using Layers where each Layer can be presented in various forms such as Stacked Column, Clustered Column, Bubble, Heat Map or Region Map.

Create first Power Map

We are using a Excel data sheet having geo-spatial data (cities) to get started.

Open your Excel sheet and select your data table and click on Insert -> Map.

In the Layer Pane, ensure the fields are mapped correctly to the right geographic property as shown.

After selecting the right geographic property for the fields the Power Map will start plotting the data as dots on the globe as shown.

Click Next for further visualizing the data on the map.

The various types of visualizations that can be plotted will appear and we have selected the stacked column as a default visualization.

Be sure to select Population under the Height section and District/City under the Category section.

We are now ready with the visualization.

If we zoom in further we will see the city with the maximum population is Delhi.

Summary

Power Map is an interesting new addition with 3D maps and animation capabilities that adds a "wow" factor to any presentation. I suggest you work with the sample data I provided to try Power Map.