Using maps to display data gives your reports a powerful means of quickly communicating geographical information to the reader. This can consist of sales by region, population growth by state, or even green house gas emissions by country. Maps are familiar to everyone and make it easy to quickly visualize information without reading a lot of text.

Crystal Reports lets you display different map layouts, show data in different formats, and zoom in on details. Associating organizational data with maps lets you visualize your business today and plan for growth tomorrow.

Figure 14-1. A sample map showing sales by countries around the world.

Mapping Overview

When you include a map object on your report, there are three main areas involved: the map, the map legend, and the map navigator.

The primary area is the actual map. It shows the geographic area you’ve chosen and the data being presented. Although not shown in this figure, the map can also have a title displayed in the top center section. However, this can cover up essential mapping data, so you might be better off not using it.

Along the right side of the map is the map legend. It tells the reader how to interpret the data on the map. For example, this could consist of matching colors to the appropriate number range. There are also two title lines above the legend. You can use these to display a heading and a sub-heading for the map.

The bottom right-hand corner is the map navigator. This gives you a thumbnail image of the map and it shows a dotted box around the section of the map being shown on the report. Since the reader can zoom in and out of the map as well as move it left and right, the dotted box makes it easy to see where you are in relation to the whole map. The map navigator is only visible when the reader has clicked on the map object.