Viewing the Map
When viewing the map on a computer, the reader has many options for changing the map and drilling down into more depth. The first thing to notice is that when viewing the report, the two visible map related objects are the map itself and the legend. However, when you click on the map object, then the map navigator appears in the bottom right hand corner. The map navigator is only visible when the map object is selected.
If by chance, the map navigator doesn’t appear, then you can enable it by right-clicking on the map and selecting Map Navigator from the pop-up menu. If you deliberately don’t want the map navigator to be shown, then go back to the pop-up menu and unselect that option.
Using the Map Navigator
The map navigator makes it easy to change the current view of the map. You can zoom in or out, and pan the view in different directions. The map navigator gives you a small-scale version of the map and shows a small box on top of it that designates the portion of the map you are currently viewing. An example of the map navigator is shown in Figure 14-14.
Figure 14-14. A close-up view of the Map Navigator.
As you can see in this figure, there is an outline of a box on top of the overall map. This outline defines the perimeter of the viewable area. By putting the mouse on the corners of the box, you can change the dimensions to be either smaller or larger. If you make the box smaller, you are zooming in on a particular region of the map. If you make the box larger, you are zooming out. Notice that you can only change the size of this box by dragging the corners – you can’t use the top or side edges to do this. This limitation ensures that the box keeps the correct proportions.
The box outline is also used for panning to a different location on the map. If you move the mouse anywhere within the boundary of the box, then the mouse changes to a crosshairs icon. By holding down the mouse button, you can move the box around and it pans the larger map to the new location.
An interesting thing about the map navigator is that it isn’t attached to the map. Even though it appears in the bottom right-hand corner by default, it can be placed anywhere on the map. You can move it higher so that it is closer to the report legend, or even move it on top of the map if that makes navigating it easier.
All the navigational tools provided by the map navigator are also available on the map’s pop-up menu. By right-clicking on the map, the pop-up menu has the equivalent functionality for everything we’ve discussed. To zoom in or out, choose the appropriate menu option and the mouse cursor changes to a magnifying glass. Click anywhere on the map to zoom on that region. If you want to change the viewing area, select the Pan menu option and the cursor changes to a left-right arrow. Use this arrow by clicking on the map and holding down the mouse button to drag the map around.
