Proportional Problem in Excel

Dear Class:

It was truly fun being in lab today! I had a blast. Sorry that I had to dart off. Unfortunately, this will be the case every lab session, as I have to lecture at 1:10 in St. Paul on Wednesdays. However, I will have office hours on Thursdays or Tuesdays -- whichever is more convenient for you -- in the lab too. I will be there tomorrow after lecture. Now, an important note for those of you using your own data. If you are using the West Nile data, you need not read further.

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Today I showed you how to determine the circle sizes for your proportional symbols using Excel. However, I quickly realized that what I showed you may not work perfectly for those of you using your own data. The reason being: my smallest value was "1"; so every other value merely had to be multiplied by one. For example, Ohio was the lowest with "1", and Minnesota had "16." Thus, Minnesota's circle size was obviously 16-times (16*) the area of Ohio's circle.

This will not be the case if your lowest value is any number other than "1." Let's pretend your lowest number is "5" and your next lowest number is "7". Seven is not seven times the size of five. It is only 40% larger than five.

Below I will show some screen captures that illustrate how to program Excel to remedy this situation. If you have any questions regarding my directions, please feel free to email me. Thanks and sorry for any inconvenience.

Whereas I told you to take a state and multiply its number of West Nile cases by the area of the lowest valued state's circle, instead you need to first figure out the proportional difference between the lowest state's number of West Nile cases and the state you are trying to figure out.

Originally, I had you type in the second lowest state's "Circle Area" column <=B23*$C$24>. B was the column labeled "West Nile Cases" and $C$24 was in the "Area" column, the lowest valued state (Ohio).

Well, to correct for the fact that not every sample starts with a value of one, you should instead type: <=B23/$B$24*$C$24>

What this does is divide your current state's value by the lowest value to get a percentage of increase. It then multiplies this percentage of increase time the smallest circle area to give you a proper proportional circle. Please email me if you have questions. Email me your Excel sheet too, and I will show you using your very own data!

Thanks again for your patience.

Setting up the smallest value does not change at all.
The area of the smallest value should be equal to your chosen radius squared times Pi (3.14).
Please see image below.

Originally, I told you to multiply the data value for each forthcoming case by the circle area for the smallest case. This works if your smallest value is 1. But only then! (See below.)



You should replace the above formula for area (for all of your cases aside from the one with the smallest value, which does not change) with this formula below. Divide the value of your current case by the value of your smallest case and multiply that value times the area of the smallest case. (Please see formula below.)

Spring Break Update

Spring Break Mapping! Africa Maize Production.
Not my favorite. What can I do to make it better?
Please post comments/suggestions below. Thanks!

I hope this blog post finds you all doing very well. I just want to say thank you to the students that chose to fill out the midterm evaluations. I really appreciate the feedback. I will attempt to address the perceived shortcomings of this course the best I can. I want to take some time to address a few of the issues that arose on the midterm evaluations, as we will have a lot to cover when class resumes on Tuesday.

PACE OF LECTURE
Darnit, Garnet! I apologize profusely for lecturing too quickly. It is a bad habit I have; I get excited, carried away, and a little too overzealous in my lectures. Though I love the topic, it truly is inexcusable to not give you enough time to take notes. So I plan on doing a better job of pacing myself.

However, I must ask you a favor. When I go too fast during lecture, please raise your hand and ask me to go back and remind me to slow down. I know it isn't your responsibility to slow the lecturer down, but you are paying for this course! So when I fail to put the brakes on, you have every right to let me know I am going too fast. I will not be mad; in fact, I will really appreciate it.

The hardest part about lecturing is knowing what pace is right for the students in front of you. While I am up there it seems like forever between slides; however, as I recall from being a student, often it is nearly impossible to keep up, because you are writing everything. I understand this, though forget it when I am lecturing, and I will buy the first three people who tell me to slow down during lecture (when applicable) a candy bar of their choice. I'm serious about this -- you are paying to learn, so don't let me cheat you out of information. Again, I apologize.

LAB
First of all, there were several great suggestions regarding how to make lab better and more beneficial. In light of the recent tragedy, I have volunteered to take over labs the rest of the semester. I hope that my being there will do several things:

• Maintain the strong class cohesion that I have really appreciated thus far;
• Better help tie my lectures to your lab assignments, because I will be there to help guide you through any questions you have and I know what I am expecting from you; and
• Allow me to show you a few tricks I have learned along the way; although, by now you are all probably becoming more proficient at some of these programs than I am!

Second of all, I apologize that your lab grades have not been forthcoming at an acceptable rate. Ben was in charge of grading your labs. I do not believe he graded your Brazil lab yet; I will do so this week. I had been grading the in-class assignment you turned in several weeks ago and planned to return it to you the day of the midterm. That morning I heard of Ben's death and did not finish grading it. You will receive it at the end of the break.

I set a personal turn around time of one week on all grading for every class I teach. This is a policy that I have had to break a few times in my career (including once this semester, because you all went the extra mile on the in-class assignment), but I will do everything in my power to turn all assignments around in one week for you from here on out.

COURSE WEBSITES
It has been brought to my attention that there are too many course websites for this course. I agree. I will never "diversify" this much again! I promise. :)

• I prefer to blog.
• I plan to keep using this blog for the following purposes -- to ramble to the class like I am right now.
• Ben preferred to Moodle.
• I will keep using Moodle for all important information, including grades, imperative information, etc.
• Facebook was an experiment that does not seem to have taken off.
• I do not check the Facebook group; so if you guys want to start using it, please feel free.
• I am loath to add any students as "Friends" on Facebook until the semester is over. It isn't because I don't like you; in fact, you are the best class I have ever had! I just want to maintain a little separation while I am in a position of authority.
  

• I apologize for any confusion caused by the myriad virtual existences of this course!

Debunking the FreeHand / Illustrator Argument
To me, the debate over whether you should learn how to design good maps using FreeHand or Illustrator is as vacuous as arguing which computer is the best -- Mac or PC.

Right now probably 10 of you are screaming: "Mac!" The other 20 are shouting: "PC!" Who is right? Is it majority rules? No, I would argue democracy doesn't help us resolve this issue. Is it based on performance? Well, no because both computers use the same chip set. So what the heck are Mac and PC people arguing about? Usability.

We like what we know. More people have been exposed to PCs for a multitude of reasons, not least of which is affordability. Now, that's not to say that Macs don't offer a sexier interface, fewer crashes, etc. (I don't know, actually, I don't use a Mac. I just take my cousin's word for it.) The point is, these two computers do the same thing in the end! People use these computers as tools for a purpose -- write a paper, surf the web, play video games, make maps, etc.

I learned FreeHand 7 when I took this course. I still prefer FreeHand's interface over Illustrator's. It's a question of usability -- that simple. Is FreeHand better for making maps? It is for me. Might some people argue that it is not, because the technology has not been developed in recent years -- yes. But they probably aren't people using this program to make maps anyway. These people are likely using Illustrator to make maps; so of course they think Illustrator is better. Thus, their argument is quite irrelevant to my using FreeHand.

Illustrator is newer. Illustrator is sexier. Illustrator will continue being updated in the future and FreeHand will not. But Illustrator is not better for making maps. In fact, FreeHand does many useful things that Illustrator does not -- like attach text to path. Vice versa, Illustrator has many features that FreeHand does not... which I can't think of right now, because I normally choose to use FreeHand.

The goal of this course is twofold:

1. To provide you with a skill: the ability to start with nothing but an idea (e.g., UFO abductions) and then systematically plan, design, and create a clear and well balanced map; and
2. To familiarize you with a graphics program that you can use to produce maps well into the future.
   

• You can use FreeHand in the future. You simply cannot buy a new version of it.
  

• On Tuesday I will show you a website of a guy who still makes all of his maps using FreeHand 8 or 9. He and his wife have a yacht and work from home, because they have made so much money over the years producing State Park maps using this "antiquated" program. He has a computer running Windows 98, he told me, with FreeHand and Mapublisher and that's what they use. Like a trusty old Chevy pickup truck, I suppose.

This all being said... I would have liked you all to have learned how to use Illustrator this semester. It was my original plan, because I was worried that this debate might erupt. The department does not have a license to Illustrator that they were willing to transfer to our lab due to costs and time constraints.

For those of you who are going to upgrade to Illustrator the first chance you get, there is a free online tutorial at the Adobe site on how to transition from FreeHand to Illustrator (e.g., what tools are the same, different, etc.). I went through it last summer and now know how to do everything I learned in FreeHand in Illustrator. It only took a few hours of tinkering to pick it up. So please do not lose sleep over this. Please.

The Book
I apologize that the book was so expensive and that some of you find it a little "dry." It really is the "source" on cartography right now, though; so I think it is worth it. Nonetheless, at the end of the semester I would really appreciate your thoughts on it and its value.


This has been amazingly long winded. If you have read this far, congratulations! You get extra credit. I'm serious -- please send me an email saying you read this line.

I hope you are all having a great spring break, and I promise not to be this long winded, nor speak as quickly as I just typed this after downing two Earl Grays and chasing it with a Pepsi, on Tuesday.

Be well.

Benjamin Alden's Cartography

The first thematic map Ben Alden made in Geog 5511 (Spring 2006).

Extremely Sad News

Ben Alden's first map in Geog 5511 (Spring 2006).

Dear Class:

I have some extremely sad news to relay to you. Your TA, Ben Alden, has passed away.

I do not have any details at the moment. Once I learn more (e.g., whether there will be a memorial service) I will let you all know.

Arrangements will be made for you to have a new TA in lab beginning after Spring Break. I will know more about this when we meet again.

I will miss my personal friend, cartography buddy, and class helper.

All the best,

Ian Muehlenhaus

Cartesia Files -- How to Open

Question:
I'm trying to open the Cartesia file for MN and every time I try, Freehand freezes up. First I unzipped the files that I wanted to use (all the MN ones) then, in Freehand, I'm going to import and then selecting the file I want, but it is not working. Am I missing a step here?

Answer:
Never IMPORT Cartesia files. Just go to FILE/OPEN. Select the Cartesia file you want. It will open.

Welcome to Mapublisher!

Dear Class:

This week you will be introduced to a great program -- or plug-in -- called Mapublisher (see the cool brochure here). Mapublisher works within FreeHand (or Illustrator); so you don't even have to learn a new program's interface to use it.

What it does is make FreeHand a GIS. You can import GIS shapefiles, GeoTIFFs, spatial data tables, and even query things. (If you don't understand any of this, please don't panic, but just hang in there!) You can even export your map as a georeferenced shapefile or GeoTIFF when you are done.

Even more crucially, it allows you to do the following things right in FreeHand:

• Re-project your map;
  
• You can label points, lines, and polygons;
  
• Design fancy graticules;
  
• Make arbitrary coordinate systems (e.g., A-H, 1-5);
• Have Mapublisher index all of the places and create a table of contents for the back side of your map (e.g., Duluth: C-5; Minneapolis: E-4);
• You can create buffers, scales, and even systematically design visual variables; and
  
• Create very detailed and preformatted legends.

It does a lot more, but you won't even necessarily need to use it to do the above. The crucial thing is that it allows you to import all types of raster and vector data that is available online and elsewhere right into FreeHand and layer the data on top of one another so they align perfectly. For those of you using FreeHand, this plug-in will be the program that allows you to get the cartographic data you need to make your maps into FreeHand.

Unfortunately, the department only has licenses for Mapublisher in FreeHand. Those of you using Illustrator may want to test Mapublisher out in FreeHand -- at least the ins-and-outs found in the tutorial -- and then when you have your data, download the Trial Version of Mapublisher for Illustrator -- which is good for 10 days. You may want to do this over Spring Break (if you aren't going anywhere) so that you have ample time to import your data and play around.

Also, for those of you who have FreeHand, or will download a trial version of it, you can download a Trial Version of Mapublisher too. 10-day limit, though. Finally, a further drawback is that we can only use Mapublisher on seven computers at a time. So please work in groups of two or three when you are going through it.

An example of text placement craziness!

This is a snapshot from a wall map I made for a client last year using Mapublisher and an old version of Adobe Illustrator. The client wanted every single "populated place" in Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota, as well as all State Highways on the map. Suffice to say that 35,000 places later, my eyes were ready to jump out of my head! And yes, some of the fonts were smaller than 7 pts! :) What stinks is now in hindsight, without the pressure of a deadline, I see so many things I would have done differently. (First of all, I should have picked a typography with a Narrow style. It would have saved space, but at the time I was in love with the font I chose. I was blinded by typographic loyalty. Ugh...

At any rate, you may think the Brazil map and its labeling is a punitive exercise. But trust me, learning how to kern, curl, tweak, shape-shift, and nudge labels around one another early on in your cartographic careers will come in very handy someday when you are asked to make a detailed reference map. So please, while you are cursing your instructor's name, learn from the experience and take notes on any tricks you come up with so you can reference them in the future!

OK, that's enough lecturing for tonight. I am still very stoked about your Brazil maps thus far. I was really impressed. But keep on working them over -- there are always improvements to be made! And remember, this is going to go in your portfolio someday.

Problems exporting to PDF? Not looking right? Troubleshooting Guide.

Hi Class:

If some of you are exporting to PDF and it is just not coming out quite right, or if your colors look off and your text looks pixeled (as opposed to pickled), below are some suggestions on how to improve this.

I find the best way to make a PDF is to use the original program -- Adobe Acrobat. But it is expensive. If you are lucky to own it, instead of Exporting your document via FreeHand, instead go to File-Print. Choose Adobe PDF as your printer, and select Options. In here you will do what is recommended below for those that are Exporting from Freehand.

If you do not have Acrobat Maker on your computer, you still have options to make your exported map look much better.

If you are using Export:
PDF files are merely compressions of images and text that are meant to make large files not only easily readable but also smaller. They are for visual documents what mp3s are for CDs. They compress the image so that it is more efficient and smaller sized and portable, but in doing so one loses some of an image's properties and clarity. Like mp3s, though, you can decide how much you want to compress the image. If you over compress it, you will get pixels and ugly colors. If you under compress it, you will get an image every bit as sharp looking as your FreeHand one, but your file will be large. For this class, you do not need to worry about how large your file size is; so you want to minimize compression (or reduce distortion in the PDF). Here's how:

There is a way to NOT compress your colors, imported JPEGs (e.g., if you brought in a Brazil flag), and text in the final PDF.

Once you have gone to File-Export and chosen PDF... Select the "Setup" button. A dialog opens in which you can manage whether colors will be exported in CMYK, RGB, or both. It is important to choose the color scheme you used to create your map! You should also DESELECT "Compress text and graphics," which is selected by default. You can also tell it not to compress the colors.

Your PDF file size will be significantly bigger, but the quality will be well worth it! It will be publishable quality then, and I am hoping the weird problems will disappear. Often such discrepancies occur because the PDF is trying to compress and save space -- like an mp3 does a CD track. The finer details will be lost, just as they are in music. The problem is, sometimes on maps details are crucial for it to look good.

Finally, if all of this is failing for you, another good idea is to export your map as a TIFF. These are uncompressed raster images that retain extremely high quality. Though insanely large, this is the type of file that publishers will typically ask for. They are high enough quality to be used by printing presses. The problem with TIFF files is that they are not nearly as universally usable as PDFs or JPEGs. But still, this is an option. Only turn in your assignment in TIFF form if PDF is absolutely not working. Also, please email Ben and let him know why you turned an assignment in using TIFF. Thanks!