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MAPublisher Training Course

To help you make the most of MAPublisher and the wealth of GIS data that is available, often for free, we offer a one and a half day intensive training course. The current syllabus is outlined below. Of course, we can customise this to focus on particular areas of interest as required. The course is normally held at your premises and can be for either one person, or a group. We would suggest four as the maximum. As an alternative you could attend one of our public courses in Dalkeith - see here for the course schedule. Prices for training courses are given here.

Getting the most out of MAPublisher is a rewarding task, but may involve rethinking the way that you currently use Adobe Illustrator. This is especially so if your present expertise is mostly on the DTP side, rather than being used to a Geographic Information System. Many MAPublisher users have found that a training course was extremely useful. It will more than repay the investment because you will:

  • Quickly become familiar with the MAPublisher tools;

  • Realise the full potential of the improved work flow and productivity which MAPublisher allows;

  • Master the different procedures necessary in moving from a DTP only environment, to a combined GIS/DTP product; and

  • See how others have used it and be able to compare this against your own methods and procedures.

We are quite flexible as to the topics to be addressed, but our suggested course would cover the following aspects of the product:

  1. Importing and Exporting data using MAPublisher

    2. This includes the establishment of the co-ordinate system within Illustrator, registering map data correctly, understanding how map co-ordinates relate to DTP page co-ordinates, correct positioning of the map, and pitfalls to beware of. You will look at MapInfo, ArcView and CAD file import, and the considerations you need to look at in order to be able to export your documents back to a GIS format. Points may also be generated by importing geocoded spreadsheet tables. New features include the live GPS feed, and import / export of Google KML files.

  2. Scale and projection conversions

    3. Within MAPublisher scale and projection are set independently for each MapViewr. You will see how this gives you the ability to do inset maps, and explore related issues. See how scale conversions work, and what can be achieved. Also explore changing the projection of your map.

  3. MAPublisher Attributes

    4. What are attributes and what purpose do they serve? You will look at how MAPublisher holds attribute information, how you can add to or delete columns from the database. Procedures for editing attribute data, and undertaking mathematical calculations on attributes (for example to calculate a percentage). You will also look at importing spread sheet tables and establishing relational joins to map objects. In the latest versions this area has been completely modernised and made more user friendly. Also you now have access to a range of internal Illustrator variables, some of which are editable.

  4. MAPublisher Stylesheets

    5. You will find out how to create and use Stylesheets. These replaced the legends that MAPublisher used up to version 6. You need a good understanding of Illustrator Graphic Styles, Symbols and Character Styles. Stylesheets can be saved as part of a template document and rapidly reapplied to the next map in a series, making this a very efficient way of working.

  5. MAPublisher Queries

    6. How to quickly find things using the attributes, and how queries can be used to accelerate symbolisation and editing. Queries can be used, for example, to ensure that objects are rapidly sorted into the correct drawing order within a layer.

  6. MAPublisher Text

    7. You will learn how to generate the names for your map. This includes horizontal names for objects and baseline names (for example for roads and rivers). See why preprocessing of layers can help to reduce name placement work. This includes a practical application of queries. You will also cover the creation of a grid, and use of the grid for index generation and output of index files for type-setting. If it is appropriate, see the difference between Feature Text Label and the LabelPro automated name placement plug-in.

  1. Other MAPublisher Tools

    2. Explore various other tools including graticules, neat lines, north arrows, and scale bars. Use of MAPublisher Tables, for example to import Excel data and relate this to map objects.

  2. Conclusion

    3. We will conclude the day with an exploration and discussion of subjects of particular interest to you.

The sessions are punctuated with tutorial exercises to give you practical experience of using the MAPublisher tools. The exercises use sample data supplied by Bartholomew and XYZ.

The above provides quite a full day and a half on the product, but should cover most of the issues. We are quite happy to provide training for either one person, or more. It is more economical for you to have two or more people in the group, but four is what we would normally suggest as the maximum.