Welcome to our series on helpful tips for PolicyMap. With over 10,000 data indicators and many online features, we hope our series can help users better utilize PolicyMap. For a complete training, please join a free online session here: Click Here
Did you know, building a custom region in PolicyMap gives subscribers the ability to create their own unique areas on the map, and then build reports for those areas. Subscribers have always had the ability to draw a custom region right on top of the map; these custom regions can cross predefined geographic boundaries like census tracts, zip codes, and counties.
Now users can draw a radius around an address or assemble a grouping of boundaries – like block groups, census tracts or zip codes – to create a custom region. To use these features, click the “Build Custom Region” in the bar along the bottom of the map and choose one of the three (3) types of custom regions: Drawn, Assembled, or Radius.
Draw Custom Region – This allows you to free draw a custom region right on top of the map. After selecting OK (read the instructions for details), your mouse pointer will appear as crosshairs. To begin drawing the boundaries of your desired region, click once on the map to create the corners of your custom region. The grey line that appears shows the boundary as you draw it. You can pan around the map by holding down the left mouse button while building a custom region or zoom in and out using the zoom bar on the left of the map. Close the custom region by clicking on the first point again. Once you close your custom region, enter a name and add an optional description in the dialogue box, then select Save. All saved custom regions will be available in your My PolicyMap. If you make a mistake while drawing your region and want to start over, simply select Disable Custom Region from the bar along the bottom of the map, and then re-select Build Custom Region to begin again.
Assembled Custom Region – This gives you the ability to select and group geographies (e.g. census tracts, or zip codes) to create a custom region. After choosing Assembled Custom Region and selecting OK (read the instructions for details), the map will display the predefined geographic boundary for your current zoom level. You can change the boundary by choosing from the drop down menu in the “Select Areas on the Map By” window. To start, click within a boundary and the area will highlight. You’ll see the name of the highlighted boundary in the “Click Map to Assemble Region” window; continue to select other areas to assemble your custom region. To remove an area you already highlighted, click it again to deselect. Assembled custom regions can now be non-contiguous or not connected. NOTE: You cannot change the boundary type in the Select Areas pulldown while making a custom region. If you do, you will lose the custom region you are assembling. Once you have selected the areas for your assembled custom region, select Save Region in the window, give your custom region a name, and select Save. All saved custom regions will be available in your My PolicyMap.
When assembling a custom region, choose from the drop down menu in the Select Areas on the Map window to select the type of geography you want to use to assemble your custom region. If you change the geography, your custom region will clear and reset.
You can clear your current custom region and start over, or Save when complete.
Custom Region by Radius – This allows you to create a radius boundary. You can enter a specific address as the center of the radius or click on the map to identify the center. After choosing Radius Custom Region and selecting OK (read the instructions for details), you can enter an address in the “Specify Center of Radius”, specify the size of your radius and click GO; OR click on the map to identify the center (you’ll see the latitude and longitude appear in the Specify Center box), specify the size of the radius, and click GO. Then, give your radius a name and description and click “Save”. If you make a mistake when either entering an address or clicking the map, select “Cancel” to clear the custom region and either enter a new address or click on the map again to specify the center. All saved custom regions will be available in your My PolicyMap.
Custom Region Uses – There are a number of ways you can use Custom Regions in PolicyMap.
- In Maps: You can display saved custom regions by choosing from the drop down menu on the bottom left of the map. Once selected, the map will zoom to that location, display the boundary of your custom region, and highlight it in the drop down menu. You can view multiple custom regions on the map at once by selecting multiple regions from the list. To remove a region from the map, simply click on it from the list to deselect.
- In Tables: You can add a custom region to a table by choosing from the drop down menu on the bottom left of the Tables page. Tables can give you aggregated values for some indicators for custom regions. If a value cannot be calculated for your custom region, the table will return a value of N/A.
- In Reports: You can generate a report for a custom region by entering the reports page, selecting the report you’d like to see and selecting a Saved Custom Region from the pull down list.
If you want to know more about a feature or topic, send your request to info@policymap.com subject “Did you Know…”
Sincerely,
The PolicyMap Team
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