There are two approaches to using LandView®:
1. Querying one of the LandView databases and viewing the query results as selected objects on a map, or
2. Searching the MARPLOT® map and viewing the search results as a selection of LandView database records. These approaches are described below.
1. Querying the databases and viewing the query results as selected objects on a map.Objects are the basic map elements that MARPLOT draws and lets you manipulate. There are seven different types of objects: points (symbols), rectangles, circles, polygons, polylines, text labels, and picture objects. For more information about objects, see the About MARPLOT help topic in the MARPLOT Help.
In LandView choose a database from the LandView Startup Menu. If you choose Census 2000 Demographic Profiles, you can select the data for a specific type of census geography from the labeled file folder tab buttons.
For example, to find census data for New Castle County, Delaware you would first click on the States tab to bring up the states database screen. You would then press the View as List button to scroll through the entire database of states alphabetically. Going through list view in a database is a good way to find data records if you are not sure of the precise name of the item.
After you have highlighted Delaware, you can then click on the View as Form button at the top of screen. This will allow you to view census data for Delaware in the customized screen. The next step is to click on the Counties tab to bring up a list of Delaware counties. You would then again press the View as List button to scroll through the entire database of counties alphabetically.
Note on Selecting Census Geographic Levels: For the census database, additional geographic tabs were added to allow quick, easy browsing of records for various census geographic levels representing either legal or statistical entities. If you first choose the States tab, we attempt to show records at lower geographic levels ONLY for that state. The only exception would be selecting the MCD tab from the county screen, which will limit the view to MCDs for that county.
If you choose any tab from a screen that is not States, you get the state used in the last view at that geographic summary level. Clicking the Show All Records button will let you view all records available in LandView for that geographic level.
Another way to find data records is by pressing the Setup A Find button on the customized screen. (For instructions on how to use this, press the "?" button just below Setup A Find button.) This will bring up a screen that allows you to enter a search criterion. The default field to search will be "County" for this example, although you can choose any other field to search on. For example, if you were searching for all the counties named New Castle in the entire U.S., you would type in "New Castle" into the county box and then press the ENTER key. The customized form will reappear with the first county in the match list. The left-hand portion of the screen will indicate that it found 1 records out of 3219 that matched the criteria. For more information on screen controls and indicators see Introduction to FileMaker and Setup A Find.
However you manage to find a particular data record, you can show the selected item on the map by choosing Show on Map. A Show on Map Options box will appear that allows you to select what you would like to view: Selecting the Show Current Record button will map the current record showing in the form. Selecting the Show All Records in the Found Set button will map all records in the set and then highlight the records in the found set. Checking the Make all other objects on this layer invisible box will map only the records in found set.
Using the above example, Selecting the Show Current Record would map New Castle county. Selecting the Show All Records in the Found Set would map the counties for Delaware and then highlight New Castle County. Selecting the Show All Records in the Found Set button and checking the Make all other objects on this layer invisible would highlight the boundary for New Castle County and make the remaining county boundaries invisible.
Whether you look for a single item or a group of items, the system will invoke the MARPLOT program and the selected record(s) will be shown with tiny red squares around the border of polygons, or around the symbol of point objects. For polygon objects like states, counties, and census tracts, MARPLOT will zoom in so that the selected object(s) just fits the screen.
The Thematic Mapping function is another way to view database results on a map. Once you have chosen a summary level from the choices under Census 2000 Demographic Profiles, move the mouse cursor to the number or percentage field that you wish to map and click. Then press the Thematic Mapping button from the customized screen. A LandView 5 thematic map screen will appear that shows the frequency distribution of observations per interval and allows you to set colors and patterns for objects on the map. For example, you can display counties in various colors based on age characteristics. See Thematic Mapping for more details on this feature.
2. Inquire into the map and view the results as a selection of database records
Details on making inquiries into the map using MARPLOT can be found by choosing Help from the MARPLOT program. The following is a brief summary of how map objects can be selected in MARPLOT, and how the results can be shown in LandView:
MARPLOT has a tool bar on the left margin. The MARPLOT tools appear as a list of icons along the left edge of the map window. When you have unlocked one or more layers, the list of tools extends to include tools for creating new objects on the map. (For more information, see Tools and Layer List in MARPLOT Help.) The top-most tool is the arrow, or selection tool. With it, you can click on any map object to select it. You can also drag a rectangle (or a circle with the Ctrl Key pressed) to select all objects within the area you specify. You can also search for map objects by choosing the Search option from the List menu. The result of a search is a list of objects (search collection) that you can cause to be selected by choosing Show All on Map.
Whenever you have one or more map objects selected, you can add to the selected set by
"Shift-Clicking" additional objects. To view database information on selected map objects, choose Get Info from the LandView Databases section of the Sharing menu. (A shortcut for Get Info is to press Ctrl+I). LandView will come forward and provide you with a list of categories (databases or map layers) that were chosen, and how many records were selected in each. Press the View as List button to view a list of the records found. If you want to look at the selected database records then you can do that also.
In the Census databases, there is a Summarize button, which will sum numeric fields for the selected (or queried) record set. An example of how this can be used is: Select a set of census tracts from MARPLOT (perhaps these are tracts that are within a certain radius of an EPA-regulated facility), choose Sharing/LandView/Get Info. This will bring you back into LandView under the Tract tab. You will notice in the left-hand column that under Found the number of records found is noted. If you want to view the list of census tracts then press View as List.
Pressing the Summarize button will sum the demographic data fields for the selected tracts. Alternatively, you can select export from the file menu, specify the fields to be contained on each record, and the file type to be exported. You then can import that file into your database or spreadsheet program for further analysis.
