The more specific the data, the better quality the map will be. For example, there is a suburb called Springwood in both New South Wales and Queensland, so be sure to include state and postcode data to identify which location you are referring to.

To get started using Power Map:

• Select the table of data containing geographic information.
• Under the Insert menu, click on 3D Map and you are taken to the Power Map window.
• In the Location section of the Layer Pane, add as many location fields as possible to help narrow down the data. Country, Postcode, State and Suburb data can all be added by drag and drop into the window.
• Depending on the data headers in your table used to populate your Field List, you may need to ‘map’ the data using the drop-down list next to the field name. For example, you may need to tell Excel that your ‘Suburb’ field should be considered the equivalent of ‘City’.
• To determine the height of the bars on the map, which is somewhat like a 3D bar graph, add the data you wish to map to the Height area of the Layer Window – for example ‘Amount Owing’.
• The map begins to populate.

You can now zoom in on your data geographically, create scenes, take screenshots, and even create videos!

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