InstantAtlas Help

Legend: The legend is displayed in the map layers list. It can be controlled by clicking on the 'pencil' icon next to the base geography name in this list. This will open the Legend Settings dialogue box.

Legend Settings: The items available in the Legend Settings dialog may vary depending on the data in the report and the way the report has been configured.

Border colour: The colour of the border around each geographical feature on the map.

Palette: You can change the colour palette used to shade geographic features in the map by clicking on a new palette.

Reverse Palette: By checking this box you can reverse the colour palette used to shade geographic features in the map.

Highlighting and Selecting: Hold your mouse pointer over a class in the legend to highlight the geographic features that fall into that class. Click a class to select the geographic features that fall within that class.

Data Button: Click this button to display the available theme(s), indicator(s) and time period(s) in the Data Explorer.

Geography Button: Click this button to display the available geographies for the base geography. If there is only one base geography in the report this button will not be available.

Help Button: Click this button to access a help document.

The administrator may have added further buttons to the report you are viewing.

Shading: Geographic features are shaded based on values in the data table according to the map legend.

Menu: Click on the little triangle in the map toolbar to open a menu with further options for the report. These are also available via the context menu (right click mouse button) and are explained in detail in the Context Menu section below. 

Area Selection: 'Ctrl' and click and drag a box on the map. The map features within the box drawn will become selected.

Select a Geographic Feature: Click on a geographic feature to select that feature. A selected geographic feature will be shaded orange. Hold down 'Ctrl' key to select multiple map features.

Tooltip: Hold your mouse pointer over a map feature to display a tooltip with the geographic feature name and value.

Bars: For numeric indicator values there is a bar representing each geographic feature listed in the data table. The height of the bars is proportional to the values in the data table. Bars are displayed in the same order as the features are sorted in the data table and shading is linked to the legend.

Select a Geographic Feature: Click a bar to select the corresponding geographic feature. A selected bar will be shaded orange. Alternatively, hold 'Ctrl' to select multiple bars or 'Shift' to select a range of bars. You can also drag a box to select multiple bars on the chart. Holding the 'Ctrl' key and clicking on a selected bar allows you to deselect it.

Error Bars: The bar chart may display error bars representing the lower and upper confidence limits associated with indicator values. These give an indication of whether the differences between indicator values are statistically significant.

Comparison Values: The bar chart can display values for comparison geographies as well as features in the base geography. Values for comparison geographies are shown using a horizontal line across the chart.

Tooltip: Hold your mouse pointer over a bar to display a tooltip with the geographic feature name and value. It might also show the lower and upper confidence limit values of error bars.

The Data Explorer lists the available themes, indicators and time periods. Click theme and indicator names to expand or collapse them. Click a time period or an indicator without a time period to load new data. The administrator may have configured the Data Explorer to not show any time periods but load only the most recent data when you select an indicator.

Click '+' button in the bottom right corner of the Data Explorer to expand the available theme(s), indicator(s) and time period(s).

Click '-' button in the bottom right corner of the Data Explorer to collapse the available theme(s), indicator(s) and time period(s).

The Geography Explorer lists any available base geography. If you choose a different geography, all components of the report will update to display the data of the selected geography. 

This table lists any comparison geographies that have been included in the report. The administrator may have configured the report so that comparison values are displayed in charts when you hold your mouse pointer over a comparison geography name. 

Select features: Click the name of a geographic feature to select the feature. A selected geographic feature will be shaded orange. Alternatively, hold 'Ctrl' to select multiple features or 'Shift' to select a range of features. Holding the 'Ctrl' key and clicking on a selected feature allows you to deselect it.

Adjust column width: Hold your mouse pointer over the divider between column headers and lateral arrows will appear. Click and drag the divider to adjust column width.

Change column order: Click a column header and drag it to change the location of this column within the Data Table. E.g. if you want the notes icons to appear right of the data columns you can simply drag the whole column with the notes icons to the right border of the data table.

Sort Columns: Click a column header to sort the table ascending/descending. Note that the Name column and the Indicator column of categoric indicators will sort alphabetically while the Indicator column of numeric indicators will sort numerically. Associate values (typically shown in columns to the right of indicator values) always sort as if they were text unless the administrator has defined otherwise.

Notes Icons: Click these icons to link to external resources.

Legend Colours: Small circles shaded in the colour of the class which the data value of this area is within in the legend. This helps to get a better visual impression of the data.

As well as printing or exporting via the Context Menu, you can capture an InstantAtlas report as a screen capture. Make sure the graphics are as large as possible and then hold down Ctrl-Alt-Prnt Scrn on your keyboard. Open another application, such as Word or PowerPoint, and paste (hold down Ctrl-V on your keyboard) the screen grab. You can then edit the graphics (crop, resize, sharpen, etc.) as required.

Clear Selection: This option allows you to deselect all geographic features that are currently selected.

Clear Comparison Selection: This option allows you to deselect all comparison geographies.

Filter Selection: This option allows you to create a filter from the geographic features that are currently selected.

Clear Filter: This option allows you to clear a filter that has been applied.

Print Preview: This option allows you to print either the full InstantAtlas dynamic report or individual components of the report. You can decide if you want to print the dynamic report in 'Vector' or 'Bitmap' format. If you wish your vector layers to have transparency (e.g. if you have background mapping switched on) you should choose to print in 'Bitmap' format. If you do not require transparency you may choose the 'Vector' format which provides better quality - note that this option will only take effect if the resize option is selected below.

There are two print modes available: 'Rescale to fit page' or 'Resize to fit page'. 'Rescale to fit page' means that you will get exactly what you see on your screen as a printout, rescaled to fit the paper size. The quality of the output (especially text) might not be quite as crisp as for the resize option. 'Resize to fit page' means that the report internally resizes all components individually to fit to the paper size. The output will be crisp but text in the report may appear larger than on the screen, you might see different chart axis labels and scroll bars may appear although they are not present on your screen.

You have the options to have the buttons within the InstantAtlas dynamic report showing in your printed output. You can also choose to have the images and the background appear in the printed output by checking or unchecking the respective boxes.

Export: This option allows you to export the full InstantAtlas dynamic report or individual components of the report in either JPEG or PNG format.