MAPEXPERT A review by Allen J. Dietz CompuServe 71066,1654 Copyright RIPC (c) 1993 Resource International Publishing Company Route 1, Box 168 Milford, TX 76670 CompuServe 70053,1702 System Requirements: 80286, 80386, 80486, or compatible PC (80386 or higher recommended), Hard drive with at least 3 MB free space DOS 4.01 or later, MS Windows 3.0 or higher, Standard or Enhanced Mode, 2 MB of RAM, Windows compatible and ISO 9660 compatible CDROM drive, VGA graphics card and monitor, MS compatible mouse MS Windows compatible printer (optional). MapExpert is a state-of-the-art desktop mapping program designed to display, annotate, and print maps of any location in the United States, from maps of the entire country to maps of a few city blocks. MapExpert uses the same database as Street Atlas USA (also from DeLorme mapping), and contains street level maps of the entire U.S., with more than 5 million streets and over 1.1 million geographic features available in the database. Users of MapExpert can zoom in on virtually any town, city, street, mountain, river, or lake in the United States. Unlike Street Atlas USA, MapExpert allows the user to draw, highlight, and annotate map features, to place and print "sticky" notes on maps, to print high quality black & white and color maps directly from the program, and to print wall-sized maps using a mosaic function. The opening screen of MapExpert is a view of North America, Alaska and Hawaii. A comprehensive set of on-screen tools are available for displaying, annotating, and printing maps. Most of the functions of MapExpert can be accessed either through pull- down menus or by using a set of Tool Box buttons. Navigation tools allow search and location by Zip Code, Telephone Number, Place Name, or latitude and longitude. A street search function locates streets and will also display block number ranges in 300 major U.S. cities. Maps can be displayed with or without latitude and longitude grids. English or Metric measurement units may be specified. On-screen tools such as a Tool Box, Magnitude Box, Cursor Box, Point Box, and Map Legend may be displayed or hidden. A distance tool measures point-to-point distance and the accumulated distance among a set of points. Clicking on any point on a map centers the map on that point. Using this procedure, one can scroll maps across a city or along an interstate highway. Maps may be zoomed from level 3 (All of North America) to level 16 (several square blocks.) Higher magnitudes display more detail and less map area. The screen display of MapExpert is highly customizable. Multiple maps may be displayed on the screen at the same time. Maps may be linked so two maps with the same center coordinates are displayed at the same time, with one of the maps displaying a higher level of magnitude than the other. This feature is useful to show general directions to a location on one map, with more specific street level directions on the more detailed map. Latitude and longitude grids may be displayed on maps. MapExpert will assigning default grid spacing, or users may select custom grid spacing, from one second to thirty degrees. Streets displayed with MapExpert use double lines at magnitude 16 and are better defined than those displayed with Street Atlas USA, although both use the same database. A variety of annotation features are available in MapExpert. These features allow users to customize maps to indicate new streets or geographic features, to highlight proposed development, to shade or mark areas, or to provide information in a boxed note. Line overlays include common mapping symbols such as rivers, islands, open water, boundaries, power lines, interstate, state, and U.S. highways, county roads, walkways, alleys, and railroads. Highlights (similar to fluorescent highlight markers) in yellow, green, cyan, and magenta are available. Text overlays can be regular, bold or italic, serif or sans serif, in various sizes. The angle of type and centering may also be adjusted. A number of symbol overlays are available, including route signs, place name markers, rounded rectangles, circles, state and national capitols, three types of diamonds, a star, two types of triangles, hospitals, parks, campgrounds, various road markers, airfields, picnic sites, and an information sign. Size, angle, and color of these symbols may be adjusted. Line attributes such as style (solid and various types of dotted and dashed lines), width, and color may be specified, as may fill attributes such as style, width, color, and transparency. Annotations do not change the basic map database, they are held in a map overlay file. All overlays may be edited and saved for future use. Maps created by MapExpert may be printed directly from the program or may be saved for importing into other programs. Maps may be printed in black & white or in color, depending on the printer being used. Maps printed directly from MapExpert may be single page maps or contiguous multiple page mural maps. The default is to print a single page map of the currently displayed map. Selecting MuralMaker will display a 5X5 map grid, with the current map in the middle. Any combination or all of the 25 maps may be printed and pasted together to form a wall-sized (3 1/2 X 4 1/2 foot) map. Print options allow the inclusion of a map title, the adjustment of the map scale, orientation of the map (portrait or landscape), and paper size. In addition to printing, maps may also be saved to the Windows clipboard in either bitmapped (*.BMP) or metafile (*.WMF) formats for inclusion in other Windows applications. MapExpert is available on a single ISO 9660 CD-ROM, and requires a 286 or greater computer with at least 2 MB of RAM, MS-DOS 4.01 or higher, Windows 3.0 or higher, VGA graphics, a mouse, a Windows compatible CD- ROM drive, and at least 3 MB of free hard disk space. A Windows compatible printer is required to print maps. Installation follows standard Windows installation procedures, and copies 3 MB of files to hard disk. If Windows 3.1 is being used, 534K of files may be deleted. Some shell programs, such as Norton Desktop for Windows, require manual installation of the MapExpert program group and icon. The basic license for MapExpert allows a user to make paper copies of the maps for personal and in-house business use only. An extended license allowing limited printing and distribution of maps (for example, on fliers or brochures advertising a business location) is available upon return of a supplemental license agreement. The license agreement allows maps generated by MapExpert to be displayed on a single computer monitor or large display screen, but prohibits the display of maps via electronic media, such as television, video tape, or cable television. Use of MapExpert maps as book illustrations, in software, on commercial products such as clothing or wallpaper, or for sale as individual maps or map collections is specifically prohibited by the license agreement. The license agreement also prohibits modification of maps generated with MapExpert by other graphics programs. Although the level of detail in the MapExpert database is impressive (for example, a number of small dirt camp roads on Willsboro Point on Lake Champlain, New York are shown), the underlying data in MapExpert has numerous glaring errors. In Austin, Texas, Lake Travis is shown in downtown Austin. It is actually 20 miles northwest of Austin. Congress Avenue is the major street in downtown Austin. Although it is labeled correctly, Lavaca and Guadalupe streets two and three blocks west of Congress Avenue are both incorrectly labeled as Congress Avenue. Building labels are unusual at best. Our Lady of Mount Carmel Hospital has been closed for almost 20 years but is indicated on the map of Austin. The State Capitol building, which has been in the same location for 150 years, is not on the map. McKinney Falls State Park, a large state park on the southeast corner of the city, has been in operation for 20 years but is also not on the map. Messages in the CD-ROM discussion area of CompuServe indicate similar errors in other parts of the country. The manual encourages users who find errors to notify DeLorme with corrections for possible inclusion in future updates. Given the potential for errors in the data, users might want to double check information with a printed map before relying on maps generated by MapExpert for critical tasks such as navigation in unfamiliar territory. In spite of flaws in the database, MapExpert is a program that may justify the purchase of a CD-ROM drive. The amount of information contained in the database is staggering. The interface is easy to learn and use, and owners of MapExpert will probably find themselves spending hours exploring the maps contained in the program. Logical function buttons, excellent on-line help and a well-written manual enhance the functionality of the program. The addition of annotation and direct printing features make this an indispensable program for individuals and organizations who use maps regularly in the course of their business. MapExpert comes with a 30-day money back guarantee. For individuals who do not need the annotation or printing features, Street Atlas USA, also from DeLorme Mapping (list price $169, usually available from retailers for $99) uses the same database and is available for about $400 less. MapExpert and Street Atlas USA are both highly recommended. This CD was tested using a Dell 486DX/33 with 8 MB of RAM, an SVGA card and monitor with 1 MB video memory, a SONY 535 CD player, Thunderboard for Windows, and an HP IIP Plus laser printer. Allen Dietz is a clinical social worker in Austin, Texas, who has been involved with personal computers for over ten years. One of his specialities is helping non-profit organizations improve the effectiveness of their operations through the use of computers. ________________________________________________________________ Published by: DeLorme Mapping, Lower Main Street, P.O. Box 298, Freeport, ME 04032 Tel: (207) 865-1234 (sales and information) (800) 452-5931, ext 8814 (Sales) (207) 865-0940 (technical support) (207) 865-3545 (BBS) (207) 865-9291 (FAX) List price: $495.00