3D Maps in Excel (Table of Content)
3D Maps in Excel
3D Maps in Excel is a three-dimensional visualization tool used to map and graph a huge amount of country or region-wise arranged data. Sometimes data is so huge that we cannot apply the filter or plot regular graphs.
How to Access 3D Maps in Excel?
To access 3D Maps, go to the Insert menu; select or click on Maps under the Power Map section.
Steps to Download 3D Maps in Excel 2013
3D Maps are already inbuilt in Excel 2016. But for Excel 2013, we need to download and install packages as the add-in. This can be downloaded from the Microsoft website. For Excel 2013, 3D Maps are named as Power Maps. We can directly search this on the Microsoft website, as shown below.
Downloading Step 1
Downloading Step 2
Downloading Step 3
Download Power Map and Install it. Now to implement in the Excel Menu bar, go to the File menu.
Once we click on it, we will see the Excel options window. In that, go to Add-ins, and in Manage, select COM Add-ins and click on Go as shown below screenshot.
After clicking on Go, it will take us to the COM Add-Ins box, and Tick Mark on Microsoft Power Map to Excel and click on OK as shown below. This will allow the installed Microsoft Power Map to be configured in Microsoft Excel 2013.
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Once this is done, we will be able to see Map in the Insert menu under the Power Map section, as shown below. With this, we can configure Power Map or 3D Map in Excel 2013.
For creating 3D Map, also known as Power Map in Excel 2013, we have some sample data of top-ranked companies in the world. (This can be downloaded from Wikipedia)
Create 3D Maps in Excel
As we can see in the below data, we have the name of companies region-wise and ranking as per sector category. Then Revenue column will be the key to be seen in 3D Map because the kind of numbers it has will be seen good in 3D towers.
Now for creating 3D Map, first select the complete data in which we want to plot the 3D Map, then go to Insert menu, under Power Maps, select Maps. Once we do that, we will get the Launch Power Map window, as shown below from New Tour.
This will take us to a real 3D or Power Map, as shown in the screenshot below.
And data that we selected for 3D Map can be mapped from the right side of the screen.
As we can see, selected data column names are already mapped with a 3D map. Now let’s link it with the map. Go to the right side of the window; we will see the layer panel. Now select columns in which need to create layers for reference. Here we have selected Company Name and Country Name in location. Here we also selected Country in category and Revenue in height, as shown below.
Here we can modify graph Opacity, Thickness, and Height in layer option as per our need.
Once we have done all the parameter setup, we will see mapped revenue on the country center, as shown below. As we can see in the below screenshot, the Layer 1 window has all the list countries and in the 3D globe with different color towers, which represent revenue gained by listed companies.
Here are the default stacked columns, as shown below.
We can replace the Country with the Company name. Let’s see below how it will look.
When we selected the Company name in place of Country, then all the companies which belong to that country in the map are visible, and for a better view for this, we have selected cluster column instead of default stacked columns as shown below.
This completes 3D Map creation from Power Maps in Excel.
3D Power Map has a different Home menu as we have a regular Home menu option for the simple workbook. 3D Map’s Home menu is shown below.
These are the short and precise options provided by Microsoft to make 3D maps more creative and easy to under for a regular audience. Some of the import options are;
- Map Labels – This labels all the locations, area, country on the map.
- Flat Map makes the 3D map into a 2D map in a beautiful way, worth trying it.
- Find Location – We can find any location by this all around the world.
- Refresh Data – If anything is updated in data, to make it visible on the map, use this.
- 2D Chart – It allows us to see a 3D chart in 2D.
- Legend – It shows the legends used, such as symbols, colors to show data on the map.
- Theme – It has different themes, as well. By this, we can use our map more creatively.
We can create a video as well by clicking on Create video icon.
Pros of 3D Maps In Excel
- It is always recommended to create a 3D map if you have data arranged region or country-wise. With the help of the 3D map, we can plot it in a more creative way.
- Creating a 3D map makes the user understand and analyze region-wise trends more precisely.
- The geographic map makes us understand the location and country better. By this, we can judge and location a country on the map and perform our analysis based on time, weather, and geographical latitudes.
Cons of 3D Maps In Excel
- Compared with 2D Charts, functions in 3D maps are not much.
Things to Remember
- Always enable location so that our location can also be mapped on a map with GPS help.
- 3D Map works better when we connect the system with the Internet.
- If you are using MS Office 2013, then follow the steps shown in the Example to download and configure with Excel 2013 to use 3D Maps or Power Map.
Recommended Articles
This has been a guide to 3D Maps in Excel. Here we discussed How to access 3D Maps in Excel and Steps to download 3D Maps in Excel 2013 along with a downloadable excel template. You may also look at these useful functions in excel –
