Getting Started

MapInfo Professional helps you analyze your data on a map for activities such as appraisal,
conservation, forecasting, planning, surveying, demarcating, tracking, or managing. You can
tailor maps to your specific uses for analysis.
A map is a visual representation of data that has location. MapInfo Professional displays data on
the Earth, such as country boundaries, but can also display data that is relative to itself, such as a
building floor plan. Seeing data visually on a map gives you the locations of where things are,
the relative importance of things through the use of symbols or colors, and the relationships
between locations.
Figure: World map showing relative literacy rates where each color represents a range of average
values.

Data must be in the form of tables. MapInfo Professional displays data tables as layers on a map.
Each table is a single layer and a map may have many layers (tables) on display. For more
information about how MapInfo Professional represents data on a map, see What is a Layer?.
A data table organizes information by rows and columns, so that you can easily visualize and
manage information in a database, such as SQL Server, or in data management software, such as
Microsoft Excel. MapInfo Professional access data tables in a database directly or lets you
import data tables to work with them directly in MapInfo Professional's native .TAB format.
Figure: Map displaying three layers: capitol cities, country boundaries, and ocean layers. A
Query Browser window displays a table with the results of a simple selection.

Data is represented on a map as an object, such as a point to mark a location, a polygon to mark
the boundaries of a region, or a line to mark a route.
Figure: A simple map showing store loctions as points, circles as sales territories, and lines as
roads and railways.

For more information about:

Data, see Data - Where MapInfo Professional Begins.

Map objects, see Map Objects as Part of Layers.

In MapInfo Professional you begin by opening your table of data and displaying it in a Map
window. Each table you open displays as a separate layer. Before you launch Mapinfo
Professional, you will need to know where your data tables are located or you will need to set up
access to your remote data source, which is described in Working with Data in a DBMS.
To help you visualize your data and give it context, open a few of the sample data tables that
come with MapInfo Professional, such as country and county boundaries, roadways, or city
locations. If you have not already done so, install the sample data from the MapInfo Professional
DVD. For instructions on how to do this, refer to the MapInfo Professional Install Guide.
You are then ready to launch MapInfo Professional as described under Starting and Leaving
MapInfo Professional.
There is a lot of information under A Tour of the MapInfo Professional Desktop that describes
how to work with MapInfo Professional. Review this section and the other sections in The Basics
of MapInfo Professional to learn how to work with this product.
For more information about working with data, see:

Understanding Your Data

Putting Your Data on the Map

Working with Data in a DBMS 2011 Pitney Bowes

Software Inc.

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