Review by Marty B

I work in the Human Resources field to put bread on my table. My interest in MapPoint was focused entirely on mapping data so I could visualize where my employees live and work. Routing information, optimizing trips, and sending data to my GPS were not the reasons I got MapPoint. I looked at the GPS connection tool and walked away confused. (Hey MicroSoft! Why not take a page from Google’s book and tell us what GPS units you can actually interface with?)nnSo my review is focused entirely on how easy it is to use MapPoint to map lots and lots of data into it. The answer: pretty dog gone easy! I took data from an Excel file and, in less than two minutes, had push pin maps of where my employees live throughout the country. This data is easily combined with, say, health plan provider data to show gaps in medical networks, or to identify concentrations of people in rural vs. urban areas.

Another Amazon reviewer took over 3200 words in a thorough product review to say he didn’t like MapPoint - especially the map displays. One man’s junk is another man’s treasure. I thought the map displays were exquisite - there are many choices of colors to use, different methods to display data - and both on screen and in print, I had no trouble seeing the datapoints. Of course, when you are mapping hundreds of data elements in a tiny region, you may not be able to see all of them, but this is where MapPoint shines: you can select how you want volume data to be displayed, so that different colors denote different population samples.

But that said, how compelling is the information that MapPoint churns out of data? Of course, that depends on who is using it and for what purpose, but in my application, it produced interesting but not earth-shaking revelations. One thing that the 3200 word reviewer said that makes total sense is to download the trial version and use the heck out of it for 60 days before deciding. MapPoint is an incredibly rich program with many features that I barely poked at. It could take hours to fully peel back all the layers of this onion to find the parts that work for you.