Once you have created the perfect map, you can create and customize a layout to showcase your work in high-quality presentations or printouts. MapInfo Pro includes a layout designer to customize your map presentation for printing or sharing on-line.
Creating a layout for publishing a map is different than stylizing a map in the Map window. In a Map window you adjust the map presentation, by setting labels styles, adding a scale bar adornment, and a legend, to make it easier for anyone viewing or using your map file to understand the data being represented. Creating a layout in the Layout window lets you prepare a version of the map for publishing and distribution. You can publish versions of a map for different audiences and describe the contents of your map or the results of your analysis.
A map layout usually includes a title, scale bar, and legend, to help orient the viewer to the data on display. It also includes legal information, such as a company logo and copyright citation, and supporting information to describe the map data or the results of your analysis, such as descriptive text, images, and tables of data. The map presentation may also use unique or custom symbols to highlight key data points on the map.
A layout consists of a canvas and frames on the canvas that hold content, such as a map, legend, scale bar, text, shape, image, or table. You design a layout by rearranging these frames. You can move and resize them, align them to each other or to a grid or to grid lines, overlap them, and change their style by adding borders and backgrounds to them. You can also copy and paste them to another layout or to create a duplicate within the same layout. The commands for adding content to your layout are on the LAYOUT tab, and described under LAYOUT Tab.
For the commands to add content to your layout, see LAYOUT Tab in the MapInfo Pro: Getting Started Guide.
When you add a map to the Layout window it is live, so that you can make edits to it; you do not need to toggle between the layout and editing in the Map window. The Layout window shows the map using the printer resolution, so that you know beforehand what your printout will look like (you will know what labels will be on the printed map). In contrast, the Map window shows maps using the screen resolution, which is not an accurate representation of what the printed map would look like (labels in a Map window may not be on the printed map). To add a map to your layout, see Adding a Map to a Layout.