The first step in using your data in MapInfo Pro is to create that .TAB file from your data. This process takes the data you have created (either a spreadsheet or database) and extracts the information into a .TAB file that MapInfo Pro can use. Your data remains in tact as we go through this process. The process that MapInfo Pro uses depends upon the type of format your data is in. You can create a MapInfo table of the following data file format types:
- Microsoft Excel (.XLS or .XLSX)
- Microsoft Access (.MDB or .ACCDB)
- SQLite (.SQLITE)
- d-Base (.DBF)
- Lotus 123 (.WKS, WK1)
- ASCII (.TXT)
- Comma Delimited files (.CSV)
- RDBMS (Oracle, SQL Server, PostgreSQL with PostGIS)
- XML (Web Map Service)
- GeoPackage (.GPKG)
- OGR (.dxf; .csv; .txt; .shp; .geojson; .json; .gml; .kml; .kmz; .sqlite; .gpkg; .xls; .xlsx; .ods)
For database versions that MapInfo Pro supports, see the MapInfo Pro Install Guide.
Note: The process for creating a .TAB file from ASCII data is called "registering" instead of creating because we are actually making a series of pointers to the ASCII data. The process is different but your resulting files behave the same way.
Once you have a Mapinfo .TAB file of your data, you need to either geocode or create points for the data. You care then ready to display your data on a map, as described under Displaying Your Data on the Map.