Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
SPREADSHEETS
POTENTIAL PROBLEM AREAS
Growing realisation of the importance of mapping
software (largely through the development of
geographic information systems (GIS) and digital
image processing (remote sensing)) has led
software companies, e.g. Microsoft, to offer
desktop mapping capabilities as part of products
such as the spreadsheet MS Excel (see Whitener
and Creath 1997; Figure 41.4). Not only have
these developments been a direct response to new
desktop GIS products but they also recognise the
growing demand for what were previously
separate software products to be combined into
one for practical desktop applications: the sort of
applications that need more functionality than a
presentation package but less than a full-blown
GIS.
Freedom and lack of training
One area in which many, if not all, of these
abovementioned opportunities for computer
mapping are currently lacking is that of guidance
in map design. Freedom to design one's own map
and the growth in applications of spatial data
(geographic information (GI) and GIS) have made
the map the domain of the user, who is, more
often than not, not a cartographer or
cartographically trained. What this means is that
tools to facilitate map design, creation and
production are now widely available in a variety
of different guises, for anyone to use, but without
the provision of any guidelines for the user.
Figure 41.4
Desktop mapping via Excel.
