Maker! It’s Coming!

by KUMIKO YAMAZAKI on September 30, 2008 • apps geoweb: maker! • COMMENT

It’s the GeoWeb application I’ve been waiting for — Maker!  GISuser has teased us with screenshots of his first test drive with it.  They look great – Google Terrain always helps – but I’m looking forward to some experimentation of my own.

Does it support Macs??  How well does it handle large amounts of data?  Can I embed the map on my own webpage?  In the pop-up info/attribute window, is it possible to only show certain fields or do I need to upload a ‘cleaner’ data set?? Are there any mouseover effects included with Maker!? How much longer do I have to wait?? I need answers : )

OpenOffice 3.0

by KUMIKO YAMAZAKI on September 9, 2008 • apps: open office • COMMENT

I may have mentioned this earlier but an essential for any home computer, or at work, is OpenOffice. It includes everything I’ve ever used in Excel (and more!).

There’s an excellent overview of version 3.0 at Lifehacker so I won’t repeat any of it here.. except the mention of one absolutely significant improvement.. if you’re on a Mac, you must have noticed its predecessor had a bit of an identity crisis with its ctrl+C and ctrl+V copy/paste keyboard shortcut. But no more! It’s been rightfully corrected to cmd+C and cmd+V. I’ll say that’s worthy of the upgrade right there.

Editing DBFs on a Mac OSX

by KUMIKO YAMAZAKI on August 21, 2008 • apps: dbf open office • COMMENT

Free open source GIS applications are often excellent viewers, but have only limited capabilities when editing data. For example, merging and analyzing multiple datasets are basic functionalities to GIS, yet, many do not support such features.

A common workaround is to dive directly into the database (the .dbf file) and edit it using a spreadsheet application. Excel can easily handle this but Excel is not free, and this website? It’s all about FREE.. unless I say otherwise. And be warned, I found out last night that Excel 2007 can no longer save as .dbf files.

So when expensive proprietary software can’t get the job done, turn to Open Office. From here, you can merge/copy/add data to your existing table and create your final database.

The next step is to inform Open Office which cells need to be saved. Highlight only the cells you need and go to Insert -> Names -> Define. Call it Database and hit OK.

Save as a .dbf file and write over the previous version. If everything was done correctly, the newly edited attribute table should be available for your geowebbing pleasure. I skipped through some steps so please don’t hesitate to ask questions!