Map Designer, as shown in Figure 4‑23, is the visual tool you use to create maps. In Map Designer, you can add measure and location boxes and text boxes, and use lines and arrows to create a relationship between the boxes. You can also add a background image to the map, change the map size, and specify the default measure and location or text box selection.

Figure 4‑24 shows the Map Designer toolbar.

When you open the Map Designer from Setup➛Maps, save changes by performing one of the following tasks:

Maps support undoing or redoing a change made to a map in the Map Designer. To undo a change, right-click and choose Undo action, as shown in Figure 4‑25. To reverse an undo action, right-click and choose Redo action.

You can add a background image and a background color to a map. A background image can give context to measure and location boxes. For example, use a strategy map image containing rows that you can add specific measures and locations to when you design the map. Note that you must create an image in Metrics Management first to use it in a map.

You can also define a color as a map background. If you use both a background image and color, the image displays on top of the background color.

In the Map Designer, the dashed red line indicates the size of map. You can provide pixel values to manually increase or decrease the size of the map. Alternatively, you can permit Metrics Management to resize the map area. Metrics Management adjusts the map area to accommodate either the maximum size of the image in the map background, or map objects that are outside of the background area.

You can add a measure and location box to a map, and specify settings for the box. Measures or locations can be unavailable to measure and location boxes, depending on the choices made in Map Contents in Setup➛Maps in the Windows client. Depending on Map Contents settings, you can choose to define the following items for a measure and location box:

By default, a measure and location box displays text and performance indicator colors that are defined for the database. Before specifying a personalized font or background color for a measure and location box, override the database settings by deselecting Show measure and location performance colors in View Options.

Additionally, you can hide measure and location information to create a performance dot, which resembles a traffic light, to the map to align performance with background images. For example, use a country map as a map background, and add performance dots to the map to represent the performance of cities.

You can choose a measure and location for an individual measure and location box. The Measure or Location list can be unavailable, depending on the choices made in Map Contents in Setup➛Maps. You can also create a box attachment, such as a briefing book or view.

You can create a specific period or a computed period for a measure and location box. A specific period is static and does not change when a user changes the period in a map. A computed period is the selected period in the map plus or minus a value that you specify. For example, if the computed period is defined as –1, and the selected period is February 2011, the computed period is January 2011.

You can use specific or computed periods to show trends from one period to another on one map. For example, create multiple measure and location boxes with the same measure, but with differing periods to show trends in sales.

You can also define a specific comparison series for a measure and location box. The comparison series does not change when a user changes the comparison series in a map. Choose a specific comparison series to show measures and locations with different comparatives, for example Actual vs. Target and Actual vs. Last Year for the same measure, on one map.

You can define the color, shape, border, relative positioning, and size of a measure and location box.

You can specify what to display in a measure and location box, such as the measure name, and the base and comparison series.

Add the text box to the map, and define the text box properties, such as font and font size, and text box background color.

Optionally, create a link to a Metrics Management object, for example a book or view. Consider creating a hidden link if the attached object’s name is longer than the text box. A map user opens a hidden link by right-clicking and selecting Launch link from the shortcut menu.

Metrics Management supports specifying which measure and location or text box is selected when a map opens. Consider specifying a default measure and location box to ensure that the map does not show a blank dashboard when opened.

Right-click a measure and location or text box and select Set as default node, as shown in Figure 4‑39.

To locate the default measure and location or text box, right-click the map and select Go to default node, as shown in Figure 4‑40. To specify no default node, choose Clear default node.

You can add a line to a map and define properties for it. You can change the position of a line on the map, change the line width, style, and color, and add or remove arrows from a line.

You can precisely connect a line to a map object.

To change the position of the line on the map by adjusting each point individually, choose Points and change the X and Y value for each point you want to change.

At the bottom of the Map Designer, the X and Y values show the position of the cursor, where X=0 at the left of the page and Y=0 at the top of the page. As you move the cursor to the right, the value of X increases, and as you move down, the value of Y increases.

You can use a joint to angle a straight line or to add another curve to a curve line.

You can use snap to grid to align measure and location boxes, text boxes, and lines to a grid on the map. You can show or hide the grid and change the grid size. Boxes and lines snap to the grid as follows:

You can also show the X and Y coordinates, width, and height for an object on the map, such as a measure and location box or a line.

Right-click the map and choose Show snap grid, as shown in Figure 4‑47, or Hide snap grid.

In the bottom toolbar, provide a value in Snap distance to increase or decrease the pixel size between lines in the grid. You can enter a pixel value between 0 and 99. Decrease the pixel value to align boxes and lines with a high degree of precision.

Choose Snap to Grid. All objects on the map align to the grid. To align a new map object to the grid, choose Snap to Grid again.