This tutorial will examine a hypothetical scenario in which we will build up a complex presentation complete with annimations to clearly present a complex map in stages. We will use many of the editing techniques that we have discussed so far.

Our starting point is a readership penetration map overlayed on a drivetime area. This map has a lot of information present and so can be difficult to digest in one go. With the aid of annimations we can present this information to an audience in smaller steps.

First however we will tidy up some positioning and styling issues with the map as it stands.

We will start by making the readership penetration key narrower, so that it does not obscure content on the map. First we need to ungroup the key. The steps are summarised below.

• Use the Select Multiple Objects Dialog to select the keys group
• Select Ungroup from the Draw toolbar
• Use the Select Multiple Objects Dialog to select the thematic key group
• Select Ungroup from the Draw toolbar

Now we need to make the background, white area of the thematic key narrower

• Using the Select Multiple Objects dialog select thematickey
• Click Format→AutoShape
• In the size tab of the Format AutoShape dialog, make sure that the Lock Aspect Ration check box is UNCHECKED
• Change the width to 70%
• Click OK
• Now from the Draw toolbar choose Regroup
• Go back to the Select Multiple Objects dialog and check the new name of the thematickey group
• In this instance it it Group 483

With Group 483 still selected we use the cursor keys to move it right and up slightly to nest in the right corner of the map.

We aim to start our presentation with a simple map illustrating our drivetime, and for context we would like this to always be visible - right up until the end of the annimation. For this reason we must change the style of the drivetime catchment and arrange it infront of the readership penetration tiles.

We start by Ungrouping the map and the catchment key.

• Using the Select Multiple Objects dialog select map
• Select Ungroup from the Draw toolbar
• Using the Select Multiple Objects dialog select catchmentkey
• Select Ungroup from the Draw toolbar
• Using the Select Multiple Objects dialog, select the drivetime catchment. In this case Office 20mins
• Use the Draw→Order→Bring Forward tool, to bring the drivetime catchment just infront of the readership penetration tiles. We don't want the drivetime catchment infront of the text, hence we don't use bring to front

Now we are going to change the style of the catchment, so we need to add it's key box into the selection.

• Using the Select Multiple Objects dialog, add Office 20mins to the current selection (which should be Office 20mins)
• Now using Format→AutoShape choose a distinct style for your drivetime catchment. We are going to go for a thick red, dotted line, and no fill.

We want to add a similar distinctive style to the newspaper circulation area. Although we cannot see it now it will form part of our annimation as we build up the complexity of the slide in stages.

• Using the Select Multiple Objects dialog select just the newspaper catchment and it's associated key box. In this case The Press - York and The Press - Yorkbox
• Use the Format→AutoShape dialog to change the style of the catchment to be a thick green solid line, and again no fill.

Now that we are happy with the style we have used for our catchments, we decide to tidy up the text on the map - starting with the placenames.

We will start at the top, with the Cities. Ungrouping these enables us to change/move Kingston Upon Hull which starts as a very long label. We will select, just Kingston Upon Hull using the Select Multiple Objects tool. Then in Format→Autoshape we change the behaviour of the textbox to resize to fit the text, before adding a carriage return to the label, to make it a shorter fatter label.

Next we Ungroup large towns, before selecting just Darlington and deleting it. Whilst we are dealing with the Large Towns, we take the opportunity to move Dewsbury and Wakefield apart, so that they do no overlap. We can select Dewsbury (in Select Multiple Objects) and nudge it up a little using the keyboard cursor keys, and then repeat with Wakefield, only this time nudging it down a little - so both places are still close to their geographic location.

At the medium town level, we again Ungroup and delete Hessle.

As this is a fairly complex map, and already quite busy, we decide that this is enough placenames, and so we delete all of the Small towns, Villages and suburbs. In this case, where we don't want a whole level, there is no need to ungroup first.

Next we will try and tidy up the text of the sector labels - especially around the middle of York, as this is really the focal point of our map.

Even zoomed in, it is impossible to read the jumbled mess of text caused by the mass of placenames near the centre of York. If we used extremely small text, we could perhaps stop so much of the overlap, but is unlikely that anyone would be interested enough to read this small text anyway. Instead we will delete these pieces of text too, as they are adding little to the map.

When we Ungroup the Tile Labels group, you will see that there are now hundreds of objects in the select multiple object list.

This is the complexity that using groups, shields us from, but even with so many objects it is still possible to make an educated guess at what many of them are. We start by using the Select Multiple Objects dialog to select all of the tile labels that belong to tiles in YO1,YO10,YO24 and YO31 as we know that these are all close to York city center. Having deleted these the map becomes a little clearer, and so we might be able to pick out other candidates for deletion.

You can also reduce the font size for the tile labels if you find this makes picking them out easier - you can always change them back again once you have done your editing. It is also possible to pick out individual labels with the mouse. Using a combination of these techniques we are able to clear out the labels that overlap - especially in the important central study area of our map. Zooming back out reveals how much cleaner our map looks for this treatment.

Now that we are reasonably happy with our map, we can begin to think about how to present it to an audience a step at a time, to make it as clear as possible.

It helps to plan all of the stages in advance, as this will help us decide how to organise groups in the presentation to make their animation easy. To this end we envisage a slide that begins with a simple map showing the overall region including placenames and roads. As we present our slide we explain that we did a 20 minute drivetime and introduce that drivetime catchment to the slide. We then go on to explain why it is that we picked whatever media types and titles we did, in this case The Press - York. As we do this we can introduce the circulation area of The Press. Now looking at this map there is some significant difference in the areas covered by our drivetime and the circulation area, so we go on to explain that it is possible to drill down into more detail by examining actual readership of the title in question. If we concentrate on the 'hot' bands of readership, it is clear that the readership of The Press is not so different from our 20 minute drivetime. In this way we have introduced the audience to a complex readership penetration map in stages that are easy for you to present in small steps and easier for them to digest and understand. Our plan is thus:

• Start with map showing land, placenames and roads.
• Introduce drivetime catchment and the catchment key, but without the circulation area parts present.
• Introduce circulation area catchment and the rest of the catchment key
• Introduce the readership sector thematic, sector text and the thematic key

From the steps above we still have many levels of placenames ungrouped, and the tile labels ungrouped, which makes the Select Multiple Objects dialog very busy. As none of the text layers is involved in part animations (that is all the text of a type is added at once) we can regroup these levels.

• We select a single tile label from the Select Multiple Objects dialog
• Then choose Regroup from the Draw toolbar.
• Then returning to the Select Multiple Objects dialog we make a note of the new group - in this case Group 484

If you find it easier, you can repeat this regrouping for the placenames.

Now our first animation is made up from the drivetime catchment, and all of the catchment key apart from The Press - Yorkbox and The Press - Yorkkeytext. So using the Select Multiple Objects dialog we will choose those elements.

• Make sure the Custom Animation Task Pane is visible. If it isn't you can launch it with Slide Show→Custom Animation

• In Select Multiple Objects make sure you have nothing selected by clicking Unselect all
• Then check Office 20mins and catchmentkey, Office 20minsbox, Office 20minskeytext

• Then from the Add Effect button in the Custom Animation Pane choose Entrance -> Fly In

• The default fly in might not be quite what we want, so it is possible to modify the behaviour. Here we choose to slow it down a bit, and fly in from the right rather than the bottom.

Next comes the newspaper circulation area and it's key entry. So we go back to Select Multiple Objects and change our selection to these items.

• Select The Press - York, The Press - Yorkbox and The Press - Yorkkeytext
• Choose Add Effect→Entrance→Fly In
• Modify the Fly In animation to be at medium speed and from the right

Our final selection is the biggest. In Select Multiple Objects we select:

• Tile Boundaries
• Group 484 (the regrouped tile labels from above)
• Group 483 (the regrouped thematic key from right at the start)

Again we select Add Effect entrance, in the Custom Animation Pane, but this time we are going to choose the More Effects option

As this is a big block of solid colour arriving all at once, we are looking for something a bit more subtle. Browsing the options in the Add Entrance Effect options we settle on Fade

Now we can choose Play in the Custom Animation pane, or indeed view our slide in a full screen presentation to see the results of our work.

With just a few minutes of work we have added greatly to the impact this map will have in a presentation and presented a complex slide in small easy to digest steps. With a bit of experimenting, animation can be utilized for all sorts of advantages. Have a go yourself, and if you get stuck or just need a guiding hand, please give us a call. 

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