Projection map – an overview

What is it for?

Use this template to make data maps with region-shading and/or points, spikes, arrows and lines as well as popups and panels to display information and geographic content. Adapt an existing example or upload your own geographic boundary file.

How to get started

1

You can either select a blueprint in the template chooser or upload your own regions in GeoJSON format.

TIP: Struggling to find the right regions for your map? Check out our GeoJSON repository where we’ve sourced, checked, and resized various region files ready for you to download and use in Flourish.

2

The boundaries of the map are defined in the Regions geometry sheet. This sheet is linked to the Regions sheet via the Geo region key which contains the data that is used to shade the map. Make sure you have a unique ID for joining boundary data between the Regions and Regions geometry sheets. 

TIP: The Geo region key column in the Regions sheet must contain values that exactly match the Geo region key values in the Regions geometry tab.



Additional data from a separate source (an .xlsx or CSV file) can be added to the Regions tab by using the merge option when importing data. Select “Merge with current sheet” upon importing your separate datasheet and select which column you would like to match and join your datasheets by. Learn more about merging data in this help doc.




3

The Regions column bindings include Geo region key,  Name and Label, Color by, as well as an optional setting for Grouped regions. In addition, you can bind any additional column under Metadata for popups, which is a great way to add more information to your visualization without overcrowding your chart.



4

Alongside regions, you can also draw points. For Points data, the template requires one row per point with at least a column for longitude and a column for latitude (both in decimal degrees). In addition, it is possible to shade points by (categorical) value and/or size points by (numeric) value. To add points to your map, switch to the Points tab within the Data tab. 



You can also choose to visualize your points data as spikes or arrows. Learn more about these in our help doc.




5

Under the Lines tab, you can add your own custom lines in a GeoJSON format. You may want to do this to indicate disputed borders, or to overlay your regions with features such as rivers. Read more about this here.



6

You can choose from over 40 different map projections in the “Projections” settings in the Preview tab. 



7

To add metadata to your popups and/or panels, supply the columns with your metadata to the “Select columns to visualise” panel in the Data tab. You can also include custom content and HTML to create layouts, formatting and images. You can learn more about this here.