You should already have received a link to MapInfo Pro 17.0.1 if you are on maintenance. The plan is also to let you download v17.0.1 via the trial download page.
MapInfo Pro 17.0.1 comes as a full installer and not a patch as we are used to. That is how we consider moving forwards – using “full” installers instead of patches for upgrades.
There is two reasons for this:
- One is that we over the coming months will see an added number of languages with this installer. The initial release of Pro only had the English language. The first 17.0.1 will hold a couple of other languages such as German and French. Ina month time we will add even more languages.
- The other reason is that the normal patch installer limits us in what we can add to a “patch” release. Typically, we would not be able to add additional resources such as text strings.
MapInfo Pro 17.0.1
Now, MapInfo Pro 17.0.1 also includes some nice improvements, especially some improvements to the usability.
Map MiniToolbar Customization Improvmements
With v17.0, we added the capability to have multiple Map Mini Toolbars. It was however a bit cumbersome to switch between these.
This has now been improved. In the Statusbar you can now see the currently select toolbar and easily switch between the toolbars you have available.
You can also use the Space key to switch between the toolbars
See Attachment
Single Key Mapper Shortcuts Added/Changed
We have added/change a number of the shortcut keys and more importantly, we have added multiple single key shortcuts.
This means that you can now switch between the tools in MapInfo Pro using a single key.
In earlier versions, the single key shortcut was limited to the F-keys and special features like Snap, Trace, Full-screen Cursor and Auto-node.
Now there is many more single key shortcuts, for example z to get the zoom in and Z to get the Zoom out tool, S to get the Select tool and P to get the Pan tool.
Notice these single key shortcuts are “case sensitive”.
You can find a full list of these in the Release Notes for v17.0.1
Layout Smart Guides now show visual cues
The Smart Guides now gives you visual cues to what it’s aligning to. This is similar to what you see for example in PowerPoint.
See Attachment
Restored and Upgraded tools added to this release
We have added additional MapBasic tools that have been ported to the ribbon interface.
- MISetMBR - Allows a DataBase Administrators and users to set the MBR for a view within a MapInfo Map Catalog stored on an RDBMS.
- RotateMapWindow - Allows users to rotate the contents of a Map window a specific number of degrees.
- Disperse - allows users to disperse coincident points (ie: stacked at same location) either randomly or systematically (e.g.: N, S, E, W, etc.).
- Labeler - Allows users to convert labels to text objects in cosmetic layer and save these to a table.
- RotateLabels - Rotate labels in map window a specific number of degrees or using value from table column.
- Symbol - Allows creation, editing, and deletion of symbols in the MapInfo 3.0 compatible symbols set.
- TableManager - Shows table properties and allows creation, editing, and deleting of Metadata in tables.
- Window Manager - Allows users to set Default View and Window Title for document windows (Map, Browser, layout, etc), and Height\Width (when windows are floating).
Besides all the above improvements, we have fixed a long list of issues.
MapBasic 17.0.1
In addition, for the geeks amongst us, there is some nice improvements to the MapBasic language.
New methods RegisterPublicFunction and UnregisterPublicFunction on IMapBasicApplication
These two new methods might not look of much but do not be mistaken. This is quite a big step in the evolution of MapInfo Pro/MapBasic.
The RegisterPublicFunction gives MapBasic developers the option to publish their own custom MapBasic function for consummation from within MapInfo Pro.
This means that if you have created a neat custom function, you can publish this function to the interface in MapInfo Pro for the general use by any MapInfo Pro user. These can be used in SQL queries, in thematic expressions, in label expressions and in Update statements. The custom function will appear in the Assist and Expression dialogs.
Add and remove buttons to any Pro ribbon tab using Create or Alter ButtonPad statements
We have also seen that MapBasic developers have struggled to move their applications to the ribbon interface.
It was tricky to get a grip of the structure of the ribbon interface and understand how to use the Ribbon .NET API.
Now they can use the methods there are familiar with to add basic control to the ribbon.
We allow the use of Create Buttonpad and Alter Buttonpad to add controls anywhere on the ribbon. There is more details on this in the Release Notes as well.