Hello and a happy #MapInfoMonday to you all.
It's been a while due to bank holidays here in Denmark but we are back with more tips & tricks around MapInfo Pro.
In today's post, we will look into one of the improvements brought to you in the v2021.1 release of MapInfo Pro: The brand new
Choose Projection dialog. Below you can see an image displaying the old and the new
Choose Projection dialog.
I'm pretty sure that you quickly can spot some of the differences but let me take you through them.
First of all, let me highlight the fact that the dialog is resizable. You can change the width and the height of it simply by dragging it on the lower right corner of the dialog. This makes it possible to see a longer list of projections without having to scroll through the lists.
Also, notice that the projections and the projection groups are shown in a single list. You can fold out the groups to see their content or fold them in to ignore their content.
Filtering
At the top of the Choose Projection dialog, you have a field that allows you to filter out projections by their name, their parameters, or their EPSG code.
It works quite simply by entering whatever term you are looking for into the
Search field. This will prompt the dialog to search through the many projections and filter out those that do not match the text string that you have entered.
In the example below, I have filtered the list by an EPSG code of a projection I often use: 25832. When searching for EPSG codes, you only have to enter the number. Do not type "EPSG" in front of the number.
Also note that if the string you filter by is found in the
Projection Group, all the projections from this group will be shown in the list too.
Favorites and Recents
The dialog keeps track of the most recent used projections, it lists these in a separate group,
Recents, at the top of the dialog. This makes it easy for you to select a projection that you have used recently.
In
a recent #MapInfoMonday post, I discussed how you can create your own group of favorite projections in the projection file. Well, you can forget all about that now as the new Choose Projection dialog comes with built-in support for favorites.
Use the small
Star icon to the left of the projection to mark your favorite projections. These will be shown in a separate list,
Favorites, at the top of the list of projections. Once you have starred all your favorite projections, you will very rarely have to go hunting for projections in other places.
Typically, when you open the
Choose Projection dialog, the current projection will be selected from the list of
Favorites and you can quickly switch to another of your favorite projections from this list.
Shortcuts
The Choose Projection is also fitted with a few useful shortcut keys.
- Shift+F to open the Favorites list.
- Shift+R to open the Recents list.
- Alt+S to go to the Search box.
And a few final words. The
Favorites and
Recents are stored in one of the preference files:
%APPDATA%\MapInfo\MapInfo\Preferences.xml. This also means that these will get posted onto a new version of MapInfo Pro automatically.
The improvements we have made to the
Choose Projection dialog have been driven by feedback and ideas we got from users through
Precise Ideas. Do remember to add your ideas and vote on ideas you'd like to see in an upcoming release of MapInfo Pro.
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Peter Horsbøll Møller
Principal Presales Consultant | Distinguished Engineer
Precisely | Trust in Data
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