Thanks, Timothy, for taking the time to write up these requests.
I'll try to dive into your suggestions and give you some ideas where possible. I won't get through all your ideas today but will come back and take a stab at the other ideas later.
I'm not trying to say that all you request is doable. I know, and so you do, that's not true. But we do have some (new) capabilities that you might find helpful. Please let us know if you think these can help you solve what you are looking to do, or if you still have to rely on other tools.
We have created the plans for the MapInfo Pro v2021 releases this year, and I know @Patrick Collins is working on a road map we can share. I'll also send you an invite to the MapInfo Lab here on the Knowledge Communities where we discuss the improvements to MapInfo Pro in more detail with our customers.
Smart Text
In one of the earlier versions of MapInfo Pro, we introduced the concept of SmartText. This allows you to add dynamic text to a layout. This dynamic text would be a single or a set of MapBasic functions that return a text. This makes the text able to reflect on changes in say your Map window, the Date or Time, or your current selection.
A couple of years back, I did
a webinar around SmartText in Layouts.
To give you a few ideas on the capabilities of the SmartTexts, I have added some examples:
- Name of map in frame named "Map-1":
$mb{WindowInfo(LayoutItemWinID(CurContext(1), "Map-1", 1), 1)}
- Scale of map in frame named "Map-1":
$mb{MapperInfo(LayoutItemWinID(CurContext(1), "Map-1", 1), 33)}
- Layout page number:
${Page}
- Number of pages in the layout:
${Pages}
You can also use this method to read values from a table and show the value on the layout.
I like the idea of getting a location for a given map. How are you doing that in QGIS/ArcGIS? Is it reading the value from the record or is it getting the value using for example the center of the map?
With v2021, we are working on giving these SmartText some more visibility by presenting the SmartText aliases, the predefined SmartTexts, in a dropdown on the Layout tab.
Automated layout generation
In the MapInfo Marketplace you can find the tool called Site Mapper developed by Kalu Ribush. Maybe this can help you generating multiple outputs?

I'll be back with some more suggestions.
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Peter Horsbøll Møller
Principal Presales Consultant | Distinguished Engineer
Precisely | Trust in Data
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