Sometimes a tool doesn't need to have a lot of features to be useful. In fact, some of the tools I have seen over the years only have one specific feature but they are still very handy.
InfoSelHandler is one of those single feature tools. Remi Bizet initially developed this tool.
The idea of the InfoSelHandler is to combine two often-used tools in MapInfo Pro: The Selector and the Info tool. In many cases, you need to check the attributes of your data and maybe view the extent of the spatial data too. You can select the object with the selector and see the extent of the spatial object. You can use the Info tool to click on the same spatial object and see the attributes.
The InfoSelHandler combines the two and shows the attributes of the selected record in the Info window. In this way, you don't have to constantly switch between the two tools.
Using InfoSelHandler
After loading InfoSelHandler into MapInfo Pro, the tools adds a button to the MAP tab. You can enable and disable the feature of the InfoSelHandler tool using this control.
If you have enabled the tool, it will show the attributes of the selected record in the Info window as soon as you select a record. You can select the record in a map or in a browser, that doesn't matter.
In the image below, you can see that I have selected a single record from the Eating and Drinking Places from the World Premium Points of Interest. The Info window shows all the attributes of the dataset.
If you select multiple records, the Info window will show the record you selected last.
Use Case
You have been asked to check the position and attributes of a set of points. You will have to manually inspect the location of the points and manually inspect the attributes.
To do so, you open the table with points into a map window with a base map that gives you the necessary information. You also open the table into a browser window and arrange the browser on a new vertical tab group under the map.
The browser is however not wider enough to show all the attributes of the table, so you decide to load the InfoSelHandler tool to view the attributes in the Info window as you run through the records.
Your setup looks like the image below.
To view the individual records, you select the first one from the browser window. This also automatically shows the attributes of the record in the Info window.
Now you use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+F to locate the selected record in all your windows. This pans the map to the position of the selected record.
Now you validate the position and the attributes of the current record. When you are happy with the data, you select the next record and hit Cltr+Shift+F to move to the next record.
If you need to update an attribute, you can do this via the Info window and if you need to move the point, just make sure the layer is editable and you can then drag it to the correct position in the map.
Even though this is a manual process, it is quite easy to run through the records as you can stick to the Selector tool during the process.
Download the InfoSelHandler tool
If you found this tool useful, you can find this tool in the MapInfo Marketplace either directly from MapInfo Pro 17.0.3 or newer, or via the MapInfo Marketplace website. You can also download it from the Community Download page.
The tool does require MapInfo Pro 16.0 or newer.
If you already are using the tool, feel free to share how you are using the tool.
This was yet another article in the MapBasic Tool of the Week #series.
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Peter Horsbøll Møller
Pitney Bowes
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