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4 Easy Ways to Visualize Excel Data on Bing Maps

Ricky_Brundritt 16 Jul 2014 5:14 AM

I have been helping developers visualize their data on Bing Maps for many years. One of the most requests Ive
had in the past is, I have this data, but can you show it on a map? More often than not this data would be sitting
in an Excel file, usually with some address data, but rarely contained any coordinate information. To get this data
into Bing Maps I would geocode the address information and then convert the data into a format that could be
easily imported into Bing Maps. This usually required a few hours of work on my part and usually led to a
discussion on how this could be turned into a reusable business intelligence app.
The solution at the time was to create a custom addin for Excel or export the data to a database and create a
web app. In either case there was significant development work required. In the last few years a lot of great tools
have been made available that solve this very problem. In this blog post Im going to provide an overview of
some of these tools along with details on how you can create your own tools as well.

Power Maps

Supported Platform: Excel 2013 desktop only

In November 2012, Microsoft announced a new Excel addin called GeoFlow. GeoFlow was later renamed Power
Maps and became part of the Power BI stack in Office. Power Maps is a threedimensional 3D data visualization
tool that lets you view your data in a number of different ways on a map, such as 3D charts, heat maps, and
timelines. Currently Power Maps is only available in the desktop version of Excel 2013. Documentation on how to
get started with Power Maps can be found here.
This video provides a good overview of what you can do with maps in Power BI.

One really cool feature of Power Maps is that you can create videos out of your maps. If you are a fan of the FIFA
World Cup, then take a look at this blog post on MSDN. The post describes the making of a cool video tour
around the countries that have competed in the past World Cups using Power Maps.

Power View

Supported Platform: Excel 2013, SharePoint 2013

Power View is similar to a Pivot Chart in Excel, but with a lot more power. One of the key features is the ability to
visualize spatial data on a map within Power View. This makes it easy for you to create interactive business
intelligence dashboards that can be easily filtered and updated without the need to write any code. Power View is
part of the Power BI stack. and is also available in SharePoint 2013. You can find information on how to get
started with Power View here.

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Its worth pointing out that Bing Maps is also built into SharePoint 2013 for viewing list data on a map. You can
find more information on this here.

Apps for Office

Supported Platforms: Excel 2013, Access 2013, Outlook 2013

In the past you could create addins for the desktop version of Excel. With many of Microsofts products moving
to the cloud, a new way to add additional functionality to Office was created called Apps for Office. Apps for
Office not only work in the desktop version of Excel, but can also be used with the web versions of Office 365,
OneDrive and SharePoint. There are several map related apps already available through the Apps for Office store.
Many of them are free as well. One such app is the Bing Maps app for Excel, which allows you to easily select data
and view it on a map as pushpins or pie charts.

There are other apps for Office that use Bing Maps that work in other Office products, for example the Bing Maps
for Access app. Some apps are built into Office, such as the Bing Maps app for Outlook, which provides you with
the option to view addresses that are within an email on a map requires Exchange 2013 as well.
Anyone can create an app for Office. Documentation can be found here. As a bonus, this code sample shows how
to build an app for Office that uses Bing Maps.

MapCite Excel Add-In

Supported Platform: Excel 2007, 2010, 2013

All of the solutions that I have covered so far require Office 2013. If you are using an older versions of Office, all is
not lost. A few years ago a Microsoft partner called MapCite created an Excel addin that greatly simplifies the
process of viewing data in Excel on a map. They, like myself, found that taking data from Excel and viewing it on a
map took a lot of work. As a result, they set out to come up with a solution. What they did was create an Excel
desktop addin and embedded the JavaScript version of Bing Maps into a WebBrowser control. From there they
added the ability to geocode all the data in the Excel file, display it on the map using custom pushpins, cluster

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overlapping pushpins, and then view data as a heat map. To get everything working you simply need to enter a
Bing Maps key when installing the addin. They have since included a number of other features to this addin.
One of the biggest benefits of this addin is that it is supported in Excel 2007, 2010 and 2013. MapCite does sell
this addin; however they also have a free version available, which is a great place to start. You can find more
information on this addin on the MapCite website.

Conclusion

In this blog post we have seen a several different ways to visualize data thats in Excel on Bing Maps without the
need to do any coding. Even better is that most of these solutions have free versions that you can try out. So
dont worry about coding and get mapping!

Comments
Ricky_Brundritt 16 Jul 2014 5:15 AM #

For fast responses to questions try using the Bing Maps forums: social.msdn.microsoft.com/.../home
If you are creating a Windows Store app then take a look at my free eBook:
rbrundritt.wordpress.com/mybook

Adrian C 23 Oct 2014 5:54 AM #

Hi Ricky,
This is excellent stuff. Regarding the MapCite addin, can you comment on the security / privacy of my
data when connected to the mapping api? Are there any concerns on collection of data as it is an
external party, or should it be considered relatively as safe as a microsoft application?

Ricky_Brundritt 24 Oct 2014 7:39 AM #

When using data with Bing Maps your data stays within the users client unless you need to send data
for geocoding, routing or some other function. When geocoding address data that you specify will be
sent to the Bing servers. I do know if the MapCite addin makes use of HTTPS, but Bing Maps does
support it.

Ola 1 Nov 2014 8:35 AM #

Note:
1. You can't reselect the data area in Bing Maps Excel 2013.
2. To delete Bing Maps, grab hold of the border !

G 18 Feb 2015 11:18 AM #

Bing Maps is pretty much broken, and you will only get PowerView or PowerPivot unless you have Office
Professional Plus. PowerMap is included with all versions i think.
Good article, but Microsoft need to get a grip

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