Represent Point Data with Custom Icons on a Map

You can use the Shapes edge to represent point data with custom icons in a map visualization.

You can associate a column with the Shape edge to display a custom shape for point data. For example, you can distinguish between cities by displaying them using custom shapes (for example, a square, a triangle, or a currency symbol). You can also change which custom shape you want to apply to one or more data points.

1. On the Home page, select a workbook containing a map visualization that contains point data, click Actions, and then select Open.
2. Drag and drop an attribute column containing point data (for example, city) from the Data Panel to the Category (Geography) edge on the Grammar Panel.
3. Drag and drop a column from the Data Panel to the Shapes edge and optionally to the Color edge on the Grammar Panel.
   The map visualization automatically updates based on your selection and overlays the previous layer.
4. Optional: You can change how you assign custom shapes to data points and to the map legend.
   1. Highlight one or more data points on the map using one of the selection tools, or use Ctrl-click to select one or more data points.
   2. Right-click one of the multiple-selected data points, select Custom Shapes and then select Series or Data Point.
   3. Select a custom shape and click Done.
      Custom shapes are applied as follows:

      • Series dialog - custom data point shape not previously set

        Replaces highlighted data points and series items with the custom shape.

      • Series dialog - custom data point shape previously set

        Replaces only corresponding series items with the custom shape.

      • Data Point dialog

        Replaces only highlighted data points with the custom shape.

5. If you want to reassign the custom shape for a data point:
   1. Right-click any data point, select Shape, and click Custom Shapes.
   2. To change the custom shape assigned to a data point, click the shape corresponding to the data point that you want to change.
   3. Select a new custom shape and click Done, then click Done again.
6. If you want to reset all of the custom shapes currently applied to data points on a map visualization, right-click any data point, select Shape, and click Reset Custom Shapes.

   This resets all of the shapes applied to data points on the map to the default setting.