Features

See also the StatPlanet Desktop add-on modules for features which are not included by default. To compare StatPlanet Desktop with other StatPlanet Cloud, please see the feature comparison.

Map options:

• Import maps in the commonly used ESRI Shapefile format (see also: free shapefile map downloads).
• Custom design your maps in Adobe Animate or Flash, using the included Custom Flash map edition.
• Add "map points" such as cities, regional aggregations and other points of interest, through a drag-and-drop interface.
• Create proportional symbol maps using external icons / images.
• Add links to map roll-over popups (single or double click), customizable for each indicator.

Graph options:

• Additional graph types:
  • Vertical bubble chart, where bubbles can be resized according to a second indicator.
  • Multiple indicator line chart / time series chart.
  • Multiple Indicators Stacked Area Chart.
• Display benchmarks: add one or two benchmark or target lines in your graphs, with customizable labels and mouse-over popups.
• Display axes units / labels.

Multidimensional tables:

• View data for all years / time units for the selected indicator (one indicator, all years/time units).
• View data for all indicators in the selected category (multiple indicators, one year/time unit).
• View data for all years / time units and for all indicators in the selected category (multiple indicators, multiple years/time units).
• View data for all indicators in all categories, for the selected map area and year / time unit (all indicators, one year/time unit, one map area).
• Filter table by map region or by selected map areas.
• Export your customized table as a 'CSV' (comma separated values) file which can be opened in Excel or other spreadsheet software.

Data options:

• No indicator limit. Organize indicators through categories and if required - sub-categories and sub-sub-categories.
• Option to dynamically load data from a database.
• Split large data files into multiple smaller data files to reduce the initial download size, and only load additional data when the user requests it through the drop-down menus.

Meta data:

• Incorporate indicator meta data through the story panel (such as the description, source, and calculation method). Text and images can be formatted using HTML code. This meta data can optionally be loaded from external html files.
• Incorporate map area meta data through map area rollover popups. Alternatively, it can be displayed as a scrollable panel when clicking on a map area.
• Incorporate category meta data as a rollover popup when selecting categories through the drop-down menu.
• Automatic meta data importing.

Add-on modules:

• Various additional features are available through add-on modules.

International character sets:

• International character sets are available on request, e.g. Arabic or Chinese. Please note that fonts are embedded, so they increase the size of the application - usually by around 50 to 250 kb.

Other features:

• E-mail feedback icon: Include an optional e-mail icon with customizable e-mail address/subject/body to get comments or feedback from users.
• Link icon: copy (share) a link to the currently selected indicator, graph and time/year.
• Search panel: dynamic search for indicators, with search results updating as you type.
• Sitemap: auto-generate a complete categorized list of links to all indicators in StatPlanet (produces HTML code for embedding in a web-page). See example.
• Statistics: display customizable indicator-level statistics (total, mean, standard deviation, range).

For more details, see also the release notes.

StatPlanet Desktop Editions

• World Map: StatPlanet with embedded world map. It comes with predefined world map regions and pre-positioned country text labels, both of which can be customized. Dashed grey lines are used to show disputed borders between countries. The import macro is optimized for importing country-level data regardless of the country code or naming used in your data files.
  • View demo
     
• USA State Map: StatPlanet with embedded US state map. It comes with predefined US map regions and pre-positioned US state text labels, both of which can be customized.
  • View demo

• Custom Map: Load any ESRI shapefile map into StatPlanet, one of the most common map formats. To optimize your maps for the web, please see: simplify and reduce the size of your maps. For large shapefile maps (over 1000 map areas) it is recommended that you test the map to confirm it is compatible with StatPlanet prior to purchase.
  • View demo

Related software:

• StatPlanet Cloud: The web-based, cross-platform version of StatPlanet Desktop with support for flexible, drag-and-drop layouts
• StatTrends: Visualize non-spatial data

Load shapefile maps

StatPlanet Desktop can be used to easily load shapefile maps, one of the most popular map formats. For most shapefile maps, it only takes a few minutes to have them up and running in StatPlanet. Simply copy your shapefiles to the StatPlanet 'map' directory and run 'setup shapefile' in the StatPlanet Data Editor. For more details, please see the quick start guide.

The 'shapefile' format is a geospatial vector data format. Shapefile maps of most regions and countries can be downloaded for free (including sub-national boundaries at various administrative levels).

The Flash-based (actionscript) code for loading in the shapefile maps is open source.