Visualizing Excel Data on a Canadian Basemap

ArcGIS for Office works directly with an ArcGIS Online organization or with an ArcGIS Enterprise instance. The ArcGIS for Office add-in connects to ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Enterprise and allows users to transform graphs and charts into interactive maps. Tune your Microsoft Excel data with a stunning, informative and spatially enabled Canadian basemap.

ArcGIS for Excel has recently released a new component combining the familiar customized Microsoft Excel formulas with functions that allow users to geocode, geoenrich and perform route operations. Read up on how you can get started with ArcGIS for Excel.

With the newest addition of connecting to ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Enterprise, you can now visualize your data on the Community Map of Canada vector basemaps. This blog post will break down how to add these vector basemaps to both ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Enterprise. 

ArcGIS Online

From the Microsoft AppSource store, click the Get it now button to install the software, then open Microsoft Excel.

• Open ArcGIS for Office
• Connect the add-in and log into ArcGIS Online
• Currently, only raster basemaps are available for selection and none of the Community Map of Canada vector basemaps, let us rectify this by going through these steps:

Setting up Vector Basemaps in ArcGIS Online

1. Log in as an administrator for your ArcGIS Online organization
2. Click Groups at the top of the site and click Create group on the My Groups tab
3. Create the group, leave the group empty or share your own customized basemaps here
   • Ensure to share the basemap with your new group and with your organization
4. Click on Organization at the top of your screen
5. Click on Settings on the far right in the menu bar at the top of the page
6. Then click the Map tab on the left-hand side
7. Scroll to the Basemap Gallery and change the default to the newly created group
8. Select the Share basemaps button

Now your ArcGIS Online account is enabled for the Community Maps of Canada vector basemaps. 

ArcGIS Enterprise

If you are using ArcGIS for Office with ArcGIS Enterprise, please follow the install documentation. You will also need to follow the steps listed in these two blog posts to enable the Community Map of Canada vector basemap in either the online or offline workflow.

• Adding the Community Map of Canada Vector Basemaps to Enterprise
• Taking the Community Map of Canada Vector Basemap Offline (part 2: ArcGIS Enterprise)

Setting up Vector Basemaps in ArcGIS Enterprise

1. Log in as an administrator for your ArcGIS Enterprise organization
2. Click Groups at the top of the site and click Create group on the My Groups tab
3. Create the group, leave the group empty or share your own customized basemaps here
   • Ensure to share the basemap with your new group and with your organization
4. Click on Organization at the top of your screen
5. Click on Settings on the far right in the menu bar at the top of the page
6. Then click the Map tab on the left-hand side
7. Scroll to the Basemap Gallery and change the default to the newly created group
8. Select the Share basemaps button

Now your ArcGIS Enterprise environment is enabled for the Community Maps of Canada vector basemaps.

You can update the thumbnails for the web maps to help your users visually choose a Canadian vector basemap.

• Read more about customizing your basemap gallery here.

Additional Resources

The Esri Academy has a learning path for ArcGIS for Office. Learn more on how to utilize your excel data in the context of location, discovering patterns and relationships using interactive maps.

Want to learn more about the Community Map of Canada? Interested in contributing your data? Learn more about our Community Map Program.

This post was translated to French and can be viewed here.