Microsoft MapPoint 2004
Review By: Diana Arsenault
Software Requirements:
Pentium II or higher processor;
Pentium III recommended
Windows 98, ME, NT 4.0 with SP #6,
2000 Professional or Windows XP
IE 5 ; Internet Explorer 6 with SP#1
Windows 98, ME and NT 4 – 64MB Ram
Windows 2000 Professional & XP – 128 MB Ram
256 MB Recommended
1.1 GB free hard disk space Standard Install PLUS
Some users may require an additional 100 MB free
Space for System Files Updates
Quad speed or faster CD-Rom drive
Super VGA (800x600) or higher resolution & 256 colors;
Higher resolution and more colors recommended
Microsoft Mouse, Microsoft Intellimouse or
Compatible pointing deviceAdditional Items or services required to use certain features:
128 MB of Ram recommended for optimal Territories performance
Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 or later or Microsoft Visual Studios .NET 2002
(using Windows Forms) or later required for MapPoint Active X control
Microsoft Exchange, Internet SMTP/POP3, IMAP4, or MAPI-compliant
Messaging software to send maps as attachments
Microsoft Outlook 2000 or later required to use Send map as a picture
Outlook 2000 or later required to import contacts
GPS functionality requires a GPS device that supports NMEA 2.0 or later
Configured to use COM Port 20 or less
Pocket PC running Microsoft Windows CE 3.0 or later with ActiveSync 3.1
API and 500 KB available program memory required for installation of
Pocket Streets. Installing map files requires additional memory, approx.
1 MB per city map.
Internet Connection and 14,400 or higher baud modemMapPoint 2004 is a highly sophisticated piece of software intended for business use. An extremely powerful tool that allows companies to create and view sales territories coupled with the ability to apply data to regions that will track sales and evaluate sales performance in any desired area.
The maximum number of records in a file is 10,000 but you can create several files of 10,000 each and then import the additional records to map them at the same time. You can either type the addresses in manually or import them from Access, Excel, Outlook, Microsoft SQL Server 6.5, delimited text files, most OLE Databases and ODBC Databases.
After you have your addresses in the program, you can view the addresses in nine different types of maps including pie and column charts. The program will generate an optimized driving route and provide detailed driving directions. You can also specify an area of the map to determine which destinations can be reached in a given amount of time.
To fully utilize and enjoy the full capabilities of this program, you need Visual Basic and C+ programming experience. Another surprising thing is the fact that in previous versions of MapPoint, if you clicked up and down a map you would see street addresses. That doesn’t happen on my new AMD Athlon XP 3000+ processor computer with this version.
An awful lot can be said about the visual beauty of the maps that can be created with this software. You can easily add pushpins, custom pushpins, shapes and annotations to your map. I found the easiest way to create a usable picture of a map that I could continue to edit elsewhere, was to use a screen shot program to capture it and then save it to my chosen format.
This program also has the capabilities of saving your maps as web pages, downloading your maps to a Pocket PC for mobile access to a location and it has GPS support to find and track your location with a GPS enabled device.
Microsoft Corporation
One Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052-6399
1-425-635-7222
www.microsoft.com/mappoint
Suggested Retail Price $ 299.00 US
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