MapTale settings guide

A plain-language reference to every field well and Format-pane setting in the MapTale Power BI map visual (version 2.14). You can read it, or paste it into any AI assistant (Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude) and ask it to help you set up or adjust your map.

MapTale is one visual that does the job of a whole report page: a map with category icons, status colours, boundary layers and shaded areas, grid and heat maps, project popups, a side panel, an in-map header with filters and search, and a legend. It runs entirely inside Power BI; your data never leaves the visual.

1. Pick a map style first

Format > Map style sets what kind of map this is. Each style switches on sensible defaults and hides the settings that don’t apply to it. Anything you change yourself is kept.

How Auto decides, in this order:

Show every setting (in the same card) shows the settings a style hides, for example markers on a shaded-areas map.

2. Field wells (what to bind)

Add a field to a well by dragging a column onto it. The name you give a field becomes the label wherever that value is shown (popup rows, dropdown captions), so rename the field to change the label.

Only ID, Latitude and Longitude are required. Everything else is optional and lights up as you add it.

3. Format pane

Cards follow the visual top to bottom, then the map, then housekeeping. Cards marked (toggle) have an on/off switch in the card header. A card only appears when it applies to the chosen map style and the bound fields.

Map style

• Map style: see section 1.
• Show every setting: show the settings this style hides.

Header (toggle)

The banner across the top: logo, titles, dropdown filters and search.

• Titles: Title (main heading), Subtitle (smaller line, e.g. the organisation name).
• Logo: Logo URL (https link to the logo), Logo height (px) (16 to 96; the banner grows to fit), Logo corner rounding (px) (0 square, half the height = circle), White backing behind logo (turn off when the logo matches the banner colour).
• Colours: Banner colour, Text colour.
• Filters and search: Boundary dropdown, Status dropdown, Category dropdown, Filter dropdown (the Filter well), Status: pick several / Category: pick several / Filter: pick several (one switch per dropdown, off by default: tick boxes so viewers can pick several values; the list stays open while they pick, and the button reads “2 selected”. As in a Power BI slicer, Select all ticks every box (no filter), unticking one then leaves just that one out, and a dash on Select all means some are ticked; Category stays in step with the on-map category buttons; the Boundary dropdown always picks one area), Search inside dropdowns (a search box at the top of each open dropdown, like a Power BI slicer’s search; on by default), Search box (type-ahead over Title; picking a result flies to it and opens its popup). Each dropdown’s caption is its field’s name.

Areas (toggle)

Shapes such as suburbs, wards or regions: their files, how they are coloured and how they behave. Up to three layers.

• Layers (one group per layer):
  • Layer name: what it is called on the pill, the dropdown and the popup (Suburb, Ward, Region…).
  • GeoJSON URL: https link to a polygon GeoJSON. The host must allow cross-origin requests. Leave it empty to upload a file instead.
  • Name property: the GeoJSON property holding each shape’s name. It must match the values in the matching Boundary field.
  • Use as: Switch with the pills (one layer shows at a time) or Overlay on top (drawn over the other layers, for example flood extents; switched on and off by its own pill, not clickable). An overlay’s shapes can carry their own colours in GeoJSON fill, fill-opacity and stroke properties.
  • Names from zoom: only show this layer’s names from this zoom level (0 = always).
• Behaviour:
  • Layer shown on open: Layer 1, 2 or 3, or None.
  • Overlay on at open: whether overlay layers show when the report opens.
  • Hide shapes with no data: only draw shapes named in the filtered rows’ Boundary field. Use it with a slicer or the Filter dropdown (for example Council) to show one area at a time; the map re-frames to it.
  • Show upload panel: edit mode only. Uploads GeoJSON files into the report, up to 4 MB each; use a URL for bigger files.
• Colour areas by (shading):
  • Colour by: Single colour (no shading), Count of rows, Total of the Amount or popup value fields (named after your fields, for example Total of Budget; each totals every row inside the shape, not just the current selection), or A property of the shapes (a number stored in the GeoJSON).
  • Property: which property to shade by. The card lists the ones it found on the shapes.
  • Legend caption: caption above the shading rows.
  • Number of classes: how many colour bands.
  • Class method: Quantiles (a similar number of shapes in each band) or Equal intervals (splits the value range evenly).
  • Low colour / High colour: the bands blend from one to the other.
  • Shade opacity %: how strongly the shading covers the map.
• Outline and fill: Outline colour / width / opacity, Fill colour / opacity (keep the fill low so the map shows through). Shapes with no shading value keep the fill colour.
• Names: Show names (one label per shape), Name text size / colour / halo colour.

Markers (toggle)

• Marker size (px): diameter of each marker.
• Status colour style: Filled badge (icon on a coloured disc), Colour ring (white disc, coloured ring), or No badge (coloured icon only).
• Image icon size %: how much of the badge a custom image icon fills. Library icons are unaffected.
• Fade unselected markers %: how much other markers fade when one is selected (0 = no fading).

Category icons (appears when a Category field is bound)

One row per category value: pick an icon from the built-in library of about 50 icons, or choose Custom image URL and paste the link (the host must allow cross-origin requests). Defaults are guessed from the category name (“road” gives the road icon, “school” the school icon, and so on).

Status colours (appears when a Status field is bound)

One colour per status value, used on the markers, legend, popup and stats card. Defaults are guessed from the name: for example Complete green, Under construction orange, On hold grey, Fatal red, Serious injury orange, Other injury gold.

Clustering (toggle)

Groups markers that overlap when zoomed out into a counted bubble.

• When to cluster: Grouping radius (px), Stop clustering at zoom.
• Bubble: Bubble size (px), Bubble colour, Count colour, Count text size.

Popup (toggle)

The card that opens when a marker is clicked. Row labels come from the field names in the wells.

• Show (one per bound value field: Popup: value 1, Popup: value 2, Amount): each shows that row. Turn money rows off for a public-facing map.
• Status list shows: what the status list on the area card and side panel counts per status, Number of rows or Total of Amount.
• Status list order: Largest first (default), Name (A to Z), Order in the data (as the statuses first appear), Sort column (low to high) or Sort column (high to low). The two sort-column choices follow the column in the Status list: sort column well, so you can put statuses in a lifecycle order (Planning, Design, Build, Complete). Numbers and dates sort as numbers, text sorts naturally (“Stage 2” before “Stage 10”), and a status with no value in the column goes last.
• Placeholder photo: show a grey placeholder when a row has no photo URL. Turn it off when your data has no photos.

When clicked

What a click on the map does.

• Clicking a marker: Show a popup, Show in the side panel (needs the Side panel card on), or Nothing (select only).
• Clicking an area: Filter the report and zoom, Show in the side panel (details without filtering), Compare two areas (pick area A, then B), or Nothing.

Side panel (toggle)

A right-hand panel showing the clicked marker or area, or a comparison of two areas. Viewers hide and reopen it with the tab on its edge. Intro text, Headline figure, Age pyramid and Profile table each have their own on/off switch.

• Layout: Open on load, Width (px) (240 to 600, never more than 45% of the visual), Hide on small visuals (starts behind its tab when the visual is narrower than 900 px).
• Intro text: Heading, Text (shown before anything is clicked; blank line = new paragraph, - = bullet, ## = subheading).
• Headline figure: Headline property, written as property=label:format, for example tot_p=residents:n. Blank = found automatically (tot_p, pop, population, residents or total). Area name property: a friendly name to show large.
• Age pyramid: Title, Age bands. Blank = found automatically from the shapes’ _m and _f properties, or list them youngest first as property=label|....
• Profile table: Fields, one per line as property=Label:format. Formats are % (percentage; 0 to 1 values are scaled up), n (whole number), $ (money), and 1 or 2 (decimals). ## Heading starts a group. Blank = every property.
• Compare colours: Area A colour, Area B colour (outline, tint and chart colour of each pick).

Legend (toggle)

Category icons, status colours, shading classes, grid or heat colours, and the data date, bottom left.

• Title, Start collapsed (opens as a small Legend pill; viewers expand it).
• Width (px): 0 fits the contents. A number (140 to 600) fixes the width and wraps long lines such as the data source.

On-map buttons

• Home button: clears filters and returns to the start view.
• Category buttons: one per category value, next to Home. Hidden automatically above 8 categories.
• Boundary pills: the layer switch, top left. Only shows for layers that have shapes; an overlay’s pill is a checkbox.

Info panel (toggle)

The instructions panel opened from the round i button. Not shown while the side panel is on; its text becomes the side panel’s intro instead.

• Content: Title, Text (blank line = new paragraph, - = bullet, ## = subheading), Open on load.
• Totals chart: Show chart (total of the Amount field per category, follows filters), Chart title (blank = “Total by category”).
• Size: Panel width (px) (240 to 900).

Grid (toggle; Grid map style)

A grid of equal squares coloured by the data in them.

• Squares:
  • Squares from: Group the points into squares (each row’s location falls in a square) or Each row is a square (for data that is already gridded).
  • Square size: Auto (by zoom) (1, 5, 10 or 20 km as you zoom; with a Grid cell size field, Auto picks from the sizes in the data), a fixed size, or Custom (then Custom size (km): the side of each square in kilometres).
  • Hide squares with fewer than: hides squares holding fewer rows (or Grid count) than this, so no one can be picked out from a lone point. 0 = show every square.
• Value:
  • Colour by: Count of rows, or the Sum, Average, Maximum or Minimum of the Grid value field.
  • Legend caption: blank = the summary and square size. A money-named Grid value shows $ in the legend.
• Colours:
  • Colours: Classes (low to high colour) or Earthquake intensity (MMI) (Geoscience Australia’s Modified Mercalli colours, I to X).
  • Fill opacity %: 75 matches the Geoscience Australia map.
  • Number of classes, Class method, Low colour, High colour: as for area shading.
• Outline: Outline in the square’s colour (off = one colour for every square), Outline width (px) (0 hides it), Outline colour.

Clicking a square filters the report to the rows inside it.

Heat map (toggle; Heat map style)

A heat map of the rows, fading into the individual markers as you zoom in.

• Radius (px): how far each row’s heat spreads at the opening zoom. It grows as you zoom in.
• Intensity: higher makes sparse areas glow sooner. Start at 1; lower it (0.5 to 0.7) when a dense city turns solid red.
• Colours: Fire, Classic (blue to red), Ocean, or Custom (low to high colour). Low colour and High colour appear for Custom.
• Opacity %: how strongly the heat covers the map.
• Show points from zoom: from this zoom the heat fades out and the individual markers appear, if the Markers card is on. 0 = always heat.
• Legend caption: caption above the heat colour bar (Fewer to More). Blank = “Density (weighted)” with a Heat weight, or “Density of” plus what the markers are called.

The header dropdowns and slicers filter the heat. When a filter thins the rows out across the same area (for example fatal crashes only), the heat brightens to make up for it so they still show. A filter that narrows the area instead (one council) keeps the same density it has in the full map.

Basemap

Where the map tiles come from, and how imagery and 3D appear on zoom.

• Basemap: Basemap style URL (default OpenFreeMap Positron: free, no key, no usage limits), Street and place names, Names from zoom (0 = the basemap’s own behaviour).
• Imagery: Imagery tile URL (a {z}/{y}/{x} template; default Esri World Imagery; a Nearmap or MetroMap template works too), Fade to imagery on zoom, Fade starts / ends at zoom.
• 3D: 3D buildings at street level (building extrusions and an automatic camera tilt), 3D from zoom.

Camera

• Fit to data on open: frames all markers on open and on Home. Off = use the default view below.
• Zoom out from data: extra breathing room around the markers when fitting (0 = tight, 1 to 2 = looser). Works with Fit on.
• Default latitude / longitude / zoom: used only when Fit is off (1 = world, 10 = city, 16 = street).
• Keep panning inside boundaries: stops viewers dragging far from the shapes.
• Panning margin %: extra room outside the boundaries, as a share of their size: 0% hugs the edge (no zooming out past it), 100% adds a full boundary width all around (about 3x the area). Smaller = tighter. Raise it to zoom out further.
• Re-frame on layer switch: go back to the Home framing when viewers switch layers with the pills. Off (the default) keeps the camera where it is, so viewers can pick an area and then switch layers to see what is inside it.
• Zoom to filtered data: when viewers pick in a header dropdown or a category button, the map frames the rows that are left (for example one council). Clearing the filter, Reset and Home go back to the starting view. Off by default.

Text

• Font family: one font for all text (Google Fonts names like Montserrat load automatically; falls back to Segoe UI). Map labels keep the tile server’s font.
• What the markers are (plural): used in the legend count, stats card, search box and empty-state hint (projects, assets, sites, crashes…).
• Currency symbol: prefix for money (thousands grouping follows the viewer’s locale).

Licence

• Licence key: paste the MapTale key issued to your organisation (MTL-...). Without one the map works fully but shows a watermark.

4. Common tasks

Add your boundaries. Format > Areas > Layers. Either paste a GeoJSON URL (the host must allow cross-origin requests) or turn on Show upload panel and upload a file in edit mode (under 4 MB; simplify large files at mapshaper.org first). Set the layer’s Name property to the GeoJSON field that holds each shape’s name, and bind the matching data column to Boundary 1, 2 or 3.

Colour areas by a number (choropleth). Format > Areas > Colour areas by. Pick a total of your rows (count, budget) or A property of the shapes, then choose the number of classes and the low and high colours. Set Map style to Shaded areas if you don’t want markers on top.

Show a flood extent or other overlay. Add it as a layer and set Use as to Overlay on top. It gets its own checkbox pill; Overlay on at open sets whether it starts on.

Show one council (or region) at a time. Bind the council column to the Filter well, turn on the header Filter dropdown, and turn on Areas > Hide shapes with no data. With a long list, viewers type in the dropdown’s search box (Header > Search inside dropdowns) and press Enter to pick the match.

Zoom to what a dropdown picks (for example a council). Format > Camera > turn on Zoom to filtered data. This works without boundary shapes: the map frames the rows left after the filter.

Let viewers pick several values in a dropdown. Format > Header > Filters and search: turn on Status: pick several (or Category / Filter). Each value gets a tick box; Select all (every box ticked) or nothing ticked means All. With search on, type to narrow the list and use Select all matches.

Show details in a side panel instead of a popup. Turn on the Side panel card, then Format > When clicked: set Clicking an area (or Clicking a marker) to Show in the side panel. Use the Profile table Fields setting to choose and label what is listed.

Compare two areas. Set Map style to Compare two areas. Viewers click area A, then area B; the side panel compares them. Clear starts again.

Make a grid map. Set Map style to Grid map (or bind a Grid value). Leave Square size on Auto so squares resize with the zoom, and pick Colour by. Set Hide squares with fewer than to protect privacy where a square could point to one person.

Make a heat map. Bind a Heat: weight (or leave it blank to count rows) and set Map style to Heat map. To zoom from heat into the individual points, turn the Markers card on and set Show points from zoom (14 is street level).

Zoom out the opening view. Leave Fit to data on open on, set Zoom out from data to 1, and if it still feels tight raise Panning margin % (try 60 to 100). Only turn Fit off if you want a fixed default latitude/longitude/zoom.

Make it public-friendly. Format > Popup: turn off the Show rows for any money fields (Popup: value 1, Popup: value 2, Amount). That hides the money from the popup and the stats card.

Change an icon or colour. Format > Category icons (pick from the library or a Custom image URL) and Format > Status colours (a colour per status value).

Rename a popup row or a dropdown. Rename the field in the well; the label follows the field name.

Call the markers something other than “projects”. Format > Text > What the markers are (plural).

Use your own imagery (Nearmap, MetroMap). Format > Basemap > Imagery > Imagery tile URL, paste your {z}/{y}/{x} tile template.

A setting I expected is missing. The map style hides settings that don’t apply. Turn on Format > Map style > Show every setting, or pick a different style.

Support: warren.dean@datatale.com.au. Include the version from the map’s bottom-right attribution line (for example MapTale v2.14.0.0), whether you are in Power BI Desktop, the Service or a published report, and a screenshot.