Interactive Tool Guide

The interactive tool's opening screen shows a comparison of local authority values in the Data Table, Map and Bar Chart for the first injury indicator in the list. Click on a local authority (or more than one authority) in any of these components to display the local authority's profile of indicators on the right side of the screen. This includes a Spine Chart which highlights which of the authority's indicator values significantly differ from the England average. Use the Filter button options to restrict analysis in the Data Table, Map and Bar Chart to selected groups of local authorities, or set up your own filter group. Maximise or move components and use a Screen Grab for quality printing e.g. to generate a printout of the full Spine Chart.

Further details are provided below - click on a section to jump to it.

Title
Buttons
Components
Data Table
Map
Bar Chart
Legend
Map Layers
Scatter Plot
Spine Chart
Context Menu (Right Click Menu)
Screen Grabs

Title

The title of the report appears at the very top. It lists the name of the theme, indicator and time period being displayed. It may also display any filter that you have applied to the data.

Buttons

Indicator Button: Click this button to display the available themes and indicators. Click theme and indicator names to expand or collapse them. Press the small icon next to each indicator to access details about the individual indicator. Click on an indicator to display in the Table, Map and Bar Chart. The selected indicator will be shown at the top of the screen.

Filter Button: Click this button to display the available filters - these restrict analysis in the Table, Map and Bar Chart to particular groups of local authorities. Click filter names to expand or collapse them. The available filters are:

Region or SHA: former Government Office Regions, except the South East Region which is split into the 2 component Strategic Health Authorities: South Central SHA and South East Coast SHA
SHA Clusters: Strategic Health Authority clusters - North, Midlands, South and London
South East: former South East Government Office Region
ONS Area Classification (2010): Office for National Statistics 2010 revised classficiation of local authorities by area type, e.g. ‘Centres with Industry’ or ‘London Centre’.
10th Most deprived extent: top 10th of local authorities with the highest proportion of the most deprived small areas in England (most deprived= 5th most deprived in England based on the 2010 Indices of Deprivation)
5th Most deprived extent: top 5th of local authorities with the highest proportion of the most deprived small areas in England (most deprived= 5th most deprived in England based on the 2010 Indices of Deprivation)

Alternatively, a user-defined filter group of local authorities can be set up through the 'Context Menu' (right click mouse button)

Clear Button:Click this button to remove the selected local authority(-ies)

Print Button: Click this button to do a basic printout. More print options are available in the 'Context Menu' accessed by right-clicking the mouse. However, this is fiddly to use and limited. For best printout quality and more flexibility - for example to generate a printout of the full spine chart - use a screen grab to select the image to edit in another software package such as Microsoft Excel before printing. See the notes on screen grabs at the bottom of this page for further details.

Data Tables Button: Click on this button to access and download the underlying data tables in Excel format

Help Button: Click this button to access this help page

Components

All components of the report have a small arrow button in the top right corner of the component box that becomes visible when you hover over it. (Note: the legend arrow will only become visible once the user has hovered over another component). This button allows the user to maximise the component to full screen and then restore it again to its original size and location.

The components can also be resized or moved by using the little arrows that appear when you hover over the border or corner of the component. Drag the component to another location by alternately moving one side and then the opposite side.

To restore the layout to its default upon load of the report, right-click anywhere in the screen and choose 'Reset Layout' from the context menu.

Data Table

The folowing text refers to the data table displayed in the top left of the display tool screen.

Select local authority: Click the name of a local authority to select it. A selected local authority will be shaded orange. Alternatively, hold 'Ctrl' to select multiple local authorities or 'Shift' to select a range of local authorities. Holding the 'Ctrl' key and clicking on a selected local authority allows you to deselect it.

Adjust column width: Hold your mouse pointer over the divider between column headers and lateral arrows will appear. Click and drag the divider to adjust column width.

Change column order: Click a column header and drag it to change the location of this column within the Data Table.

Sort Columns: Click a column header to sort the table ascending/descending.

Magnifying Glass Icons: Click the magnifying glass icons to make the map zoom to individual local authorities.

Scroll: A vertical scroll bar will be available if data cannot be viewed within the table dimensions.

Map

Shading: Local authorities are shaded based on values in the data table according to the map legend.

Zooming: Use the slider bar on the left of the map to zoom in and out. Click the zoom full icon (bottom magnifying glass) to zoom back to full extent. Alternatively, hold the 'Shift' button on your keyboard and click and drag a box on the map. The map will zoom to the area within the box drawn. You can also use the scroll wheel on your mouse to zoom in and out of the map. To pan across the zoomed map - click the mouse left button and drag the image.

Menu: Click on the little triangle in the map toolbar to open a menu with further options for the report. These are also available via the context menu (right click mouse button) and are explained in detail in the section Context Menu

Area Selection: 'Ctrl' and click and drag a box on the map. The local authorities within the box drawn will become selected.

Select a local authority: Click on a local authority to select it. A selected local authority will be shaded orange. Hold down 'Ctrl' key to select multiple local authorities.

Tooltip: Hold your mouse pointer over a map feature to display a tooltip with the local authority name and value.

Bar Chart

Bars: For numeric indicator values there is a bar representing each local authority listed in the data table. The height of the bars is proportional to the values in the data table. Bars are displayed in the same order as the local authorities are sorted in the data table and shading is linked to the legend.

Select a local authority: Click a bar to select the corresponding local authority. A selected bar will be shaded orange. Alternatively, hold 'Ctrl' to select multiple bars or 'Shift' to select a range of bars. You can also drag a box to select multiple bars on the chart. Holding the 'Ctrl' key and clicking on a selected bar allows you to deselect it.

Error Bars: The bar chart may display error bars representing the lower and upper confidence limits associated with indicator values. These give an indication of whether the differences between indicator values are statistically significant.

Tooltip: Hold your mouse pointer over a bar to display a tooltip with the local authority name and value. It also shows the lower and upper confidence limit values of error bars.

Legend

Legend: The legend is displayed in the map layers list. It can be controlled by clicking on the 'pencil' icon next to the base geography name in this list. This will open the Legend Settings dialogue box.

Legend Settings: The items available in the Legend Settings dialog may vary depending on the data in the report and the way the report has been configured.

Border colour: The colour of the border around each geographical feature on the map.

Transparency: By sliding the bar the transparency of the shaded features in the map can be altered.

Palette: You can change the colour palette used to shade geographic features in the map by clicking on a new palette.

Reverse Palette: By checking this box you can reverse the colour palette used to shade geographic features in the map.

No. Classes: You can increase or decrease the number of classes by clicking the Increase or Decrease buttons (labelled with black arrows). The administrator may have fixed the maximum number of classes.

Classifiers: Select a classifier from the drop-down. This will decide how the ranges are calculated.

Equal Interval: The intervals between class breaks are equal. Class breaks are calculated on-the-fly and will update if you change the number of classes. Local authorities in the same class are given the same shade. The administrator may have configured the report so that the class breaks are the same across all indicators in the report. The advantage of the equal-interval classification is that many map users will find it simple to understand. However, a disadvantage is that only the minimum and maximum data values are used when determining class breaks for the intervals (rather than the way the data is spread).

Quantile: Each class in the legend contains an approximately equal number of geographic features. Class breaks are calculated on-the-fly and will update if you change the number of classes. Local authorities in the same class are given the same shade. Two advantages of the quantile classification are that it is appropriate for ordinal data (as data are rank-ordered) and that it can help make map comparisons (assuming that the same number of classifications is used for all maps). A disadvantage of the quantile classification is that it does not consider how the data are distributed. If the data distribution is highly skewed, data observations will be forced into the same class (either the lowest or highest) where this may not be appropriate. As a result, the quantile classification may give a false impression that there is a relatively normal data distribution.

Natural Breaks: This classification method is also known as Optimal Breaks and Jenks’ Method. Class breaks are calculated on-the-fly and will update if you change the number of classes. Data are assigned to classes based upon their position along the data distribution relative to all other data values. An iterative algorithm is used to assign values to classes such that the variances within all classes are minimized whereas the variances among classes are maximized. The advantage of this classification is that the data distribution is explicitly considered for determining class breaks. However, the disadvantage is that map users may not understand the classification method used and that class breaks may not be immediately intuitive.

Continuous: Each local authority is shaded a different shade using a continuous scale. This legend type is useful for identifying extremely high or low values. Where an indicator has only a small number of unique data values (say 5 or less) this may be the most appropriate legend type to apply.

Standard Deviation: Class breaks reflect the number of standard deviations from the data average (or mean). Local authorities are classified according to how many standard deviations above or below the average their indicator value falls. Local authorities in the same class are given the same shade. You cannot change the number of classes for this legend type.

Highlighting and Selecting: Hold your mouse pointer over a class in the legend to highlight the local authorities that fall into that class. Click a class to select the local authorities that fall within that class.

Map Layers

Note: At present the tool only shows local authority boundaries. There is the option to add more boundaries or service location points in future. The following text will then apply. [Click the check boxes to toggle the base geography on / off. Contextual geographies and background images may have been included by the administrator and can also be toggled on or off using the check boxes in the map layers box. Background images are "scale dependent" - they may turn on or off as you zoom into or out of the map. Note that images may not be visible at full map extent and you may need to zoom to a smaller area for them to appear. Depending on how the report has been configured, it may take some time for background images to appear].

Scatterplot

We will shortly add a separate version of the display tool which will allow exploration of the relationship between two indicators. The following text will then apply. [The scatterplot displays the relationship between data for two different indicators or time periods. Read the axis labels to see which data are being plotted. Hold your mouse pointer over a dot in the scatter plot to display a tooltip with the name and values of the geographic feature it relates to. The administrator may have configured the report to display a correlation coefficient, line of best fit and an equation for this line. The correlation coefficient is Pearson's Product Moment Coefficient].

Spine Chart

The spine chart displays cross-indicator information (i.e. a profile) for any selected local authority(ies). This shows how each indicator value compares to the England average, regional (Strategic Health Authority) average, and the range of local authority values across the country. The lowest and highest local authority value is shown to the left and right of the chart respectively.

As indicated in the legend at the bottom of the screen:

A red filled circle represents a local authority value that is statistically worse (higher) than the England average
A green filled curcle represent a local authority value that is statistically better (lower) than the England average
An orange filled circle represents a local authority value that is not statistically different from the England average
A white filled circle represents where it is not possible to determine statistical difference OR the decision has been made not to make a value judgement regarding significantly higher or lower values
the red vertical line (spine) in the centre of the chart represents the England average
the grey diamond represents the Strategic Health Authority average (Strategic Health Authority boundaries are the same as former Government Office Region boundaries except in the case of the South East region which is comprised of 2 SHAs - South Central SHA and South East Coast SHA)
the horizontal grey bar represents the distribution of local authority values around the England average. The ‘inter-quartile’ ranges are picked out using varied shading. Quartile 1 is the light grey section to the far left of the bar and shows the value range for the quarter of local authorities with the lowest values in England. Quartile 4 is the light grey section to the far right of the bar and shows the quarter of local authorities with the highest values in England.

Hold the mouse over a feature to reveal the name and/or value.

You can scroll the chart to see indicators that are listed further up or down. By clicking on a row in the spine chart you can change the indicator being shown in the table, map and bar chart. At the bottom of the spine chart you will find '-' and '+' buttons. These will collapse and expand the themes in the chart.

Context Menu (right click mouse button)

Clear Selection: This option allows you to deselect all local authorities that are currently selected.

Clear Comparison Selection: This option allows you to deselect all comparison geographies. This option is not relevant in the current setup.

Filter Selection: This option allows you to create a filter from the local authorities that are currently selected.

Clear Filter: This option allows you to clear a filter that has been applied.

Print Preview: Note that this is rather fiddly to use, the printout quality may not be ideal and the user may prefer to take a screen grab and edit the image in another software package such as Word or Excel before printing. Further details are provided at the bottom of this page.

The Print Preview option allows you to print either the full InstantAtlas dynamic report or individual components of the report. Note that this is rather fiddly to use and the printout quality maythe user may prefer You can decide if you want to print the dynamic report in 'Vector' or 'Bitmap' format. If you wish your vector layers to have transparency (e.g. if you have background mapping switched on) you should choose to print in 'Bitmap' format. If you do not require transparency you may choose the 'Vector' format which provides better quality - note that this option will only take effect if the resize option is selected below.

There are two print modes available: 'Rescale to fit page' or 'Resize to fit page'. 'Rescale to fit page' means that you will get exactly what you see on your screen as a printout, rescaled to fit the paper size. The quality of the output (especially text) might not be quite as crisp as for the resize option. 'Resize to fit page' means that the report internally resizes all components individually to fit to the paper size. The output will be crisp but text in the report may appear larger than on the screen, you might see different chart axis labels and scroll bars may appear although they are not present on your screen.

You have the options to have the buttons within the InstantAtlas dynamic report showing in your printed output. You can also choose to have the images and the background appear in the printed output by checking or unchecking the respective boxes.

Export: This option allows you to export the full InstantAtlas dynamic report or individual components of the report in either JPEG or PNG format.

Reset Layout: This option allows you to return to the original layout of the InstantAtlas dynamic report.

Add Text: This option opens a text editor window that allows you to add custom text to the report. Different styles for the text can be defined before it is added. Once in the report, the text can be dragged to a different position. The 'Remove All' button of the text editor window deletes all custom text. Single text elements can get removed by selecting and pressing the 'Delete' key on your keyboard.

Add Shape: This option opens a shape editor window that allows you to add custom shapes to the report. Different styles for the shape can be defined before it is added. Once in the report, the shape can be dragged to a different position. The 'Remove All' button of the shape editor window deletes all custom shapes. Single shapes can get removed by selecting and pressing the 'Delete' key on your keyboard.

Screen Grabs

Use this option for best quality printouts and to tailor images, for example to generate a printout of the full spine chart and add a heading.

You can capture and edit images from InstantAtlas reports using a screen grab:

Make sure the graphics are as large as possible - if selecting just one component to print, hover over the top right hand corner and click on the hidden arrow to maximise the image - toggle on/off the keyboard F11 button to further maximise the screen image.
Widen columns by using the mouse left button to click on and drag the boundary line between column headings.
When happy with the image to capture, hold down Ctrl-Alt-Prnt Scrn on your keyboard. Open another application, such as Word, Excel or Power Point and paste the screen grab (hold down Ctrl-V on your keyboard).
You can then edit the graphics (crop, resize, sharpen, etc) as required.

For example, if you wish to print out all the items in the spine chart as one chart:

Separately copy the top and bottom of the spine chart using the above steps and paste into Excel so that the images line up
Then click on each image in turn and crop unwanted parts (e.g. in the Vista version of Excel: click on the image and a Format menu option will appear, then click the crop button to remove unwanted parts of the image by clicking on the image edge and dragging inwards)
Then delete rows and adjust row height as required to join the 2 images
Add a header and footer as required

Then set up Excel to print the image either on one page in portrait format (smaller text) or 2 pages in landscape format (larger text). For example, in the Vista version of Excel:

Highlight the area of the spreadsheet to print by pointing at the top left cell with the mouse left button, holding down & dragging the mouse
Then select 'Page Layout' from the menu, then 'Print Area, then 'Set Print Area'
Select 'Margins' from the menu, then 'Custom Margins', adjust margins as required, then select 'Page' and choose 'Portrait' or 'Landscape' and adjust the number of pages as required then click OK

Apple Mackintosh options for printing or using image elsewhere:

Hold down Apple key ? + Shift + 3 and release all then use the mouse to click on the screen; a picture file of the screen capture appears on the desktop to print
Right click mouse and export as a JEPG. You can then import this into various packages to tailor as required

Adapted from the helpguide provided by GeoWise Ltd