How to Use Layouts

The example below uses census data and bar charts as a means to demonstrate how to work with a layout. In this example, the layout presents various "slices" of census data ready to be inspected by geographic area in a city. When this layout is invoked, you see the standard "breadcrumb" trail of where you are in the portal. The layout presents a choice of one of the pre-configured slices. In this case, we are seeing the standard chart entry mode, with the example slice being information on official languages:



In the right-hand panel you have the choice of picking geographic area by map area or by dropdown list box, depending on the geographical configuration chosen. In this case, we are using the neighborhood configuration, with five specific neighborhoods selected. If there are other value options (in this example, year for the data) you also make those choices in this right-hand panel.

Then, in the middle part of the screen, we are seeing bar chart displays for the various official language indicators for all of these five neighborhoods. You may pick as many geographic areas as you wish, though practically after about ten or a dozen the charts get hard to read.

NOTE: once you make these geographic selections, they remain persistent until you choose to delete them (see below).

To switch between geographic area, you do so via the buttons in the right-hand panel. In this example, we have switched now to electoral wards, which, as before, we may either pick by selecting the map or from the dropdown list. We also get a tooltip that tells us what the name of the area is on the map:



You can mix-and-match geographic areas as much as you wish (though some data indicators are not populated across different geographic areas).

In addition to a bar chart view, you can also see the actual numbers and detail. This is done by selection the main Tables tab:



The specific data is now shown in tabular form. You may sort columns, scroll left- to -right across the columns, set longer number of records to display, and conduct searches against the displayed data. When searching, you may choose these operators or syntax to add to your keywords, for example:


 * park OR city -- provides the most results
 * park AND city -- both terms must be present; fewer results
 * "park city" -- exact phrase in quotes, with the fewest results.

Also note you may delete any of the geographic areas being displayed by clicking on its delete icon, as shown in the right-hand panel.