Working with Scan/US Menus

Scan/US has NINE top-level menus. The selections underneath offer nearly a hundred choices. Many of the choices are also available via buttons or other controls appearing elsewhere within the system.

Map menu
Data menu
Objects menu
Groups menu
Reports menu
Annotation menu
Tools menu
Tasks menu
Help menu

These main menus, arrayed across the top of the Scan/US program window, are pull-down menus, with the choices shown when you click the menu name.

Where to find the Scan/US main menus

The most-frequently used menus are at the left: you can do nearly everything you need with choices from the Map, Data, Objects, Groups, and Reports menu. So, we will describe those first, and then finish up by describing the other five.

To make this description of menus a faster read, we are not going to show images of any of the dialog boxes, or take any of the paths that result when you make a choice from the menu item.

We have done everything we can to make the menu command names as self-explanatory as possible. When they do not do what you might think. I'll point that out.

Let us start with the Map menu. Scan/US is an information-display system, beginning with a map. Always, there is a map. You do not have to compose your own map: you always start with a map that has been put together for you. Therefore, there is not a "file" menu, since except for your imports, you need not deal with map and data files.

The map menu has sections related to orientation, study area management, map layers, map themes, and printing or exporting maps:

The Scan/US Map menu

The first three choices are related to orientation. Each one makes a new map/study area.

Map: Go To..
Map: Find address..
Map: Find coordinate..

Go to..

Go To has a broad reach: it opens a dialog with 5 panels: Place, ZIP, Address, "My Location", and Lat/Long. You can choose from a list of places organized by state, enter or click on any ZIP code, go to a location by address, or enter the latitude/longitude coordinates of a location. "Go To" will make a map at that location, with the map theme you choose.

Another "Go to" option: when you have loaded a feature layer with all of your locations -- for example, store locations, a list of the locations appears in the "My location" tab of "Go to". You can go to a map (create a study area, in other words) of any location in that list.

Find address and Find Coordinate

"Find address", and "Find Coordinate", by contrast, simultaneously create a study area and create a point, ring area, or drivetime countour area at the address or lat/long coordinate you choose. You may decide to create a new layer, or add your point/ring/drivetime to an existing layer. This option facilitates working through a series of addresses and adding them to a reference layer of points, rings, or drivetimes.

The next section of the Map menu pertains to study areas. When you save a study area from this part of the map menu, you also save any changes you have made to the "look of the map". Any grouping operations you have done to objects in the study area are also saved. Any feature files you have added are saved. Since data loads automatically to objects in the map, there is no need to worry about that.

Then, you will be able to bring the map up again using "Open study area..". But ... what IS a study area?

Open study area..
New study area..
Close study area..
Save study area..
Save study area as..

A "Study area" is an area on the map, which you name. When you create the area, it is defined as a certain "height" in miles. For example, the US study area is 1750 miles "high".

It IS essential to make study areas for most kinds of demographic investigations. This is particularly true if you want to look at streets or low-level cartography such as MicroGrids. However, you don't necessarily need to choose "New Study area.." to make a new one.

If you run Site Express from the Reports menu, Site Express will create study areas for you when it makes your demographic reports. When you find a location with "Find Address" or "Find Coordinate," once again Scan/US makes a new study area for you. These commands are smart enough to know when it is necessary to make a new study area, and when a location can be found within the existing study area. Still, you can make your own new study area, with any theme you choose using the "New study area.." command:

New Study Area..

If you have selected an object in the map, choosing "New Study Area.." offers to make a study area centered on that object, with a map theme which you choose from a list of pre-defined map themes.

A "map theme" is simply the collection of features in the map, along with their appearances -- how the features appear -- at various levels of being zoomed-in to the map. An example of this would be detailed street maps not appearing when you were looking at a height of 125 miles, but when you zoom in to 12 miles, the streets magically appear. The presence of the streets layer, and the zoom-height at which they appear, are part of the theme.

Most map theming has been taken care of for you. Scan/US provides a set of standard themes. But you can define your own map themes, and save them.

Only the themes appropriate for the "height" of your new study area are shown, at the time you are making the choice of the theme for a new study area. In this way, you can't overload the system by trying to make a 500-mile high map with an inappropriate theme incorporating detailed streets. You can try to do it manually, but there is no predefined theme to do it for you.

Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico

While we are on the topic of study areas, there are four pre-defined study areas: Alaska, Hawaii, the continental United States (referred to as "United States"), and Puerto Rico. You can open these from "Open study area.." or from the Study Areas tabs. These four study areas are read-only -- that is, you can save a copy of them, but you can't mess them up by "saving over" them by accident. Also, they can't be closed -- they are always right there, waiting to be used.

Two menu choices relate to bringing new layers in, and customizing the existing layers in your map.

Map: Map layers..
Map: Import layer..

Map layers..

The Map layers menu choice brings up the Map Layers dialog. It has tabs on top: "Layers in map", "All layers" and "Data Layers". The "All layers" tab contains layers which you could put into your map. For example: Census areas such as tracts or block groups, 'created areas' that you have made, Postal geography (ZIPs, Z9's), imported locations, location layers that you have clicked into the map, and transportation (i.e. major roads, railroads, interstate) can all be found in the "All layers" tab.

In addition to putting layers in the map, or taking them out by using the checkboxes to the left of each layer name, "Map Layers" gives you control over the look of the map symbol and the appearance of the labels. Click the little 'plus' next to each feature to expand the elements of the layer and see how they can be controlled. However, DO NOT mess around with the street labeling or, after clicking next to 'show reference cartography', the labeling and appearance of the different locales. These are 'subclasses, are not completely debugged, and may cause your session to end sooner than you would like. .

The "Data Layers" tab is used to control thematic data layers you have added, similar to map shading introduced into the map with "Classify by Value".

A button at the bottom of the Map Layers dialog, "Create map legend," exists to put a legend into the map. It looks like this:

In addition there is a button in Map Layers called "render Landmass white", right underneath the word "cartography" in the phrase "show reference cartography". The second time you press the button it will restore the landmass color.

Import layer..

When you have a file of locations, with latitude and longitude coordinates for each location, the command to use is "Import Layer.." on the Map menu. Latitude and longitude in the file equals USE IMPORT LAYER FOR LOCATIONS.

On the other hand, when you have a data file that is "keyed" to geographic areas, such as ZIP codes, the command to use is "Attach Data to active layer.." on the Data menu.

On the topic of the "Save map theme.." command, remember that it does NOT mean the same thing as "Save study area.."

"Save study area.." is the command you should use when you want to save your entire map to bring up later on. "Save map theme.." has the more specialised purpose of just saving the feature set as a template to be used when you create other study areas.

Map: Theme Manager This is the manager for map themes, where you can rename or delete a theme. You can also set which themes you want to be active for which "zoom levels" for each of four default possibilities: the New Study Area dialog, the Go To dialog, the Zips tab of the Go To dialog, and the theme which is applied to a map when you use Site Express. The one thing you can't do from the Map Themes dialog is to activate a theme.
Map: Save map theme..

You can define and use a new map theme. Here is how you do it: add the features you use to a map, customize them, and then choose "Save map theme.." and give it a name that you can easily remember. This will save you time when you make new maps (study areas) based on those feature customizations. There is a complete guide on how to do this, called "How to customize map layers", which takes you through customization of a theme, and shows how to use the theme in new maps.

Printing and exporting map images

Map: Print
Map: Export image ..

Print

Choose "Print" from the Map menu when you wish to add a caption, title, or comments to your map during printing. Notice at the very top of the print dialog a dropdown "Choose layout". This lets you print your map to letter-size, legal-size, or tabloid (11" x 17") sized paper, with portrait or landscape orientation. In addition, if your map has a legend and you want it to appear next to the map rather than superimposed over portions of the map, look in this dropdown for layouts with the term "legend" in their descriptive title. The legends will "flow" into the containers reserved for them in those page layout templates.

The templates all have fill-in fields for Map title, caption, company name, and some have longer fields for notes. These are on-the-fly opportunities for you to type in information you want to appear on your printed page (or you may paste it in, if you have already prepared a text document with the caption, map title, and notes you want to include).

Pasting in your text is not a bad idea, although if you choose 'save to file' in the "Print" dialog, it will be saved to an Excel sheet located in the Reports output folder reachable by choosing "Reports output folder.." from the Tools menu.)

Export image

"Export image.." simply exports the image you see on the screen, giving you the opportunity to change its output dimensions (in inches), and the number of dots-per-inch (dpi) you desire in print quality. The larger the dimensions and higher the number of dpi, the more huge the output file.

There is also an option in "Export Image.." that lets you copy to the clipboard for pasting directly into another application such as Microsoft Excel or Powerpoint, or write the image to a file.

It's worth mentioning that if you have legends on the map, either a group legend or a map legend, that they will be exported into the .PNG file as images. If you right-click on each legend within the map, you will be able to export the legend -- just the legend itself -- as a .WMF (Windows metafile) export, which can be "placed" in any page composition program, or printed directly after further editing.

The Data menu carries commands to import and export data, to examine data in groups and object-by-object (Quicklook), and to color in the map on the basis of data. This thematic mapping capability -- the first command on the data menu -- is called "Classify by Value" in ScanUS Version 8.x

"Classify by value..", combined with data import and export, together provide you with a great data analysis and re-combination facility, all on the Data menu.

The Scan/US Data menu

Data: Classify by value..
Data: Create Data Layer
Data: Edit Data Layer
Data: Close Data Layer
Data: Attach data to active layer...
Data: Export data...

Classify by value..

The first command on the Data menu, "Classify by value" gives you the ability to color in the map based on data values, and also to give different colors to symbols representing map locations.

You can use the value of the built-in demographic data items to do this, or you may use you own sales or classification data that you have loaded from an external spreadsheet or other data file.

When objects (for example, states, counties, block groups or ZIP codes) are classified using this command, they are formed into groups within a grouping. A grouping legend is automatically created and displayed.

You may limit the objects to analyse in your 'classify by value' grouping, but groupings in Version 8.x are by nature national in scope. That is, groupings are not limited only to objects in your study area, and you don't have to take any special action to create national groupings and apply them to new study areas.

There are various ways to filter the "object set" to which you are applying "Classify by Value..". You can also adjust the number of cuts of your data categories, and their data values, either through drag and drop or by typing in values.

Many of the step-by-step examples in these help pages use "Classify by Value".

Create and Edit Data Layer

Data layers are layers you create, associated with a given map layer, which may show bar and pie charts, box graphs, proportional markers, and dot-density area fill maps.

'Attach data to active layer' and 'Export data'

The time to use "Attach data to active layer.." is when you have a data file that is "keyed" to geographic areas, such as ZIP codes. On the other hand, when you have a set of locations, with latitude and longitude coordinates for each location, the command to use is "Import Layer.." on the Map menu. The old command "Import data" has been renamed "Attach data to active layer" in an effort to highlight the fact that in order for it to work right, you must make the layer active that you want to attach data to.

The help file "Working with Excel" covers the topics of data import, as well as extending Scan/US through the use of Excel data export.

Several special-purpose commands on the data menu are used for datalist management. The first of these, "Data from other layers", is used only when you desire data summarization which is different from that provided by the Scan/US defaults (Scan/US MicroGrids), or when somehow your data has become "unhooked" from a polygon you have created. It is described in a help page entitled "Data from other layers".

Data: Data from other layers..
Data: Datalist Manager..
Data: Create Benchmark.. (not implemented AS MENU)

The "Datalist Manager.." command can be used to view data on an existing layer, "disconnect" data from an existing layer, or delete the datalist entirely.

Quicklook

Quicklook data inspection and comparison, quick report, export, and benchmarking.

Data: Quicklook

Even without the rest of Scan/US, Quicklook is a full-featured app. When you click on an object in the map, you can use QL to examine data for an object, summarized data for a group of objects, benchmark values for the US or any group of objects or area which you define. You can, within Quicklook, print or export to Excel a tabular report of the data shown, whether it is all the data items in a demographic datalist, or just a few that you have checked off, and decided to focus on.

To find out more about, follow the "Tour of Quicklook" help file, which covers all Quicklook features.

The objects menu has commands to examine and control the appearance of geographic objects; create points, lines, polygons, and areas consisting of concentric drivetime contours or rings. Commands for exporting and copying objects, and distances between objects, and exporting a cross-reference, are also available. The command to locate an object in Google Earth (starting the Google Earth program when it is installed on the computer), available from buttons in various other parts of Scan/US, is echoed here as well.

The Scan/US Objects menu

Objects:Object Manager..

The "Object Manager.." gives you a way to select multiple objects at a time, and control their appearance (you can even make them disappear), map labels shown for the objects, their membership in groups, and even copy objects to another type of map layer, export data associated with them (or export the objects themselves (for use in another mapping program) their data, or locate the objects in Google Earth. In short, the Object Manager really does a lot!

An abbreviated version of the Object Manager is also presented in various Scan/US dialogs when you are offered the choice to choose "Objects selected in Object manager".

Objects: Create layer
Objects: New area properties
Objects: Save objects as..
Objects: Layer Properties..
Objects: Subareas cumulated
Objects: Subareas independent (annuli)

Create layer..

When you choose one of the sub-menus underneath "Create layer..", you will have the opportunity, first to same a layer, and then to click the objects into the map, naming them one by one. This menu is an exact duplicate of the slide-out menu that appears in the button-mode bar to the left of Scan/US, the fourth from the top.

New area properties..

"New area properties.." is one of those commands that only "lights up" when you are on an editable areas layer. You might use it when you are creating 5-mile rings, but suddenly decide you want the next ring on the same layer to be a 30-mile ring, or a 15-minute drivetime. When you are not on an editable areas layer, "New area properties.." will remained 'greyed-out'.

When you have created a new object layer, you can use "Save objects as.." to save the layer with a new name.

Layer properties

"Layer properties.." brings up a helpful technical management dialog, in which you can find out where the layer file is stored, and control many aspects of how it may be drawn. The layer name and caption can also be changed in this dialog.

Subareas aggregation control

Subareas 'cumulated' and Subareas 'independent' control how the data in rings are displayed. Switching between these two options for a rings layer (and it will only be shown when a ring or drivetime layer is active) lets you choose whether to view the total for the concentric ring from the radius out, or just for the currently-selected annulus.

Objects: Set object highlights .. (NOT IMPLEMENTED)
Objects: Hide object highlights (NOT IMPLEMENTED)
Objects: Object properties
Objects: Delete object

"Set object highlights.." and "Delete object highlights" are designed to make permanent the same kind of object highlighting you get when you click an object and select it. They are not implemented.

The "Object properties.." command only "lights up" when you are on an "editable" layer: points, lines, polygons, or areas. You may use it to change the name of an existing area, by selecting the area, and choosing "Object properties.."

"Delete object" simply deletes the currently-selected editable object: location, line, polygon, or area will disappear.

Objects: Copy Objects ..
Objects: Export distance ..
Objects: Export crossreference..
Objects: Locate in Google Earth

Copy Objects ..

The "Copy Objects .." command combines "copy," "paste" into a single step along with object creation.

One of the most powerful uses of the "Copy Objects .." command is to copy an entire layer of point location objects onto a new layer of concentric rings or drivetimes, calculating and creating the new drivetimes layer in one fell swoop. "Copy Objects.." may also be used to duplicate a layer, or part of a layer, or to extract just some census cartography onto a polygon layer for map customization or _export editing.

a note on Export Objects

This command has been moved to the Object Manager, on the bottom-right button. It is no longer on the Objects Menu.

Scan/US objects may be exported as ".shp" shape files, or as Google Earth placemark (.kml) or compressed placemark (.kmz) files. The purpose of this command is to export map objects originating in Scan/US, and load them into another mapping system.

Export distance ..

The "Export distance.." command, covered in the "multiple-object-reports" help file, can be used to do a distance report, either from one object on a layer to all objects on another layer, or from all objects on one layer to all objects on another layer. The report is exported as an Excel file.

Export crossreference..

"Export crossreference.." is another one of those commands that only "lights up" when there is a cross-reference for you to export. The main use is covered in the "export-point-microgrid-crossreference" help file.

Locate in Google Earth

Finally (when Google's desktop application Google Earth is installed on your computer,the command "Locate in Google Earth" will send the selected object, grouped objects, or all objects on the current layer, over to Google Earth. Demographic data items are also sent for each object, to a total of 10 dataitems checked in Quicklook.

The groups menu has commands for managing groups and groupings, including convenience commands for saving and deleting, showing and hiding groups. Group by object and Group by geography are "cookie cutter" functions which can be used to create a group on another geographic layer, by applying an existing layer to the other layer.

The Scan/US Groups menu

Group manager
New group..

Group manager..

The Group manager shows a list of groups which you may show, hide, or change their appearance or even presence in the map. This choice is active only when a grouping exists on the current layer.

The panel at the bottom of the group manager provides more group management options:

show, hide, delete, merge -- new grouping, save grouping, activate group -- draw borders, export legend, edit legend content

From left to right, you can show/hide, delete or merge groups -- start a new grouping or save the current grouping, activate a group or control the drawing of borders around grouped and ungrouped objects -- and save the grouping legend or edit legend content.

New group..

The "New group.." command creates a new group in the current grouping. Groups within an automatically-created new grouping are also created automatically in the command "Data:Classify by Value.."

A grouping is simply a collection of related groups. An object can be in only one (1) group in a grouping. Groups from one grouping don't get mixed up with groups from another grouping. This keeps things from getting confusing.

Sometimes -- but only sometimes -- you need to start a new grouping

When you name your group, the name of the grouping it appears in is shown (as above). If you need to start a new grouping, click the button show above to the left of the current grouping name.

A word to the wise: be sure to give your grouping a good name. Then, when you define a new group, you will know it's in the right grouping. And later on, when you want to select objects according to group membership in a grouping, your menu choices will make far more sense to you when your group names make sense.

Groupings..
Rename grouping..
Save grouping
Save grouping as..
Delete grouping

Several commands exist to activate, rename, delete, or save groupings.

Group by object
Group by geography

Group by object can be used to create a group of location objects on a geographic layer, by applying the boundaries of an existing object as a grouping template.

Group by geography is used to assign objects on the active layer to groups when they are contained within 'checked-off' units of geography or overlapped by them.

In other words, "Group by geography" uses standard geography, such as states, counties, etc., to create groupings in layers consisting of lower-level (smaller) objects

Create group layer...

When you choose this option, Scan/US will create a new layer where each group forms a new object on the new layer.

This feature works with groups based on:

Census Block Groups
Census Tracts
ZIP codes
Counties
County subdivisions
MSAs

The type of territories created are non-overlapping.

New layers have data based on the grouped objects from their source layer.

New layer polygon names are not editable. Make sure your group names match the desired names for the new objects BEFORE you click OK to create the new layer. Otherwise, you will have to delete the new layer and start over.

Hide groups/Show groups
list of groupings on layer

There are two things worth mentioning about the "Show groups/Hide groups" menu choice.

First, this menu choice can also be done with a button at the lower left of the left-hand button panel. The small triangle on the show/hide groups button is also a menu of groups on that layer, which matches the list of groupings on the layer at the bottom of the groups menu.
Second, although it is possible (using group by object, mention above) to create a group on a layer that's not visible (i.e. not even loaded into the map), you won't be able to see the objects until you load that newly-grouped layer onto the map. It's best to load the layer first to make sure you see the results of your grouping operation.

Here is a clip showing the show/hide groups button:

the show-hide-groups button is also a menu

The Reports menu offers three types of report for already-existing geographic objects: profile, comparison, and benchmark, as well as a facility, "Site Express", for creating concentric-ring or concentric-drivetime objects and running demographic reports associated with those objects. Since the "Print" button (when you get to the point where you print in these commands) also offers a "save to Excel sheet" option, a menu command, "Report outputs folder..", is included to take you to the folder where those reports were saved.

The Scan/US Reports menu

Print profile reports..
Print comparison reports..
Print benchmark reports..
Site Express..
Report outputs folder..

Profile, comparison, and benchmark

Two help pages on reports have much more information on reports: "reports-from-scanus" which is an overview of basic reports in Version 8.x, and "Multiple-object reports", which cover printed output and other kinds of report options.

In the meantime, it is worth asking what the difference is between the three kinds of report that show up on this menu, and Site Express, which also appears.

Profile

A profile report is a non-columnar report, in which you are not comparing one geographic object to another. But ... doesn't that sound so negative? A profile report is a clear and simple information display. It may be as little as one page, or it may run to more pages. At present, no Scan/US reports have maps in them: you will need to print maps separately using the Print Command on the Map menu.

Comparison

Scan/US comparison reports facilitate the comparison of a series of objects, which can be specified in various ways, with one or two "fixed" objects, which appear on each page of the report. In other words, it is a three-column report, in which the first column varies, but the other two columns remain the same from one page to the next.

Benchmark

The benchmark report is a "special case" of the comparison report, in which it is easier for you to choose a "fixed object" as a benchmark. Scan/US has a facility in Quicklook (on the Data menu) for saving benchmarks. So, although this benchmark report "defaults" to a benchmark called "United States Summary", you can define your own benchmarks, and run them from this report. You can also use any single geographic (or grouped objects) as a benchmark.

The benchmark report is a report with two columns of data, with an additional column showing the "index" of the first column relative to the benchmark, a characteristic which the "comparison" report does not have. The benchmark remains the same from one page to the next, while the series of objects varies, providing a page-by-page comparison of a series of objects with the benchmark.

Site Express

Site Express combines site location and area creation with report output. It will create up to 10 concentric rings or drive-time contours for each site, creating study areas as necessary, and produce reports for each site. When you run fewer than six locations through Site Express, you also have an option to create a study area for each one. Report output may be sent to a printer, or saved in a file (An Excel workbook.)

Report outputs foldor

What happens when you print a report, or save a map to a file? Where did it go? This helpful menu opens Windows Explorer to the location where reports are saved, underneath a folder with today's date.

The annotation menu lets you put text, map, arrow, table, and picture-image annotations right into your map. These annotations then appear during image export or printing.

The Scan/US Annotation menu

The map legend and the grouping legend, automatically produced, are implemented as "annotations". They are edited in the same way that annotations are edited.

New annotation..
Hide Annotations
Show Graticule

New annotation..

When you bring up the New Annotation dialog with this command, there are three steps to put your annotation into the map: First, select the annotation you want. This may be text, tabular text, a rule (line within the annotation), or even an image from a file or another map. Second, after you have selected the annotation, draw an annotation where it says "Draw a rectangle here to start". Finally, as the onscreen instructions indicate, "Click 'Create' to finish, then drag annotation to position".

Show/Hide annotations

The Show/Hide annotations command applies to any annotations you have added, and to any legends in the map.

Show/Hide graticule

The graticule is a latitude-longitude grid superimposed on the map.

The tools menu has three sections: one devoted to the control of how symbols, labels, lines, and area fills are shown in the map; one devoted to "keyed" maps, in other words maps for which a numbered or alpha-numbered "key" appears in the map for a list of items; and a catch-all section of utilities, where you can set Project folders, Tokens, filter the number of fonts appearing in the fonts selector, and change the map background (oceans color)

The Scan/US Tools menu

Area style..
Symbol style..
Line style..
Label style..
Subarea label style..

These five commands "mirror" or "echo" commands which can also be reached by pressing buttons to the left of layer names on the Map Layers.. dialog (Map Menu: Map layers..). Only the command pertinent to the type of layers is "un-greyed". In other words, for a location layer, "Symbol style" and "label style" can be chosen, while for a polygon layer, only "Area style.." and "Label style.." can be picked.

What about the command "Subarea label style..": when does this appear? Subarea labels are labels which apply to individual concentric rings or drive-time contours. This command can be used to change the font size on subarea labels. In order to turn them off completely, however, you will need to use the Map Layers command, and un-check the checkbox next to Subarea labels on the layer in question.

Key style.. (NOT IMPLEMENTED)
Hide keys
Clear key list

The "Key style.." command on the Tools menu will generate and display a map key from A to Z or, alternately, 1 thru 99, for either location objects or area objects. The "Key Style..", "Hide keys", and "Clear key list" commands all actually work, but there is no mechanism to display or export a legend corresponding to the keys, so the use of this feature is limited to circumstances where you have a pre-labeled list, in which the label meanings are known to your users. For example, if you have a layer of four stores, A, B, C, and D, and you want them labeled this way, with squares or stars in your map.

Project folders..
Tokens dictionary..
Fonts Filter..
Map background..

Project folders..

Whenever you import a locations file or a data file, the folder it came from is automatically added as a project folder. To help you keep your Scan/US configuration simpler, the "Project folders.." command lets you keep track of these folders, deactivating or re-activating them as necessary. Any changes you make in project folders do NOT take effect UNTIL the next time you start Scan/US.

Tokens dictionary..

The "Tokens dictionary.." command shows current definitions for Company name, copyright, and various text values that are automatically filled in when you run reports or map templates. You cannot change or add to these tokens, which are set at install time.

Fonts Filter..

To make your font life simpler, the "Fonts Filter.." command lets you choose just a few fonts to appear within a specific "context". Or, you can use this command to limit the fonts which occur within all contexts. The contexts are: Legends, annotations, font symbols (as in the "Symbol style.." command in this menu), Map labels, and Key labels (as in the "Key style.." command, in this menu). With its "View selected font" button, the Fonts filter is a great font viewer, too.

Map background..

This dialog lets you change the map background on any of the four main startup maps.

The tasks menu has: the Task Manager, two operational logs which you may need when tracking down problems, and a list of current tasks run from the Tasks managor.

The Scan/US Tasks menu

Task manager..
Application log..
Operations log..

The Task Manager, a tool for Scan/US software developers, is where Scan/US program scripts written in Object Rexx can be run and managed. It provides a fully functional working environment for developing, debugging, and running Object Rexx programs which control Scan/US.

The Application log and Operations log show events which occur when Scan/US starts, and when you choose "Attach data to active layer.." to load sales-by-ZIP (for example) layer onto a geographic layer (ZIPs) or Import layer.. to bring in a location, polygon, or shape layer. If there are problems with these operations, you may be directed to look in the Operations log, to give you information to solve the problem with your import.

List of various tasks:

Lists of task scripts may be shown at the bottom of the Tasks menu. Your menu will look different (probably shorter).

Create dataitem inventory
Enumerate tokens
Create Study Areas using driver file
Create new study areas

The choices on the help menu are meant to be self explanatory. "Contents" brings you to this set of pages you are reading now. "Product support" takes you to the Scan/US website product support page, while "About data" shows a summary of databases available from Scan/US, and, when available, a more-detailed description of data items. "Check for Product updates" displays the "unable to connect to server" message, so you can expect instead to be notified directly via email of any product updates.

The Scan/US Help menu

About Scan/US

After you select "About Scan/US", please call 800-272-2687 with any questions about product support, data, data products, or the operation of software features. The "About Scan/US.." command displays information which may be helpful to tech support in answering your question or solving your problem.

Thanks for using Scan/US!