Create your first map

Map Wizard is Vizualist tool that is designed to help you create data-driven maps that make presenting data easy, flexible, and beautiful. Let’s get started.

Preparing your data file

This is the most important step when creating a map. Please read the instructions carefully and follow all steps below to ensure your data file is properly prepared before uploading it to the Map Wizard. If your data file is not correctly formatted, the tool will not be able to match it to the selected basemap.
To make changes after uploading, just update your file outside the Map Wizard and upload it again—the tool is not a data preparation tool.

Data file requirements

To use your data file with the Map Wizard, it must meet the following conditions:

1. Saved in CSV format.

2. Includes one unique column with FIPS or ISO codes.

   FIPS codes are numbers that uniquely identify geographic areas. The number of digits in FIPS codes varies depending on the level of geography.State-level FIPS codes have two digits, County-level FIPS codes have five digits of which the first two are the FIPS code of the State to which the County belongs, and Tract-level FIPS codes have eleven digits of which the first five are the FIPS code of the State and County to which the Tract belongs. FIPS codes for Canada Provinces and Territories have two digits.
   ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 codes are three-letter World country codes defined in ISO 3166-1, part of the ISO 3166 standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), to represent countries, dependent territories, and special areas of geographical interest.

3. The FIPS/ISO column is formatted as text.

   Use the templates below to prepare your data or verify FIPS/ISO codes. Open them as text in Excel, Numbers, Google Sheets, or similar programs to prevent losing leading zeros. If zeros are lost, add them manually before uploading your CSV to the Map Wizard:
   For US States, add leading zeros for 1–9.
   For US Counties, add leading zeros for 1001–9015.
   For Canada & World, no changes needed.

4. Contains at least one value column.

How to create a map

1. Go to the Vizualist dashboard and select the project where you want to create your map.

2. Click the button.

3. Select Map from the Vizualist Templates list.

4. Enter the name for your map and click the Create button. This will launch the Map Wizard window.

5. Select one of the basemaps and click the Next button.

   Switch to JSON Editor – Opening the map in a JSON editor translates it to the JSON format and allows adding additional features using the current map schema. This is an irreversible action for this map! Once you switch to JSON Editor you won’t be able to switch back to the current interface.

6. Upload your CSV data via the drag and drop method or click on browse.

7. Click the Next button.

8. From the left Select GEO column dropdown, choose a basemap column to connect the data with your data file. It is usually the FIPS (ISO) column.

9. From the right Select GEO column dropdown, choose a column from your data file.

   After you connect data you will see the percent of successfully connected data. Areas that don’t match will be greyed out on the map. If no rows are matched, it means either the selected columns cannot be matched or the uploaded file is not properly prepared.

10. Click the Create button.