Basic table of county data won't load?!

[TracySchloss]

I have a table of county data with just a few columns, name, state, count, rate, etc.  I can't get this to load onto a map.  It starts to load, counts up to 1% and then disappears.  This data came from another staff, who I suspected copy and pasted from something that left some strange formatting.  I saved to tab delimited and brought it back in.  Same issue.

Question 1:  What am I missing?!  This is really plain data!

Question 2:  I'm not getting any errors, just something that doesn't load.  Are errors being logged somewhere I can look up?

Question 3: (Not all that related to this question) Why are the prompts for updating the version of the add-in so inconsistent?  It prompted me earlier to update when I wasn't ready to, but now that I'm having problems, and thinking the update might help, it stopped asking me.  I even rebooted, thinking I could get it to come up again.  I know I can go and get the download, but that is the most user-unfriendly page to navigate and I'm a 30 year ESRI veteran!!!!!!

[ShannonChavez]

Good Morning Tracy, 

I am sorry to hear about your pain points. Let me attempt to answer your questions and assist below:

Question 1:  What am I missing?!  This is really plain data! 

Potential Answer: I copy/pasted a sample of the data you provided into a workbook and made the data into a table. I was able to add the data successfully using the following parameters:

- Table 1 is the excel data

- I selected the drop-down arrow for Location types and selected 'more location types' to find County Subdivisions

- Styling by County

Question 2:  I'm not getting any errors, just something that doesn't load.  Are errors being logged somewhere I can lookup?

Potential Answer:  I believe this lack of error or not loading has to do with the way the add-in is trying to read the data. Can you attempt my workflow (above) ?

Question 3: (Not all that related to this question) Why are the prompts for updating the version of the add-in so inconsistent?

Potential Answer: I am not sure what your existing workflow is on this part, however, I would say the easiest way is to uninstall Map for Office and reinstall the latest version from here - Download

I'd like to know what the intended workflow is using this data and/or what is the ideal way to add this data (ex. using County or Counts or another variable)? This may help paint a clearer picture so we can determine the best way to proceed. 

I look forward to a response. 

Have a great weekend!

Best,

Shannon | Product Engineer

[TracySchloss]

That doesn't make much sense to me, and it didn't work.

Selecting County Subdivisions, it does complete, but it only looks to be matched to county names that are unique to Missouri. The other counties that get shaded are sprinkled around the country.  And if I need to do something like append  "..County, Missouri" to my county names, for County Subdivisions to work,  that needs to be clearly shown as a tip.  Don't make me dig into the documentation for something so rudimentary.

My goal is to have this be an easy entry starting point for all the users in state government who need to just make some county shaded maps.  I continue to be completely hopeful but disappointed with this platform, because for all the apparent "easy of use" there are some glaring gaps.  I want to be able to recommend this to dozens of state employees, but I can't, because of issues like this. 

I stopped by this area at the UC last week and we had a brief "I don't know why more people don't use this" conversation.  But coming back into the office and trying just a few things, I'm reminded again, "Oh, this is why you can't recommend it to everyone, it doesn't really work as well as it should".

I'll update the software, but I'm back to thinking I can't recommend this for the general masses.

[ShannonChavez]

Hi Tracy, did you happen to get my business card at the UC? If so, can you call? This way we can dive in a little more.

[TracySchloss]

I didn't think to pick one up - sorry!  Is it first initial.lastname@esri.com?

My email is in my profile, if you want to email me instead. 

[Anonymous User]

I am having this same issue. Trying to add any data from an Excel table  as a layer on the map that includes County information reproduces this issue. I have a simple data table with the county name, state, and a number field. Windows event viewer has this error:

Any ideas on a solution to this would be helpful! It is a workflow we use frequently prior to the 5.x update.

[ShannonChavez]

Hi Ethan, welcome to the party and thank you for your feedback. Are you able to share a sample of the data you are using and confirm the version of Maps for Office you are running?

-SC

[Anonymous User]

Hello Shannon, here is a screencap. I cannot give the actual data but this reproduces the error and is close to the same format as the original data I had trouble with. When I hit "add data" it flashes the layer list on the map, then does nothing. I was not able to get County subdivisions to work either (clarification: it adds to the map, just does not match correctly), not sure how to format that and it is not intuitive to users. Selecting exact match gets the same result, and field names do not seem to matter. I am using 32 bit Excel w/ ArcGIS Maps for Office v. 5.0.1, working on testing this with 64 bit as well. Thanks for your reply!

[Anonymous User]

Hey Shannon, any idea on this? If it would be easier, I can submit a case through tech support. Thanks!

[ShannonChavez]

Good Morning Ethan, 

Yes, please! If you and perhaps, Tracy would both submit a request to Technical support that would be great. The phone number is 1-888-377-4575. You will need to reference your customer number and call-in ID.