Excel Map Chart with Roads or County Boundries

Question

I'm using Excel 365 and creating 2-D Map Charts with US States, Counties or Zip Codes. I'd like to be able to overlay major roads or County Boundaries (for Zip Code Maps). It would be great if all I needed to do was to select the map and then go to FORMAT DATA SERIES and have options to include (1) dots for the center of cities with the name of the city, (2) Major Roads, (3) County Boundaries (on a Zip Code Map).

I saw some suggestions on overlaying a picture on the chart map but that doesn't work well. Am I missing an easy way to do this? If not, I'd like to make this suggestion to MS as a great feature to add.

Answer 1

Hi @Larry Opanasenko ,
If you have any feedback or suggestion about this behavior, you can try to give a feedback to Microsoft about your requirement:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/how-do-i-give-feedback-on-microsoft-office-2b102d44-b43f-4dd2-9ff4-23cf144cfb11
Microsoft values your opinion. Your feedback goes directly to our engineers and helps us shape the future of Microsoft products and services for all our users.

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Answer 2

Creating a map chart in Excel with roads or county boundaries involves a few key steps. While Excel’s built-in map chart feature excels in visualizing data by geographical regions, it does not natively support detailed overlays like roads or specific county boundaries. To include such elements, you can use a combination of Excel and external tools. Start by creating your map chart in Excel using geographic data for states, counties, or regions. To add detailed boundaries or road information, you might need to use a mapping service or software such as GIS tools (e.g., QGIS) to overlay these features onto your map, then export the enhanced map as an image. Finally, import this image into Excel and align it with your map chart for a more comprehensive visualization. This approach allows you to combine Excel’s data visualization capabilities with detailed geographical information.