A couple of years ago, Esri introduced the Esri Maps for Office plug-in for Microsoft Office.  This plug-in adds exceptional, and easy to use, GIS mapping functionality to traditional Microsoft Office applications like Excel and PowerPoint.  These tools allow spreadsheet data to be explored and analyzed in new and meaningful ways.  Dynamic and interactive maps can be produced directly in Excel.  Adding interactive maps to the charts and graphs produced in Excel is very powerful!

Content created by the Esri Maps for Office plug-in can be shared in a number of powerful ways.  For those Esri software user unfamiliar with the Esri Maps for Office plug-in, it is worthwhile to explore these tools.

The Esri Maps for Office plug-in is available to all current Esri software customers as one of the features of an ArcGIS Online account.  If you have created an ArcGIS Online account you may download the Esri Maps for Office plug-in here.  Having an Esri ArcGIS Online account provides many features and applications.  It is time well spent to learn of the additional tools provided by Esri to their software users.

Esri staff have put together a series of videos that demonstrate the functions of Esri Maps for Office that should be explored.  Video topics include demonstrating how to publish a feature service from Microsoft Excel, configuring pop-up infographics for use in Microsoft Excel, and creating interactive maps directly in Microsoft Excel among others.  This recorded content is very valuable to understanding the capability contained in the Esri Maps for Office software plug-in and can provide a glimpse of how these tools may be used in your operation.  Best of all, Esri continues to develop and refine these tools for their software customers.

Using the Esri Maps for Office software plug-in allows users to quickly create interactive maps, analyze spreadsheet data spatially, and selectively share this data with others whether that be through a PowerPoint presentation or a published interactive map available through ArcGIS Online.  Esri Maps for Office may prove to be a very valuable asset to your organization.