SVG maps

The introduction of the SVG format in Excel has gone unnoticed by most users, and it enables the conversion of maps into standard graphics objects. After that, you can do whatever you want with them. In this simple “recipe”, I’ll show you how to convert and format SVG maps you have previously downloaded, in order to create effective reports…

Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) is a file format used to store vector (scalable) images. Essentially, it is an XML file. Such images can be resized without losing any quality. SVG images, to a large extent, can be found on Wikipedia pages, and in the following example we downloaded one of them, which represents a map of the municipalities of the Republic of Serbia.

Select the Insert ribbon, and then in the Pictures menu, select Place Over Cells and This Device.

Find the SVG image you downloaded from the Internet and add it to the worksheet. Select the image, go to the Graphics Format ribbon, and then select the Convert to Shape option.

After you start it, this option will convert the SVG image into a set of standard graphic objects (Shapes). Now you can select any of them (any municipality), and manually change the color of the background or frame. In this way, you can create thematic maps. By turning on the Selection Pane menu, you can see all objects, change their position, hide or remove them more easily.

Although this is not the ideal way to create filled maps because we do it manually, it is often much better than Filled Maps in Excel because it contains data that does not exist in Bing Maps, and it is not possible to display it otherwise.