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MapVUE 2001 for Wake County, NC FAQ
How do I find information on the property I’m searching for?
In order to find out information on properties, you’ll have to do a search.
Go to the Search item on the menu bar and click on it. Several search types are available, and allow you to search for the property using information you know about it.
Most of the searches, when selected, open a window that asks for the information needed to do a search. It is possible to enter a part of the name or number you’re searching for, but if you do, be careful. Entering SMIT as the last name to be searched for, and pressing the Enter key for the first name, will cause people with last names of Smith, Smitty, Smithfield, and so on to be found. Typing a first name of JOHN in the above example rather than pressing the Enter key alone would cause a search for John Smit to occur.
If multiple properties are found, a window will appear that allows you to move through the list to find the appropriate property. Click on the property name. The window will close. Another window will appear providing access to information about the property.
Selecting Point on Map from this menu brings up a street-level map of a user selected location. This command is described under the section How do I view a map of the property I want to find?
How do I view a map of the property I want to find?
If a property search has been entered (see How do I find information on the property I’m searching for?), a window will be displayed on the screen listing property reports, as well as map display options. To view a street-level map of the searched parcel, select Go To Location from the list.
The display area will change to a map of the selected property and all surrounding properties.
If a Point on Map search is selected from the Search menu, the county map will appear. You can then left-click somewhere on the map to zoom in to a smaller area. This local map isn’t as detailed as the final location map. To go down to the street map so that properties can be viewed, right click on a point on the map.
To view information on a property displayed on the map, select Inquire from the menu bar, and click on What is it? Then click on the picture of a house located on the property you’re interested in. A window will appear listing the information available about the property.
Note: The picture of a house within the property is a symbol that stands for a parcel centroid. A parcel centroid is a point within a property (which is also known as a parcel) that is used to connect non-graphic data (such as price history) to the graphic image.
How do I make the map show more information, like contour lines?
In order to view more detail on a map, you have to make sure that you’re looking at a street-level map, not a local map.
To ensure you’re looking at a street-level map, do a property search and select Go To Location, or select Point on Map from the Search menu, left-click on a location within the county, and then right-click within the map that appears to view a street-level map.
To change the graphical features displayed on the map, like turning off the parcel lines or displaying contours, select Options from the menu bar, and then click on Features.
A menu will appear listing all of the items that can be displayed on the map. Those items with a check mark next to them are currently being displayed. Click on items to toggle them off and on.
To view the changes you’ve made, click on the Refresh Window option within the window. To close the window, click on Quit. (Bear in mind, that if you change values on this window and then select Quit, the choices you made are kept and not abandoned.)
If you close the window by clicking Quit before refreshing the window to see the changes you made, select Refresh from the View menu.
How do I display all of the properties on a map that have similarities?
When viewing a street-level map, you can construct a query that will display all of the properties visible on the map that meet certain conditions and criteria. For example, imagine you are looking at a property in a neighborhood with a building value of $110,000 and you want to see all of the neighboring properties that are within $10,000 of that price.
Select Inquire from the menu bar, and then move the mouse over the word Criteria. A sub-menu will appear. Select Set Criteria from that menu.
A window will appear listing all of the criteria that can be used when displaying specific properties. Select Building Value by clicking on it. A window will appear asking for the low value. Type 100000 and press the Enter key. The high value will then be requested. Type 120000 and press the Enter key. The entered values will be listed within the window.
To display the results of your query on the map, click on the Display option within the window. Those properties that match your query will have a purple crosshair over their property symbol (which looks like a house).
In this circumstance, only one criterion was set. However, multiple criteria can be set for the query to cause very specific results to be displayed.
When the window is refreshed (either by another command, or by selecting the Refresh option from the View menu) the symbols placed by the query will be erased. To redisplay the markers, select Inquire from the menu bar, move the mouse over the word Criteria, and then select Display by Criteria. Once the window appears listing the criteria to choose from, press the Enter key, and the marker symbols will reappear.
How do I move the displayed area to see other things, without doing another search?
All of the controls to move the area that’s displayed on the window, or to zoom in or out, are located on the View menu.
To actually move the display window, to see things that fall beyond the edge of the map displayed on the window, use the Window Up, Window Down, Window Left, and Window Right commands. When selecting one of these commands, the window will be moved in the direction you chose by a half a screen width. You can continue moving the display in that direction by clicking the left mouse button. To exit from the command, click on the right mouse button or press the Esc key.
Zoom In and Zoom Out let you see more image detail or more properties on the screen respectively. When one of the commands is selected, the zoom level is incremented by one in the direction you chose. Clicking the left mouse button will continue to increment the zoom level, zooming farther out or in (whichever was selected). To exit from the command, click on the right mouse button or press the Esc key.
If you just want to see a specific parcel and not much around it, you can use Set Window to draw a box around the item you want to view. By left clicking one side of the box and then the other, the screen will redisplay and only show the items within the area of the box you created.
The image can also be panned (similar to sliding the map across the display area) by using the Center Window command. Click on a map location with the left mouse button and the window will be redisplayed with that point as the new center of the displayed map. The map can be moved any direction as long as the left mouse button is used to select points. To exit from the command, press the Enter key or the Esc key.
How can I get maps and information into other programs?
A simple way to get a displayed map into another program (like a paint program or a word processor document) is to select Copy to Clipboard from the View menu.
All reports and information are designed to be printed from MapVUE. Importing text data from reports into other applications is therefore more difficult. To save property information, a generic text-only printer driver must be installed within Windows, and that driver must be set to print directly to a file. The file can then be opened with a word processor and modified.
To create generic text-only printer driver, click on the Windows Start button, select Settings, and open the Printers folder. Double-click on the Add Printer icon. Click on the Next button within the Add Printer Wizard. Make sure Local printer is selected and click Next. Scroll down the list of manufacturers until you get to Generic. Click on it, and then click on Generic / Text Only within the Printers list. Click the Next button. Select the FILE: port from the list of available ports and click Next. Accept the name provided to the printer driver and make the printer your default printer. Click the Next button. Select No to not print a test page and click the Finish button.
Return to MapVUE, select a report and print it. A window will appear asking for a location to save the file you’re printing. Select the directory you want the file saved in and a name for the file. Click on the OK button to save the file.
Remember to change the default printer setting back to your actual printer after saving reports from MapVUE. This can be done by returning to the Printers folder, right-clicking the name of your printer, and selecting Set as Default from the pop-up menu.
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