The image below shows part of a spreadsheet with data on life expectancy at birth, expected years of schooling, and mean years of schooling for 188 countries.
As shown, 3D Maps has been used to create a three-dimensional globe that shows these countries and their associated statistics. The globe comes courtesy of Microsoft’s Bing search engine, so an active Internet connection is necessary.
To create the globe, follow these steps:
- Enter the data into a worksheet.
- Select the data, including the column headers.
- Click Insert | 3D Maps | Open 3D Maps.
After a few seconds (be patient!), this page opens.
- Drag fields (column header names) to the Layer pane.
Life Expectancy at Birth, Expected Years of Schooling, and Mean Years of Schooling was dragged into the Height box. You can see the data added to the globe, as stacked columns in the center of each country.
- Reveal the globe. Close the pane on the left and the pane on the right, leaving the globe pane open.
3D Maps is not just for international mapping — you can create maps on a much smaller scale.