Introduction

This form uses Global Positioning System (GPS) data to count the number of incidents for each map grid square. It allows you to select a start and end year as well as a zoom level. Zoom 1 is looking at the earth from higher up. If the map does not look colourful, then you may have connected to the terminal server with a reduced colour quality. A picture of the form is below.

Using This Form

Start with the Year pull down list. Once you pick a year, that same year will be put into the To box, and the map will show a bunch of numbers. These numbers indicate how many incidents have longitude and latitude numbers that fall in that grid square on the map. You can click in any of the boxes that have a number to see a list of incidents for that area for the chosen year.

You now have a couple of choices: select a year range, or change the zoom level. You can select a To value to create a range of years for which the incident counts will be recalculated. If the Year shows 2009 and you select 2008 from the To list, the Year list will also change to 2008 before the incident count numbers are re-totaled. 

You can also change the Zoom level. The lower the zoom level, the less detailed the map will be. There are three zoom levels available; the default zoom level is 1. As you zoom in, that is, as you choose a larger zoom number, the incident count numbers will get smaller since each grid square will encompass a smaller territory. 

The only other item on this form that was not mention is the button to the right of the Zoom pull down list. Clicking the yellow question mark button will bring up this help page.
 

Picture Quality

A quick note on the quality of the map. If you connect to the terminal server at a low colour depth, then the image will not look clear. A higher colour depth will give a broader range of distinct colors. A colour depth of at least 15 bit should be used with this form. Using a setting of only 256 colours (8 bit colour depth) will make the map's features virtually indistinguishable. Unfortunately, a colour depth of 256 is the default since it minimizes network traffic. If you do not use this form often, then you could create two shortcuts to launch the Baker Main Menu. One could be set for regular use while the other could be set to a higher colour depth for the times that you plan on using this Call Volume by Grid form. 

Here is a quick test. There are two pictures below. The one on the left is 8 bit, and the one on the right is 32 bit. If the two pictures look to be of similarly low quality, then you are using a low quality connection.