What’s New in MapPoint 2010

Along with the latest release of Street and Trips, Microsoft has also made available for both purchase and download a fresh iteration of MapPoint. In this regard, customers can now download a trial version not just for Street and Trips 2010, but also for MapPoint 2010. According to Chris Pendleton, Bing Maps Technical Evangelist for Microsoft, MapPoint 2010 brings to the table a range of new features designed to enhance the solution’s capabilities related to visualizing business data, to leverage highlighted insights, as well as to kick up a notch the integration with Microsoft Office.

“More Pushpins - Get all of the pushpin images from previous MapPoint versions - over 300 included. Refreshed Data - Use updated geographic data in MapPoint to display trends and illustrate key points on maps. Navigation and Sharing - Create routes, share with others and send them to your navigation device. This requires a subscription to MSN Direct to send over the FM airwaves. The Road Warrior’s Copilot - Plan your trip on your PC and then print, or send your route to your GPS device. This requires a subscription to MSN Direct to send over the FM airwaves,” are just a few of the enhancements enumerated by Pendleton.

MapPoint 2010 introduces a new level of customization when it comes down to map settings. In this context, the software enables customers to tailor maps to their needs, and to specific scenarios by allowing them to control the information displayed, including cities, highways, local roads and parks. Essentially, via the Customized Map Settings, users can specify select details that their maps will feature, in order to focus on certain information, while scrapping any unnecessary data. Map personalization is designed for end users to either enable or disable labels and/or symbols for Populated Places, Boundaries, Transportation, and Miscellaneous, and change the look and feel of the content. Pendleton noted that the modifications apply to all 6 map styles including Road, Road and Data, Data, Terrain, Political and Night). Even the fonts are customizable.

Pendleton also pointed out that MapPoint 2010 offers “Easy to Reroute - Drag-and-drop your route to go around a road or area. Show in Bing™ Maps - Quickly find listings when online and add them to a route. Use descriptive words such as 'coffee' and 'restaurant' to find points near your location. Bing! Manage Pushpins - Hide a group of pushpins without deleting. Also, show all pushpin clouds (info boxes) or hide them all at once. Finally! Export to GPX - Bundle trip route, pushpin and other information into a single file (.GPX) for easy exporting and sharing. Import data into MapPoint using a .gpx file.”

Streets and Trips 2010 trial edition is available for download here.
MapPoint North America 2010 trial is available for download here.