No, the ‘Reports Tool’ module in AWhere is not the only (nor best) way to output map images to a report or presentation; though it is one option. The ‘Report’ tool will generate a quick, ‘canned’ report for you; but to be honest, you will probably have better luck being able to customize and modify a printable copy of your map by using one of the other 'report creating' options listed below.
1) Copy/Paste Image – In the main toolbar area of the AWhere interface, you will see a ‘Copy’ button (see below). Clicking on that button will put a temporary copy of the current map image (whatever you currently see in the AWhere map window) onto your computer’s clipboard. You would then need to Paste that image into an external document, such as into an MS Word document, or into a PowerPoint slide (see #4 below for another option for exporting to PowerPoint).
To the right of the ‘Copy’ button, you see two drop-down menus. The first allows you to choose what components of the map image you want to include (e.g. just the map, or the map and legend, or the map and scalebar and legend, etc). So, in the example above, only an image of the map would be included…no legend or anything else. Also, you can choose to copy the image as either a ‘Bitmap’ or as a Windows ‘Metafile’ (*see note below about metafiles).
2) Export Map Graphic/Insert into document – Similar to the above ‘Copy’ option, you can go to File > Export > Export a Map Graphic. This allows you to save the current map image (as well as any accompanying map graphic component…Legend, Scalebar, North Arrow) as a ‘Bitmap’ or Windows ‘metafile’ file(*see note below about metafiles). But, rather than using the ‘Paste’ tool to put the image into an external document, you would have to use the ‘Insert’ option (of whatever document/application you want to put the image into), since this is an actual saved image file, and not just a temporary image on your clipboard (as is the case with the Copy tool above).
3) Export a Custom Map Image - Much like the above 'Export Map Graphic' option, but this tool allows you to increase the resolution of the output image for usage in print quality documents. Access this tool by going to File > Export > Export a Custom Map Image. Adjust the Height and Width values up or down according to the desired image resolution.
4) MS PowerPoint Add-In – We have developed an Add-In called the ‘AWhere Microsoft PowerPoint Add-In’, and just as the name suggests, it allows you to easily take map images from AWhere, and put them directly onto PowerPoint slides. This Add-In is not installed with AWhere Professional nor AWhere Express, but you can download it for free from our website (you must already have Microsoft PowerPoint installed on your computer to use this tool). Once the ‘AWhere MS PowerPoint Add-In’ is installed, it will be available from the ‘Add-Ins’ menu at the top of the AWhere window. With this add-in, you could either export just a single map image to a PowerPoint slide, or you could also export a series of map images to a series of slides. For example, say you have created and saved a number of ‘My Maps’, and you want to create a new PowerPoint presentation containing one slide per each My Map…you can do that with this Add-In. Then, of course, you have the ability in PowerPoint to make edits to the slides, like add titles, footnotes, resize the map image, etc. You can access help documentation for the PowerPoint add-in by clicking on the ‘Help’ button in the PowerPoint Add-In’s window. And, as with the previous two options, you have the option of formatting the images on the slides as either Bitmap or Metafile (*see note below about metafiles).
*Note – Metafiles are an image format that you can edit. So, if you think you will have a need to edit the image of the map that you export from AWhere, then you should use the ‘Metafile’ option when Copying or Exporting the image of the map. Click here for some instructions on how to edit a metafile image that you have inserted/pasted into a MS Word document or MS PowerPoint slide.