Our free DemographicDrapes™ browser
Its not every day you get something for nothing, so its with great pleasure that we present our free DemographicDrapes™ browser to you for nothing, nada, zip, zilch. And as long as we're around so will the free browser. But enough about our altruism...
So What exactly is it? Well, our browser is something you can use whenever you like to research demographic information from the Australian Bureau of Statistics as well as a number of other sources. We offer a wide selection of drapes to suit many research needs.
No plug ins
You dont need anything special to access our free browser, just an internet connection and your web browser. The viewer requires no plug-ins and will work with almost any modern web browser.
Easy to use
We have done our very utmost to make the experience as easy as possible to get to the right information quickly. We made sure that even if you aren't used to using GIS (Geographic Information Systems), the browser would be intuitive enough to just get going without any assistance or training.
And don't worry, even if you get into trouble, just read hit the help tab on the right hand side. It should set you straight. Any problems after that, just submit a support request and let's see what we can do.
Quick start
So you don't go in empty handed here's a quick start guide to using the DemographicDrapes™ for those who feel they need it.
The big map
This is area that immediately takes your eye when you open up the browser. And it should be, after all this is where your DemographicDrapes™ and other data items will load and where you will be doing a lot of your research.
Moving Around - Hold down your mouse button down and move it. The map will move to (left mouse button for the two button folks.)
Zooming - There is a map scaling slider bar to the left hand side of the screen. slide it up and down for your zoom level.
The utility bar
Located at the top of the screen, your utility items are on the right. Our beautiful logo is on the left.
Opacity Control - Allows you to control the opacity of the current DemographicDrapes™ on the screen. You usually want a bit of so opacity you can see the base map underneath.
Legend / Key - DemographicDrapes™ usually show different colours representing the different demographic values for a given area. The legend icon pops up a little window on your map so you can see what all the pretty colours mean and give you some extra info on the demographic you are watching.
Clear Drapes - If all those layers and drapes get confusing, hit the reset button and they will disappear, ready for you to start again.
The utility panel
On the right hand side of the screen, there's a bunch of stuff you can do here. Each tab represents a type of action. Except one. Which represents a few. Confused? Dont worry...
Settings Tab - Allows you to change the base map you access - that's the underlying map you see with the roads etc or the aerial photography. We use Google Maps as our base maps. This tab also allows you to enter an address and go straight there on the map. There will also be some other settings there in future as they become available.
Drapes Tab - This tab contains a tree structure of all the DemographicDrapes™ available to you. Grouped by logical types of information all you need to do is click the name of the item you want to visualise and it will appear in the map. Only one drape can appear at a time so any existing one will be swapped out when you change them.
Layers Tab - Layers represent markers and boundaries that arent neccesarily demographics based. For example post code boundaries and labels are represented here. You can have more than one item up at a time. Just check the appropriate checkbox to make it visible on your map, and yes to move it, just uncheck it. The layers (boundaries are the left most boxes and labels are on the right). If something isn't available, it will be grayed out.
Help Tab - We hope this one is self explanatory!
The advert panel
This is where we gratuitously sell out. Man doesn't live on bread alone, and neither do we. To help keep our DemographicDrapes™browser free we show these ads and hope that something takes your interest and you click. Go on...see that Eve online advert...you know youv'e always wanted to see what its all about!
Joking aside, you can minimize the advert panel if you find it annoying while you work. Feel free to do so, we don't want to hold you back from the tasks at hand.