# Work with maps

> Maps put your numbers on real geography, shading states and countries or plotting cities as sized, colored dots, so you see where you win and where you lose at a glance.

Analyze · 16 min read · Updated 2026-11-03

> **Note:** **Summary:** Maps put your numbers on real geography, shading states and countries or plotting cities as sized, colored dots, so you see where you win and where you lose at a glance.

A map answers "where?" before anyone reads a number. Golden turns any geographic field (a state, a country, a city, a ZIP code) into a map with no lookup tables and no coordinates to find.

There are three kinds: a **Filled map** that shades whole regions, a **Shape map** that drops a mark on each place, and a **Density map** that shows where activity clusters.

![The Regional Profit Review dashboard with a filled map of profit by state: California and New York deep blue, Texas deep red, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Illinois light red, and a Profit legend running from -$25,729.36 to $76,381.39](https://app.goldenanalytics.com/api/help/public-image?object=491368c1-9211-467d-a255-e4ae0407caf5%2F1793676298769-01-hero.png)

### When to use a map

- **The regional profit review.** Your VP of Sales wants to know which states make money and which lose it. A filled map with a diverging scale paints Texas red and California blue before anyone opens a spreadsheet.
- **Where the big accounts are.** A sales ops lead plots every city as a dot, sized by sales and colored by profit. The giant red dot in a city full of revenue is the conversation for Monday.
- **Territory planning.** Before you redraw territories, a density map shows where orders actually cluster, not where you assumed they did.
- **The country rollup.** A finance team with revenue in 30 countries shades each one by growth and sees the outliers in one look.

If your data has a place in it and someone keeps asking "which regions?", it's time for a map.

### Make a map

1. Add a chart to your dashboard (on a blank one, choose **Start from a field**).
2. Open the map chart type menu and pick **Shape map**, **Filled map** or **Density map**.
3. Put a geographic field on **Location** (State/Province, City, Country/Region, Postal Code). Fields Golden recognizes as places sit under **Geographic** in the Fields panel, marked with a globe.
4. Put a measure on **Color** (and on **Size**, for a shape map).

![The map chart type menu open with Shape map, Filled map (checked) and Density map](https://app.goldenanalytics.com/api/help/public-image?object=491368c1-9211-467d-a255-e4ae0407caf5%2F1793676306521-02-map-types.png)

Golden names the chart for you ("Sum of profit by state/province"). Click the title to change it.

From chat:

```
Show profit by state as a filled map
```

### The shelves

Every map has a **Location** shelf, a **Color** shelf and a **Tooltip** shelf. A shape map adds **Size**.

![The map's shelves: State(State/Province) on Location, Sum(Profit) on Color, an empty Tooltip shelf and the Options button](https://app.goldenanalytics.com/api/help/public-image?object=491368c1-9211-467d-a255-e4ae0407caf5%2F1793676315039-03-shelves.png)

| Shelf | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| **Location** | Where each mark goes. Takes geographic fields only: country, state, county, metro, city, ZIP, or latitude and longitude. |
| **Color** | Shades each region or mark. On a filled or shape map it takes a measure (a color scale) or a dimension (one color per category). A density map takes a measure only. |
| **Size** | Shape map only. Sizes each dot by a measure, so the biggest numbers are the biggest dots. |
| **Tooltip** | Extra fields to show when someone hovers a region or a dot. |

### The three kinds of map

### Filled map

A filled map shades whole regions by value. It's the right pick when the region itself is the unit: states, countries, counties.

Golden fills US states, US counties, US metro areas, US ZIP codes, countries, and states or provinces worldwide. Hover any region to see its value.

![Hovering Texas on the filled map shows a tooltip: State/Province: Texas, Profit: -$25,729.36, Click for actions](https://app.goldenanalytics.com/api/help/public-image?object=491368c1-9211-467d-a255-e4ae0407caf5%2F1793676385571-06-tooltip.png)

### Shape map

A shape map puts a mark on each place. Use it for cities, stores or anything that's a point rather than an area, and when you want two measures at once: one on **Size**, one on **Color**.

![A shape map of sales and profit by city: dots sized by sales and colored from red (loss) to blue (profit), with the largest blue dots on the coasts](https://app.goldenanalytics.com/api/help/public-image?object=491368c1-9211-467d-a255-e4ae0407caf5%2F1793676369150-04-shape-map.png)

### Density map

A density map shows where your rows cluster. Put a measure on **Color** to weight each place by it, so a city with $1M in sales glows hotter than one with $10K. Golden computes it over your full dataset, not a sample.

![Density map of postal codes](https://app.goldenanalytics.com/api/help/public-image?object=491368c1-9211-467d-a255-e4ae0407caf5%2F1793676619850-sum_of_sales_by_postal_code.png)

### Color

Click **Color** on the shelf to open **Color encoding**.

![The Color encoding panel for Profit: Scale set to Diverging, the Red-Blue color scale, Reverse colors and Stepped color off, Custom colors with Low, Mid and High swatches, Midpoint value Auto at 0, Opacity 100%, and Show legend on at the Bottom position](https://app.goldenanalytics.com/api/help/public-image?object=491368c1-9211-467d-a255-e4ae0407caf5%2F1793676360698-05-color-encoding.png)

| Option | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| **Scale** | **Continuous** runs from low to high in one hue. **Diverging** runs from one color through a neutral middle to another. |
| **Color scale** | Pick a preset (like **Red-Blue**), or set your own under **Custom colors**. |
| **Reverse colors** | Flips the scale, for measures where low is good (cost, returns, churn). |
| **Stepped color** | Bands the scale into distinct steps instead of a smooth blend. |
| **Custom colors** | Set the **Low** and **High** colors (plus **Mid** on a diverging scale). |
| **Midpoint value** | Diverging only. Where the neutral middle sits. **Auto** picks it for you; type 0 to split losses from gains. |
| **Opacity** | How solid the fill is. |
| **Show legend** | Shows the color legend on the map, at the **Position** you choose. |

For profit, use **Diverging** with the midpoint at 0. Every money-losing region turns red and every profitable one turns blue, which is exactly the question your exec team is asking.

### Map options

Select the map and click **Options** to open the map's options.

![Filled map options: a Data labels toggle, then Map settings with Location country, Location state / province, Map style set to Light, Marker size 8px, Marker opacity 80%, and toggles for Reverse colors, Show location count, Show navigator, Show map controls and Show color legend](https://app.goldenanalytics.com/api/help/public-image?object=491368c1-9211-467d-a255-e4ae0407caf5%2F1793676394064-07-map-options.png)

| Option | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| **Data labels** | Filled map only. Writes each region's value on the map. |
| **Location country** | Places ambiguous locations in this country. Leave it on Automatic to use the data's own context (ZIP codes default to the US). |
| **Location state / province** | Narrows ambiguous places further, to one state or province. |
| **Map style** | The basemap: **Light**, **Dark**, **Streets** or **Satellite**. |
| **Marker size** | How big the dots are, from 2 to 24px. |
| **Marker opacity** | How solid the dots are, from 10% to 100%. |
| **Reverse colors** | Flips the color scale. |
| **Show location count** | Shows how many locations the map plotted. |
| **Show navigator** | Shows the drill navigator in the map's corner. |
| **Show map controls** | Shows the zoom and reset buttons. |
| **Show color legend** | Shows the color legend. |

> **Tip:** City names repeat. There's a Springfield in a dozen states and a Paris in Texas. If dots land in the wrong place, set **Location country** (and **Location state / province** if your data is all one state), or put State on **Location** next to City so Golden has the context.

### Moving around the map

Drag to pan and scroll to zoom, or use **Zoom in** and **Zoom out** in the corner. **Reset map view** frames all your data again. Whenever the map draws, it frames its own marks, so a map of 3 states opens on those 3 states.

### Do it from chat

Chat can build maps and change everything above. Ask the way you'd ask an analyst.

**Build**

```
Show profit by state as a filled map
```

```
Plot sales by city on a map, sized by sales and colored by profit
```

```
Show where orders cluster as a density map
```

**Color**

```
Use a red to blue diverging scale for profit, centered on zero
```

```
Reverse the colors
```

**Style**

```
Use a satellite map
```

```
Make the map dark
```

```
Make the dots smaller and more transparent
```

**Place things right**

```
These cities are all in the United States
```

```
Our locations are all in Georgia
```

A few things chat does on purpose:

- **It won't zoom or center the map.** A map always frames its own marks. To show less ground, ask chat to filter what the map plots ("only show the West region").
- **It won't highlight members on a map.** "Make Texas stand out" works on a bar chart; on a map chat tells you it can't, and why.
- **ZIP codes default to the US** only when nothing else in your data says otherwise.

### Sharing, publishing and viewers

- **Viewers get a live map.** They can pan, zoom, hover any region for its tooltip and hit **Reset map view** to get back.
- **Your color, style and legend carry into the published dashboard**, exactly as you set them.
- **Dashboard filters apply.** Filter to one region and the map redraws and reframes around what's left.

### FAQ

**Which geographies can a filled map shade?** US states, US counties, US metro areas, US ZIP codes, countries, and states or provinces worldwide. For anything else, use a shape map.

**My dots landed in the wrong country. What happened?** The place name exists in more than one country. Set **Location country** under **Options**, or add State or Country to the **Location** shelf next to City.

**Should I use a filled map or a shape map?** Filled when the region is the unit (states, countries). Shape when the thing is a point (cities, stores) or when you want two measures, one on size and one on color.

**Can I color a map by a category instead of a number?** Yes, on a filled or shape map. Put a dimension like Region or Segment on **Color** and each value gets its own color. A density map needs a measure.

**Why doesn't chat zoom in when I ask?** There's no saved zoom. The map always frames its own data. Filter to the places you want and the map frames those.

Source: https://goldenanalytics.com/docs/imported-mw04iw0r