One of the most effective ways to stay engaged in your work is to ensure you aren’t interrupted by navigation mistakes. The biggest navigation mistake we’ve encountered is accidentally zooming too far in or out on the map, which can happen if you use your mouse scroll for zooming. A great way to avoid this mistake is to use this simple zoom function:

Hold your shift key and drag your mouse across a section of the map that you would like to zoom to. You will notice a shape will appear like the one shown in the image below. Once you let go of the mouse, your map will automatically load to that area of the map.
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To zoom out, simply use the “-” key just to the right of the search bar. You can also use ctrl +/- on Windows and Command +/- on a Mac to Zoom in and out.

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Here are two features that could make your life a whole lot easier and make your PiinPoint sessions more efficient:

1. If you're looking for general demographic information, instead of creating a full report on a trade area, utilize the Summarize Data feature:

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2. If you need data from multiple trade areas, instead of creating multiple individual reports, utilize the Quick Comparison feature at the top of your screen:

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PiinPoint is an incredibly feature-rich environment, and while this is great for capturing value, some amount of maintenance is required to prevent clutter. Make sure you turn off all POIs, layers, and traffic counts you're not working with. These will not only clutter your screen, but can make your system run slower, especially if you zoom out and load more area onto your map. If you don’t want to turn your POIs off completely, make sure to use the Cluster function in the POI legend:

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Another way you can speed up your experience is by deleting old layers and projects that you aren’t using anymore. If you have old layers/projects, they’re just taking up space and it would be best practice to delete them from your account.

For Layers, simply click on the ellipses symbol on the right side of the on/off toggle, and click Delete Layer or Delete 2+ Layers:

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For projects, click on the ellipses symbol on the right side of the projects tab, and then click Delete. Note that you will not be able to delete a project you are currently working in.

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Make sure you fully allow your PiinPoint map to load before you start your work. This is especially relevant if you have many layers or POIs turned on. If possible, turn these off before you log out so the next time you log in, your system won’t have to work so hard loading unnecessary features.

You will also notice a blue loading bar at the top of the explore map; make sure this has completely finished and disappeared before starting your work:

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