Learn how to search, sort, and filter items and folders in Population Explorer’s drawer to quickly locate shapes and focus on high-priority data.
Overview
One of the more critical steps in creating an ideal franchise territory is evaluating candidate territories, ranking and sorting by various criteria. Population Explorer includes built-in search, sort, and filter functions inside the folder and item drawer. These tools help you locate shapes or markers quickly, organize your workspace, and focus on items that meet specific population, income or density criteria. Service franchisors will find this useful to quickly identify territories meeting the required population, income and competitor density criterion; whereas food and beverage franchise planners will use this to identify locations with sufficient population in various driving-times.
When to Use This
Use these functions whenever your workspace contains many folders or shapes, or when you want to review items that meet specific data thresholds such as population totals.
Step-by-Step
1. Open the Folder Drawer
In the left drawer, expand the list of folders. All items - including shapes and markers - must be stored inside a folder to appear here.
2. Search by Name
Use the Search bar at the top of the drawer to find items by name. The search runs in real time and automatically expands only folders that contain matching items.
3. Filter by Population
Click the Filter icon to apply population, income, sex or density criteria. Only items that meet your chosen population range remain visible, and their parent folders expand automatically to show matches.
4. Sort Items
Click the Sort button to reorder visible items by Name or Date Created. Sorting applies only to the items currently displayed after filtering or searching.
5. Clear Filters or Searches
To return to the full folder view, clear the search field or remove any active filters. All folders collapse back to their default state.
Tips
Search and filter updates occur live - no need to press Enter.
Population filters apply only to polygons, not markers.
If no items meet your filter criteria, the drawer will appear empty until the filter is cleared.
Need More Help?
If you run into issues, please contact us.
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