Get started with ArcGIS for Excel

ArcGIS for Excel adds a geographic component to the data analysis capabilities of Microsoft Office. In this tutorial, you'll create a map in Microsoft Excel based on a spreadsheet of potential customers for a beauty salon in Ottawa, Canada. By putting information about the salon locations and customers on a map, you can perform a visual analysis of leads generated at the National Women's Show, a major consumer event for women in Canada.

This tutorial was last tested on July 2, 2026.

View final result

Requirements

• ArcGIS organizational account with a Publisher, Facilitator, or Administrator role (see options for software access)
• Microsoft 365
• ArcGIS for Excel
• 15 credits

Get started with ArcGIS for Excel

Map business locations

First, you'll create a map from a spreadsheet of salon data.

1. Download the SalonCustomersOttawaArea.xlsx spreadsheet.
2. Go to Microsoft Excel for the Web. If necessary, sign in to your Microsoft 365 account.
3. On the Microsoft Excel for the Web page, click Upload a file. Browse to and upload the SalonCustomersOttawaArea.xlsx spreadsheet you downloaded.

   When the upload is complete, the spreadsheet automatically opens. The spreadsheet contains two tabs—one for each worksheet. The salons tab has information about the salons, and the new customers tab has all the contact information that you collected at the National Women's Show.

4. At the bottom of the page, click the salons tab to make it the active worksheet.

   

   Each salon location has its own row that contains fields for the salon name, manager's name, salon address, city, province, and phone number, as well as the salon's revenue and profits for the current year. To add data to a map, it must contain at least one location-based attribute, such as address data or longitude and latitude values. You'll use the address fields to plot the salon locations on the map.

5. On the ribbon, click the ArcGIS tab.

   

   Note:

   If you don't see the ArcGIS tab, download and install ArcGIS for Excel. If you've already installed ArcGIS for Excel, see Introduction to ArcGIS for Excel or Frequently asked questions to find a possible solution.

   Before you can use the tools, you must first sign in to an ArcGIS organizational account.

6. On the Excel ribbon, click Show Map.

   

   The ArcGIS for Excel pane appears.

7. If any welcome messages or messages showing new features appear, skip or close them.
8. Click Sign in. Sign in to your ArcGIS organizational account.

   Note:

   If you don't have an organizational account, see options for software access.

9. On the map toolbar, click the Layers button.

   

   You have not added any layers yet, so the list is empty. When you click the Add button, you can choose where you want to add data from: Excel or an ArcGIS organization.

10. In the Layers pane, click Excel.

    

    The Add layer pane appears.

    ArcGIS for Excel provides two ways of adding data from Excel: from a table or a cell range. You will add the salon information as a range of cells in the spreadsheet. The first row in the salons spreadsheet contains headers for the columns. You want to preserve these as attribute field names, which will help you style the map later.

11. For Data, click Select cell(s) directly on the sheet.

    

    The Data option changes to Type or select cells.

12. In the salons worksheet, select the range of cells from cell A1 to cell H6.

    Tip:

    You can click the first cell in the range and press the Shift key while you click the last cell in the range.

    

    The selected cells are surrounded by a green border and the cell range appears under Data.

13. In the ArcGIS for Excel pane, confirm that the First row contains headers box is checked.

    

    Next, you'll specify the mapping options and confirm the location information for the salons.

14. For Location types, confirm that Address is chosen.

    

    This field indicates the type of location-based data that you're providing, such as street addresses or latitude-longitude coordinates. In this case, the selected cells contain address data. When you create a layer from addresses, corresponding locations are determined using the default locator set by your organization's administrator.

    Note:

    Geocoding addresses uses ArcGIS credits. To learn more, see Understand credits.

    Several of the mapping options are automatically selected depending on the default settings of your ArcGIS organization and the data in your spreadsheet. However, you must still confirm that the location information is appropriate for your map. For example, the salons are in Canada. If the default country for your account is the United States, you must choose the correct country (Canada) to ensure that your map displays the features properly.

15. Under Location types, for Region, choose Canada. For Address field, confirm that Multiple is chosen.

    

    Note:

    The salons spreadsheet doesn't have a column with values for Postal or Country Code. The None value for these columns is acceptable because the software has enough location information to properly map the salons without these values.

16. Click Add.

    The salon locations appear on the map.

Style the layer

Next, you'll choose a style for visualizing this data in the map. ArcGIS for Excel provides many options for styling the data that you use to create a layer.

1. Click the Symbology tab.

   

2. For Active layer, confirm that the cell range is salons!A1:H6.
3. Click Add field.

   

   Additional drop-down menus appear.

4. Check the Revenue check box.

   

5. Click Add.

   The map updates.

   

   Tip:

   If you have difficulty seeing the features on the map, you can expand the map's size by dragging the edge of the ArcGIS for Excel pane. You can also pan and zoom the map.

   When you choose the column, the style that is typically most suitable for the data is selected by default and applied to the map. You'll apply a style that symbolizes features with graduated circles, which are useful for comparing records on the map.

   Note:

   You can further refine a layer's symbology on the Style options tab.

6. Click Add field. Check the box for Profit.

   

7. Click Add.

   The field is added. For Symbol type, Color and Size is selected.

   

   The map displays the salon locations where the graduated sizes of the circles represent the amount of profit the location has reported and the color of the symbol represents the amount of revenue the location has reported, with the darker colors representing higher values. The combination of color and size symbology gives you a sense of how salon revenue and profit are distributed in the region.

   You'll switch the order of the attributes so profit is symbolized by color and revenue by size.

8. Drag the Profit attribute above the Revenue attribute.

   

   The map changes, with revenue now symbolized by size. You'll customize the symbology by choosing a different color ramp.

9. In the Layers pane, click the Style options tab.

   

   Additional style options appear, allowing you to edit the size or color of the layer style.

10. Click the Color ramp menu.

    

11. Click Greens and choose the Green 1 color ramp.

    Tip:

    To see the name of a color ramp, point to it.

    

    The layer style updates.

12. Click the Layers tab.

    

    The map layer that contains the salons is named according to the cell range that you chose in the worksheet. You'll rename it so it has a more meaningful layer name.

13. In the layer list, double-click the salons!A1:H6 layer to edit the text. Type salons and press Enter.

    The layer name updates.

    

14. Close the Layers pane.
15. If you don't see five green symbols on the map, resize the map window and drag the map to pan until you see them.

    Tip:

    The symbol farthest east is small, while the symbol near Nepean is light-colored, so they may be difficult to see. You can also zoom the map by using the navigation tools in the corner or scrolling with your mouse wheel.

    

    The salon in Orleans (to the northeast) is generating the lowest revenue of the five locations, but one of the highest profits, which means there are opportunities for expanding your customer base at this location. It is the newest salon—the one for which you may want to send promotional packages to potential new customers.

    The map tools, displayed as a column of expandable icons at the side of the map, contain tools for working with the map and data; you'll use some of these throughout this tutorial. The map tools also include tools that you can use to search for places of interest, select features on the map, and change the basemap.

    The salons layer displays over a basemap, which provides context for your locations. In an ArcGIS organization, the administrator chooses the default basemap, but you can change it for your map. You want to draw attention to the data that you're adding to the map, so you'll choose a simple basemap.

16. On the map toolbar, click the Basemap button.

    

    The Basemap pane appears.

17. Click Dark Gray Canvas.

    Note:

    Your organization may use different basemaps, depending on how your administrator has configured your organization's settings. If you don't see Dark Gray Canvas, choose another simple basemap that provides enough contrast with the salons layer. If your map already uses this basemap, close the Basemap pane.

    

    The basemap changes. Now, all five symbols are easier to see on the map.

    

18. Close the Basemap pane.

Map potential customer addresses

Next, you'll add a layer to the map that shows the locations of the potential new customers who provided their contact information at the National Women's Show. This data is in the format of a Microsoft Excel table.

1. Click the new customers tab to make it the active worksheet.

   The customer information is contained in an Excel table. When you add a layer to the map from a table, new rows or columns that get added later are automatically included in the map. When you add a layer to the map from a range of cells, adding rows or columns will not update the map.

2. On the map toolbar, click Layers. Click Add.

   

3. In the Add layer window, for Data, confirm new customers!customers is chosen. For Location types, confirm Address is chosen.

   

   As before, you'll confirm that the location information is appropriate for your map.

4. For Region, choose Canada. For Address field, confirm Multiple is chosen.
5. Click Add.

   The layer is added.

   

   The layer is styled by Location (Single symbol) by default. This style is helpful for seeing where customers are distributed in the region and analyzing customers' proximity to a salon. However, the worksheet contains additional information that is important to visualize. Ottawa is a bilingual city, so you'll style the layer by the customers' preferred language using the Types (Unique symbols) style.

6. Rename the layer to customers. If necessary, click the layer to select it.

   

7. Click the Symbology tab.
8. For Attributes, click Add field. Check the box for Language and click Add.

   The field is added. The Symbol type option is automatically set to Types.

   

   In this style, features are drawn with various symbols to represent each value in the field you selected. Next, you'll change the default symbol style, which is similar to the style used for salons.

9. Click the Style options tab. In the Symbol styling section, click the button for Shape.

   

10. Click Pins and choose the Location shape.

    

11. Set the symbol size to 15 pixels (px).

    

12. Scroll down to the Unique values (Language) section.

    

    This section shows how each value is styled and a count of how many features are in each category. The majority of customers speak English.

    On the map, the symbols for the customers layer obscure the symbols for the salons layer. You'll move the salons layer above the customers layer.

13. Click the Layers tab. In the layer list, drag the customers layer under the salons layer.

    

    On the map, the green salon symbols appear on top of the blue and red customer symbols.

14. For the customers layer, click the More options button and click the Zoom to button.

    

    The map zooms to the full extent of the layer.

15. Close the Layers pane.

    

    Your map shows the locations of the salons and the locations of potential customers. The layer styling identifies the customers' preferred language for receiving marketing communications. The salon location in Orleans currently has the smallest amount of revenue. Based on the map, about half the customers near the Orleans salon prefer speaking French. This information can inform promotional campaigns you might introduce to the area to best meet your customers' needs.

Configure pop-ups

Next, you'll configure pop-ups for the customers layer. Pop-ups appear when you click a feature on the map and contain descriptive information about the feature. The information that displays in a pop-up comes from the columns and rows in your data.

1. Click a customer location on the map to open its pop-up.

   

   The basic configuration of a pop-up is a list of fields and values associated with a layer. You'll change the way this information is presented by adding a header and specifying which attributes to display.

2. Close the pop-up.
3. On the map toolbar, click the Layers button. In the Layers pane, click the Layer properties tab.

   

4. Expand Pop-ups. For Title field, choose Name.

   

   Next, you'll specify which attributes to include in the pop-up. Because you're using the Name field as the pop-up's title, you don't need this information to be repeated in the pop-up. Also, it's unnecessary to show the city and province names, which are the same for every location.

5. Click the list of fields.

   

6. Uncheck the boxes for excel_row_id, Name, City, and Province.

   

7. Close the Layers pane. On the map, click a customer feature to view the updated pop-up.

   

   The pop-up displays the attributes that you specified and also contains several tools that allow you to work with the selected feature.

8. Close the pop-up.

Share your map

Now that you have a map that allows you to visually explore customer prospects for your salons, you'll share your map to ArcGIS Online as a web map.

Note:

It's not necessary to save your map before sharing it. Changes to your map in Microsoft Excel for the Web are automatically saved.

1. On the map toolbar, click the Share | Export button.

   

2. In the Share | Export pane, enter the following information:
   • For Title, type Orleans Salon Promo.
   • For Tags, type Orleans, Salons, Canada.
   • For Summary, type Promo for potential customers for Orleans salon.
   • For Sharing level, choose Everyone (public).

   

   Alternatively, you can choose to share only within your organization, or to any groups to which you belong.

3. Click Share.

   After a few seconds, the map is shared. A confirmation message appears at the top of the map. You can now open the web map in ArcGIS Online.

   Note:

   In the Share | Export pane, you can also click the Export tab and export the map to several image formats.

In this tutorial, you used ArcGIS for Excel to create and configure a map that shows the locations of hundreds of potential customers. The map allows you to visually analyze the potential customers' proximity to your salons and highlights their preferred language for marketing communications. Finally, you created a visually compelling web map to present your analysis using ArcGIS for Excel and your ArcGIS organization.

You can find more tutorials in the tutorial gallery.

Acknowledgements

• This data was fabricated for the purposes of this tutorial.
• Card graphic created with an image by Adam Winger from Unsplash.
• Dark Gray Canvas map sources: Esri, TomTom, Garmin, FAO, NOAA, USGS, OpenStreetMap contributors, and the GIS User Community