The AlignMix options panel is where you change how your maps look and what the software calls each level of your hierarchy. It’s also where you tell AlignMix to run lighter on an older machine. Everything lives in four sections: View, Geography, Project, and Tools.
View: display, colors, and low resource mode
The View section controls what you see on screen rather than what prints or exports. You can change how coordinates read in the bottom-left corner, from signed decimals like +54.65478, -1.32664 to degrees, minutes and seconds. That readout only updates in that corner as you move the mouse across the map, so it’s a display preference and nothing that touches your data.
This is also where you set the map’s color scheme and accents, and where the low resource mode checkbox sits. Leave that box unchecked on a normal computer. If you’re on an older or slower machine and you’ve noticed the map lagging as you pan and zoom, tick it. AlignMix will then redraw only what’s on screen instead of the whole map, which takes most of the strain off.
Geography: the default map for new files
The Geography section sets which map opens when you start a brand new AlignMix file. Changing it doesn’t touch the file you have open now. It just saves you from picking the same country or dataset every time you begin an alignment. If you always start in the US, or always in the UK, set it once here and forget about it.
Project: naming your hierarchy
Project has two parts, general settings and the naming convention. The general side handles small preferences, like whether a rep’s name doubles as their ID or whether each rep carries a separate ID and name.
The naming convention is the part most people actually come here for. AlignMix ships with a default hierarchy of territories, districts, and regions, and those words appear all over the interface. If your organization uses different terms, change them here. A company that calls its second level a “region” should rename the levels so the map matches the language reps already use. Two things trip people up. Rename both the singular and plural form of each term, and if you only use two levels, still rename the unused third level to something like district or area so you don’t end up with two “regions” stacked on top of each other. If you work with franchisees or territory managers rather than sales reps, this is where you’d relabel that as well.
For more on building out the levels themselves, see assigning territories to districts.
Tools: the zoom wheel
The last section covers how your mouse wheel behaves. By default, each scroll click jumps two zoom levels. Slide the chevron to the right and each click moves a single level, which gives you finer control when you’re working in a dense metro. Slide it left for coarser jumps that cross the map faster.
Frequently asked questions
Where do I find the options in AlignMix?
Open the options from the main menu. Inside you’ll see four sections: View, Geography, Project, and Tools.
What does low resource mode do?
It tells AlignMix to redraw only the part of the map you can see rather than the entire map, which reduces lag on older or slower computers. Leave it off unless you’ve noticed the map struggling to keep up.
Can I rename territories, districts, and regions?
Yes, in the Project section under naming convention. Change both the singular and plural of each level, and rename any level you don’t use so duplicate terms don’t appear. Matching AlignMix’s labels to your own org chart keeps everyone reading the same map.
Will changing the default geography affect my current file?
No. The Geography setting only decides which map opens for new files. Your open alignment stays exactly as it is.
New to AlignMix? Download it free or see a short demo.