MSE%231%20How-To-4

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Georgia State University *

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2200

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Geography

Date

Oct 30, 2023

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pdf

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Uploaded by AdmiralOryx3572

Introducing Google My Maps GEOG2200 Mapping Our World Ryan Pardue Step 1. Signing into Google My Maps Go to: google.com/maps/d/?hl=en You will be prompted to sign into your Google account. If you don’t already have a Google account that you use, go ahead and create one by clicking “Create Account” and following the instructions there. Step 2. Creating a new My Maps Project Once you’ve logged into your account and gone to the Google My Maps page, select “Create a New Map” from the top left-hand corner of the page. If you don’t see that, you should see a red circle white a white + sign in the bottom right-hand corner of your window, which does the same thing. This will open a window like this one...

Step 3. Editing the Project Title and Description If you click on the title of the map, where it currently says “Untitled Map”, it will bring up a dialogue box like one you see below, where you can rename your map and provide it a description. Step 4. Introducing the Main Toolbar Just to the right of the map layer panel will be this toolbar, which provides you the basic functions for adding information to your map. The specific functions for each button are noted. Step 5. Adding Features Using the Search Function Now zoom into the Atlanta area and use the search bar to type in “Langdale Hall”, where the GSU Deptartment of Geosciences is located...

Once you’ve searched for something that Google Maps can identify, you can add it directly to the map by selecting “Add to Map” in the pop up window. You’ll notice that once you’ve chosen to add this feature to your map, it goes from being a neon green ‘placemark’ to being a blue place mark that’s now been added to the “Untitled layer” of your map. Step 6. Editing Your Features Looking closer at this placemark feature we’ve added to our map, we can see that there are a number of options of what we can do with it.

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At the bottom of each feature pop-up dialog box, you will see the following toolbar, which allows you to manipulate the symbology or information associated with that particular feature. If you click on the “Style” button on the left of this toolbar, you can customize the color or type of symbol used to represent your feature. While I’ll leave my features alone for now, you can try changing the way your features appear on the map. Step 7. Adding Point Features Manually You can also add placemarks anywhere by selecting the “Add Marker” tool and clicking anywhere on the map. As you can see below, I’ve added a placemark right in the middle of the street intersection next to Langdale Hall.

Step 8. Adding Line Features You can also add a line feature in much the same way. Here, I’ve added a line that follows the path I walk from my office in Langdale Hall to Highland Bakery, where I often get lunch. To finish drawing your line, all you need to do is double click the final point on your line. Step 9. Adding Polygon/Areal Features The same thing works for drawing a polygon or areal feature. But now, instead of double clicking at the final point on your line, you’ll need to make sure your polygon ends at the first point you began with, and double clicking on it.

Step 10. Adding Multimedia to Features Beyond just adding text, we can also go add a photo or video to our features by clicking the small camera icon in the bottom right hand corner of the feature pop up. We can upload our own photos or use the url of an image, or even search for an image from Google or a video from YouTube.

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Step 11. Built-in Measurement Features One thing you may or may not have noticed as we were adding features to our map is that each feature stores some additional geographic information can be useful to us, which is always shown in the bottom left-hand corner of the feature pop-up window. Our point features will display the latitude and longitude coordinates… …our line features will display the total length of the line from start to finish… …and our polygon features will display both the area of the polygon (in acres) as well as the length of the area’s boundary.

Step 12. Editing Your Basemap But once we’ve added a few features to our map, it starts to get a bit messy and hard to read, especially with the basemap underneath. If you click the small downwards arrow next to “Base map” at the bottom of the layer pane on the left hand side of your screen, we’ll be able to select a different basemap from the nine options provided. Since I’m worried about all the clutter on the map, I think I want a really stripped down, minimalistic basemap. After looking through the different options, I think I’ll select the choice in the bottom left hand corner, “Light Landmass”.

Look how much simpler the map is to read now! But notice that if we zoom out on the map, all of the detail of the building outlines and reference points also disappears. Since my map only includes features at this really localized level this is probably OK, but it’s important to know that what’s visible on the map changes depending on what level we’re looking at it! If my map included features across a larger area, this basemap might not be the best because it would have too little detail at any lower levels of zoom.

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Step 13. Previewing Your Map Before Publishing Once we’re done manipulating the symbology for our map features, you can click the ‘Preview’ button in the map layer pane to see what it will look like to others when you share your map. You should see a view like this: Step 14. Publishing and Sharing Your Map If you’re not satisfied with how your map will appear to others, you can always go back and change it! But for now, let’s say that we’re ready to share our maps with our friends, family and, in this case, with our professor and TA! To share your map click the ‘Share’ icon in your map layer pane, which will open a window like this one. Be sure to toggle the switch entitled “Enable link sharing”, which allows you to copy the url and then paste it elsewhere to provide a direct link to your map.

While there’s lots more we can do with Google My Maps, after this lab, you should be able to do all of the following: ● Create a new My Maps project ● Add a name and description to your project ● Add point, line and polygon features to your project ● Customize the symbology of each of your map features ● Add text, photos or videos to your map features ● Customize the basemap for your project ● Share your project with others! You will need all of these skills to complete Mapping Skills Exercise #1!