Map Editor Help
Below you will find documentation and short videos about the web map editor. If you cannot find answers to your questions here, be sure to also check out the Forum where you can post your own questions, comments, or problems.
Documentation |
Videos |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Basic Tutorial Advanced Features |
Basic Tutorial:
The web map editor allows you to upload photos and other media objects and place them on a map. It also allows you to create and plan a new trip by adding points of interest, routes, and tracks. You can also edit existing trips or import GPX files.
The map editor utilizes the popular Google maps interface, but contains additional controls and options. On the map, you will find the standard pan and zoom control, a label displaying the mouse cursor's current latitude and longitude, a help link and status text, a map type drop down list, a toolbox consisting of a default hand cursor for dragging and panning the map, a point of interest marker, a route tool (for Trimble Outdoors phone app only), three different track drawing tools, a ruler for measuring distances on the map, a media and GPX upload button, and an undo button. Lastly, there is a map search tool that you can use to find places of interest or an address.
Options Pane:
On the right side of the map is an options pane. This pane contains three additional tabs. The Trip Items tab contains a tree view list of all your media, points of interest, routes, and tracks. As you add new items to your trip, they will show up in the tree view for easy reference and navigation. There is a Thumbnails tab for all of the media you have uploaded. And the last tab contains a few map option preferences that you can set. You can hide or show the entire Options pane by clicking on its title bar.
Media Upload:
To get started placing photos and videos on the map, you can first use the Google search box to quickly zoom the map to your trip location. Remember, you can enter a place name, street address or intersection, or even a business name. With the map in place, click the 'Upload Media' (camera) button in the toolbox. This brings up a small dialog box for you to select the photo, video, audio file, or even a YouTube Url that you want to upload. (Note: If you use a YouTube Url, the video stays on the YouTube.com site and must be marked as shared.) After you select your file, click the 'Upload File' button to begin uploading. Please be patient as the upload speed depends upon your local Internet connection. When the file is successfully uploaded, the dialog box will disappear, the mouse cursor pointer will change to a crosshair, and you can click anywhere on the map to place the media at that location. You will then notice an info window pop up in which you can enter a name and description for the media (note that the name defaults to the filename). To upload another file, repeat the process by clicking on the 'Upload Media' toolbox button again.
Points of Interest:
To add generic points of interest, click on the 'Point of Interest' (flag) button in the toolbox. Then click the map to place a marker at that location. Again, an info window will open so that you can enter a name and description for the point. You can move any marker on the map to a new location by dragging it. Simply click and hold the mouse button down and begin moving it. Notice the small "X" under the icon when moving. This will be the exact location of the icon when you drop it by releasing the mouse button. To add another point of interest, click the toolbox button, then click on the map again to place it at that location.
Tracks:
You can add/import one or more tracks to your trip in order to show the detailed path of your travels. Or you can edit existing tracks that were created with the Trimble Outdoors or AllSportGPS phone applications (or other GPS devices). When creating or editing a track, you have three different drawing modes that you can choose from and switch between. 'Free Hand' (the pencil icon in the toolbox) allows you to freely draw the track as you drag the pencil. 'Point and Click' (the zig-zag icon in the toolbox) allows you to quickly add straight line segments to a track by repeatedly clicking on the map. And the 'Follow Streets' (the street sign icon in the toolbox) mode allows you to click near a street and have Google find and follow the best street route from the end of the track to the new location.
Choose one of these icons and click on the map to set the starting location of your track. You can always switch drawing modes when editing a track by just choosing a different icon from the toolbox. You can also click on the drawing mode icon and get a context menu that will allow you to change the mode.
When you are done editing your track, select the 'Hand' icon from the toolbox to bring the track out of edit mode. You can then proceed to add other trip items or just save and preview.
Routes:
A route can be added to the map and is generally used to tie together a series of points of interest or navigation waypoints. A route generally only contains a few points and each point will probably have a description associated with it. For example, if I'm planning a hike in Yosemite National Park I may create a route that starts in the parking lot, then has another waypoint near Half Dome, a waypoint near Ribbon Falls, and another waypoint in the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoia trees. This route links together the key areas that I need to visit, but it doesn't tell me exactly how to get to each of those areas. I'm free to make my own path and find my own way to the next waypoint. A route does not show every turn or detail of my trip. It also does not contain any time stamps, speed, or elevation information.
Routes are supported by the Trimble Outdoors phone application and other GPS devices, but are not supported by the AllSportGPS phone application. (For users who want to compare and link together similar trips or workouts, see the Compare link on the My Account page.) Because routes don't apply to all users, you must first enable them in the map editor Options tab. When you do, you'll notice a new icon appear in the toolbox. To add a route, click the 'Route' (blue dot) button in the toolbox, then click on the map at the location of the first waypoint. Again, an info window will open allowing you to add a name and description. If you don't want to enter any information, you can simply click on the map again to add the second point to the route. A useful map option preference at this time is the 'Show info window after adding a new trip item'. If we uncheck that option, all new points will be added without the info window showing after every click. You can always go back and click on an existing point's icon to display the info window and edit its information. Remember, the map option applies to all point types, media, routes, and generic points of interest.
Ruler:
One other item in the toolbox is the ruler. To use the ruler, click on the button in the toolbox, then click on the map at the location where you want to start measuring. A ruler icon and distance label will appear on the map. Click and hold on the ruler icon and begin moving the mouse to start measuring. Only straight line distances can be measured. You can reset the ruler and measure again by clicking on another place on the map.
Undo:
Each action you perform on the map editor can be undone if you make a mistake. Up to the last 20 operations are stored and can be undone. You can also press Ctrl-Z to perform an undo operation.
Save and Preview:
Finally, when you are done editing your trip, you can click the 'Save and Preview' button at the bottom of the page to save your work. You will be brought to a new page where you can review all your work as it appears in the standard layout.
Advanced Features:
Below you will find information about some of the advanced features and capabilities of the map editor.
Media Upload:
One advanced feature of the media upload is the support of ZIP files. If you have several media files that you want to upload, you can simply add them all to a ZIP file and upload just that one file. The server will process and extract all media files and they will be added to your trip. You can then choose each item from the Trip Item tree view or Thumbnails tab and add them to the map just like before. Please note that the 10 MB file size restriction applies to individual files within the ZIP file. The ZIP file itself can be up to 200 MB.
Another advanced feature of the media upload is the support of GPX files. If you have a GPX file saved on your computer and would like to make a trip out of it, just upload it as you would a regular media file. The server will process and extract all points of interest, routes, and tracks from the GPX file. Both GPX version 1.0 and version 1.1 are supported.
Points Of Interest:
Points of interest include the generic POI flag icon map marker as well as the photo, video, and audio media map markers. All of these types of markers behave similarly. They all appear in the Trip Items tree view under the 'Media & Points Of Interest' node. In this section of the tree view, you can select any item and the map will pan to the location of the marker and show an Info Window. It will also bring the map icon to the front, on top of any other icons, so that you can grab it and move it around if necessary. When you select another item, the icon will go back to its natural z-order on the map, which may be behind other icons. If the item you selected is a media type, then its thumbnail in the Thumbnails tab will also be highlighted to help you identify which one it is.
Another thing you can do from the tree view is drag and drop the item nodes to re-order them. This is helpful for setting the chronological order of your points or photos for the 'Trip Report' page.
A POI's name and description are limited to 1,000 and 7,000 characters, respectively. The following Html markup elements are allowed: <a>, <b>, <i>, <u>.
Tracks:
You can edit existing points of a track by moving them or deleting them. To do so, you must first select the track by clicking on its green start map marker, the track line itself, or its corresponding node in the tree view. Then, when you move the mouse near the track line, you should see a small white square appear. You can click on that white square to get a context menu that will allow you to delete that point, or you can drag and drop the white square to adjust the location. The point context menu will also allow you to insert a point before or after the current point. Lastly, there is an option to view or edit that point's properties.
A track point's properties consist of its GPS status and navigation information. Possible GPS status for a point include 'Active', 'Resting', or 'GPS Dropout'. All active points appear as blue lines on the track. Resting will appear in yellow and GPS Dropout will appear in red.
If a point in the track represents an important change in direction or other information, you may with to add some navigational instructions. You can select from a drop down list common direction actions and/or provide more detailed instructions or comments in the Nav Label field. These navigation instructions will be listed in tabular form on the Trip View page for other users to read as well as being downloaded to the AllSportGPS phone application.
Routes:
A special note about routes is that the first waypoint is 'reused' when editing the route's information. For example, when you create a new route by adding the first waypoint, the Info Window that pops up pertains to that waypoint. If you edit the name and description, it will be for the waypoint. If you notice over in the tree view, the route still has the default name, 'Route 1'. In order to change the route's name and description, you must select it from the tree view. At this point in time, an Info Window will appear over the first waypoint, but this time, the information pertains to the route.