How to customise Google Maps

Start the ball rolling by launching your web browser and then typing www.computeractive.co.uk/2198813 into the Address or Location bar at the top before pressing Enter. Here we’ve created a link to the UK home page of Google My Maps, so click this to be transferred. When Google’s site appears, click the Sign in link at the top right and type in your Google username and password. If you don’t have one, then follow the instructions to create one. When the Maps page appears again, click on the My Maps tab at the top left. Scroll down the list of sample maps and click on one that looks interesting – here we’ve chosen famous movies filmed in the UK.

When the map loads, it includes a number of icons indicating different locations in the UK. Click on one of these to discover that, for example, Liverpool was used to double for Moscow in The Hunt For Red October, or that the opening of Gladiator was shot in Farnham Woods in Surrey. All the information is contained in little pop-up windows added to the map by its creator. Try some of the other maps – the Hawaii guide is good – to get a feel of what can be achieved. Note that this list of maps is ever-changing, with new ones appearing and creators of existing ones removing them for their own reasons.

Next, navigate to a particular location by typing the name of a place into Google’s search box – in this example, it’s Brighton. Then, with the location in the main map window, click the My Maps tab at the top of the left column, then click the Create new map link. Give the map a name and a brief description – in this example, it’s a map of directions from a railway station in Hove to someone’s house – and then click on the Save button to store the map.

Use the zoom controls to get closer to the map or click and drag it around with your hand until a suitable area is displayed on the screen – here we’ve zoomed into Hove station, the start point, and switched to Hybrid view, which shows major street names overlaid on an aerial photograph. Remember that it’s possible to zoom in using the slider control on the left of the map or by positioning the mouse pointer and double-clicking. Next, click on the little balloon icon to add a place mark.

Drag the place marker on top of the correct location on the map and click once to drop it into position. Google Maps opens up a little dialogue box, that asks for a title and a description of the location. Fill both of these in with something that will make sense to other people when they read it. As the dialogue box is completed, note that the text appears in the My Maps list on the left of the screen. Finished? Click the OK button to complete and close the dialogue box.

The first location is now indicated by a place mark. Click it once with the left mouse button and this description box appears. From here it’s possible to edit the caption, delete it, get Google to provide directions to or from the place mark, or search nearby for places of interest such as restaurants, pubs and so on. Captions written like this will do a job, but in the steps that follow, we’ll make them more interesting and informative. To start, click the Edit link.

When the dialogue box appears, start jazzing it up by clicking the Rich text link at the top. This reveals a small selection of word processor-style buttons that make it possible to embolden, underline or italicise text, as well as change its colour. If you’re technically minded, you can even switch to HTML view and add tags to achieve various presentational effects. In this example, we’ve inserted a line at the top and repeated the title, highlighted it, made it bold and then added the web address for train enquiries underneath.

It’s also possible to add photos to place marks, although these must already be stored on a service such as Flickr (www.flickr.com) or Google’s own Picasa Web Albums (http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/home). Here’s how. Make sure that Rich text is selected in the place mark dialogue, then position the text entry cursor where the photo should appear. Next, open a new tab in the web browser and go to a photo service such as Flickr and find the photo you want to use. Right-click on it and choose Properties from the menu.

The dialogue box contains various bits of technical information – one of which is the web address (sometimes called the URL) of the photo we’re looking at. We need to copy this address and then paste it into Google Maps to display the picture. Use the mouse pointer to highlight this address, then click on it once with the right mouse button and choose Copy from the pop-up menu. Then click the OK button to close the dialogue box.

Flip back to Google Maps and click on the Insert Image icon in the place mark dialogue box (if the web browser displays a warning, choose Allow). When the User Prompt dialogue box opens, hold down the Control key and press V to paste the address of the photograph into the dialogue box. Next, click OK and the photo will be displayed in the place mark dialogue. Then click OK to close the dialogue and click the place mark again to see the description and photo.

Close the place mark caption by clicking the X in its top right-hand corner and position the map to see some of the route that’s going to be traced out. Next, click the line button and click once at the journey’s start to draw out a path to the first turning point. Click again and set off in the next direction. Since this tool only draws straight lines, it may be necessary to zoom in to draw routes that twist and turn.

Need to scroll the detailed view of the map? Move the cursor down to the mini version in the bottom right-hand corner and use that to move around. Keep making turns until you reach the destination, then double-click to finish. Google opens up a caption box for the entire line – in this example, we’ll call it ‘the route to our house’ – so fill that in and click OK to close it. Add any other place marks to describe landmarks or awkward turnings to finish off the map.

Use the zoom controls to pull back to see the entire route, then either click on any of the place marks on the map itself or their equivalents in the column on the left. Of course, maps like this are meant to be shared, so either click the Email link at the top to copy the address into your default email program, or click the ‘Link to this page’ link to paste it onto a website or into an existing mail message. When the recipient clicks on the link, it will open this map.

By default, new maps created in this way are made public by Google, so in theory, anyone can find them in the course of a search. There may be occasions when this isn’t advisable – perhaps when dishing out invitations and directions to a party, for example. If that’s the case, simply click the Edit title/settings link at the top of the My Maps list and change Public to Unlisted by clicking the relevant radio button. Then click Save. You’ll now have to specifically send people the map address before they can view it.