HOW TO USE MAP-O-MATIC (#1 in a Series)
Display Selected Locations on a Map as Pushpins
As mentioned in this previous article (which also includes short video tutorials) introducing my Windows app, “Map-O-Matic” can be used to create maps showing locations based on whatever criteria you choose. Any locations in which you are interested can be plotted and displayed on custom maps you create and save for future use.
I will show on example here in this article of a map which you might create, which shows the areas where events take place in my picaresque satirical (pseudo-science fiction) novel “the Zany Time Travels of Warble McGorkle.”
Events in the book take place mostly in the U.S., but there are also two international locations, Jerusalem and Kiribati.
Here is the map showing these action-packed locations:
And here is that same map, zoomed in on just the U.S.:
And finally, zoomed in on Jerusalem:
Now I will tell you briefly how to create that map.
There are actually two ways:
1) Manually, for which you choose File > Create New Map Manually...
You can watch the video tutorial showing how to do that here:
2) By importing a text file that you (or someone else) created into Map-O-Matic. To do that, you choose File > Create New Map and Locations from File...
You can watch the video tutorial showing how to do that here:
For more specifics and details on creating maps, see the introductory article, from the subheading “THE TWO WAYS OF CREATING A MAP IN MAP-O-MATIC”
In the case of the particular map shown in the screenshots above, the text file that I used contains this information:
Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, NY;25 Main St;Cooperstown;New York;13326
Silver Spring, Maryland;11701 Berwick Road;Silver Spring;Maryland;20904
Washington, D.C.;1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW;Washington;D.C.;20500
Alamo, Texas;300 Alamo Plz;San Antonio;Texas;78205
Gilbert Islands/Kiribati;;Abemama Kariatebike;Gilbert Islands Kiribati;KI0112
Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem, Israel;Dome of the Rock;Jerusalem;Israel;9103401
Yasger's Farm, Woodstock, New York;34 Yasgur Rd;Bethel;New York;12720
Oconomowoc, Wisconsin;811 W Wisconsin Ave;Oconomowoc;Wisconsin;53066
Zenia, California;140 Zenia Bluff Road;Zenia;California;95595
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania;;Philadelphia;Pennsylvania;19019
You’ll notice that the pushpins on the map shown are all the same color. It doesn’t have to be this way. You can specify any of 15 different colors for the pushpins. I will show you how to do that in the next article in this series on How to Use Map-O-Matic.