Maps Help

Create personalised, annotated, customised maps using Google Maps. Your maps can contain the following: Placemarks Lines Shapes Once you have created a map, you can: Add descriptive text, including rich text and HTML Embed photos and videos in your map Share your maps with others To create or edit maps, you must be signed in to your Google Account. If you do not have an account, create one now.

Creating a Map

Creating a map is easy. Here are the basic steps:

1. Click My Maps
2. Click Create new map.
3. Add a title and description for your map.
4. Decide whether the map should be public or unlisted. Public maps are automatically included in Google Maps search.
5. Use the icons in the top left corner of the map. These include:

Selection tool. Use this to drag the map and select placemarks, lines and shapes.
Placemark tool. Use this to add placemarks.
Line tool. Use this to draw lines.
Shape tool. Use this to draw shapes.

You can return to your map at any time. Just go to Google Maps and click My Maps. Sign in to your Google Account and select the map from your list of maps.

Saving Driving Directions New!

With My Maps, you can save, annotate and share driving directions with others. To save directions:

1. Get the driving directions you need using Google Maps (click here to learn how).
2. Click Save to My Maps underneath the directions.
3. You now have the option to save your directions to an existing map that you've created with My Maps, or to create a new map. Choose one of these options using the drop-down menu and click Save.
4. You'll now see the directions in the My Maps editor where you can edit the start and destination placemarks, as well as your route by clicking on each feature in the left panel.

Deleting Your Maps

To delete a map that you have created:

1. Click My Maps. A list of your maps appears in the Created by me section.
2. Click the X beside the map that you wish to delete.

Sharing Your Maps

Once you have created a map, you can share it with others. To do this:

1. Click the title of the map that you want to share.
2. Click Link to this page above the map.
3. You can share this URL with your friends by sending it in an email or posting it on your blog or website.

Adding Photos

You can add photos to your map, as long as they are hosted online. Please use a service such as Google PicasaWeb to put your photos online.

To add photos:

1. Create or open a map.
2. Click the appropriate placemark, line, shape. The info window appears.
3. Click Edit.
4. Choose Rich Text or Edit HTML.
5. If you chose Rich Text mode, click the photo icon above the description field (the last one in the toolbar). Enter the URL of the photo you would like to add.
6. If you chose Edit HTML mode, use the <img> tag to add photos. For example, <img src="http://www.google.com/intl/en_us/images/maps_results_logo.gif" width=150 height=55> adds the Google Maps logo to your map with a width of 150 pixels and a height of 55 pixels.
7. Click OK to save your changes.

Adding Videos

You can add Google Video and YouTube videos to your map. To do this:

1. Create or open a map.
2. Click the appropriate placemark, line or shape. The info window appears.
3. Click Edit.
4. Choose Edit HTML.
5. Find the video you want on YouTube or Google Video. Copy the snippet of code that lets you embed the video into a website or blog.
   • On Google Video, the snippet looks like this:
     <embed style="width:400px; height:326px;" id="VideoPlayback" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-274981837129821058&hl=en" flashvars=""> </embed>
   • On YouTube, the snippet looks like this:
     <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/hKoB0MHVBvM"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/hKoB0MHVBvM" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>
6. Paste the snippet of code into the description field of your placemark, line or shape.
7. Click OK to save your changes.