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Google Maps - Getting StartedYou can use Google Maps to draw a route which can then be shared via our website. You can add notes to explain features of the route and also add photos to illustrate it. Using Google Maps is free but you will need to create an 'account' with Google if you don't already have one - again, though, this is free and all you need is a valid email address. 1. create a Google account
2. draw your route
3. add some notes OK so you've drawn the route but now we want to add some notes to it... we'll start by adding a placemark at the start of the route
4. add a photo OK so we've drawn a route and added appropriate comments. We can now add a photo; either to an existing placemark or to a brand new one. We'll add a new placemark right at the end of this route. First, though, it's important to be aware of how these things work. Google is happy to store details of your route and even your comments, but it will not store your photo(s) so we need to make separate arrangements for them. They need to be stored anywhere where we can get access to them via the internet. If you have your own website then you could stash them away somewhere on that server. They can, of course, be stored on the same server that hosts the RSF website. Unfortunately, you won't be able to upload them yourself but we'll be happy to do that for you. It is, however, just another small obstacle that needs to be overcome... NB: an alternative might be to upload your photo(s) to a photo sharing service like Flickr and you can then add the URL yourself... For this example, the photo is called myroute_01.jpg and it's stored on the RSF server with a full URL as follows: http://www.rsf.org.uk/gmaps/myroute_01.jpg Don't be put off by all this. You can call the image whatever you want and it can be stored wherever you want but what we need is its absolute address, or URL. In practice, you will decide what you want to call it (or them, for example myroute_01.jpg myroute_02.jpg myroute_03.jpg etc) and simply send the photos to us - we'll do the rest. So down to the nitty gritty....
[of course, your picture isn't stored on the server yet but you can enter its name - just use whatever you want to call it...]
Of course, you're not going to see the image until you've sent it to us and it's been uploaded to the server, but that's the hard work done now. There's one final step to take, though. You 'own' the route and you can make changes to it at any time. Google stores it (apart from any photos) on its server. We'll put the photos on our server. Before anyone can see it, though, we need an address to locate it.... Just above the map, and on the right is a blue link marked, er, Link
The text in the lower box has all the information we need and if you copy that and send it to us, along with any pictures and your text description of the route, then - voilà - we have lift off! In our example it looks something like this: <iframe width="600" height="500" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0"
...and here's the finished result... View Larger Map So now you know how to do it, let's be having your routes! |
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