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google-maps-icons - GoogleEarthTutorial.wiki

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A dedicated website, with new features.

Follow this URL :

http://mapicons.mapsmarker.com

http://mapicons.mapsmarker.com'>http://google-maps-icons.googlecode.com/files/mic-smallcap.gif' />

How To Add Our Icons To Your Google Earth Placemarks



The goal of this tutorial is to help you use the content of this Map Icons Collection project to make your own custom made Google Earth maps easier to understand, to navigate and in the process also make them more consistent and professional looking.

See also http://earth.google.com/userguide/v4/ug_placemarks.html'>Google Earth User Guide.

See the tutorial for Google Maps.

Note: although this tutorial was written for the Windows version of Google Earth the same actions also apply for the Mac version of Google Earth and the Mac OS X versions of Firefox, Safari and Chrome browsers.

Create a new "placemark"

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  1. After starting Google Earth locate the area where you wish to place a placemark. Go to the upper toolbar and click on the Add Placemark button

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A New Placemark dialog box appears and a New Placemark icon is centered in the viewer inside a flashing yellow square.

  1. Give the placemark a name
  2. Enter information in the description field if you like
  3. Drag the New Placemark icon to the desired location. You don't have to be exact since you can move it later again
  4. Click the icon for the placemark to choose an alternate icon, this is covered in the next section of this tutorial
  5. Click OK when finished. Your placemark appears in the 3D viewer and as an entry in the selected folder:

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You can edit, move or delete any placemark that appears in the My Places or Temporary Places folder. To edit and move a placemark right-click a “placemark” in the 3D viewer or in the Places panel and choose Properties.

Change the placemark icon

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Select the placemark which icon has to be changed and:

  1. Right-click the placemark in the Places panel and select properties
  2. OR right-click the placemark in the 3D viewer and select properties
  3. Click the icon for the placemark, the icon palette dialog box appears. Here you can choose another icon from the default Google Earth icon palette and change properties like color, scale and opacity:

http://google-maps-icons.googlecode.com/files/googlearthtutorial05.png' />

To change the icon to a custom icon from this project site:

  1. Click Add Custom Icon... from the icon palette. The Icon Location dialog box opens:

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  1. Put a valid path or Web URL in the field next to Icon location label or click Browse to specify the file on your computer or network. If you refer to an image on the web, be sure you have entered the path to the image itself, not the web page containing the image.

Copy the URL to the new icon in Firefox

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Now you need to go back to the page on this project site where you found the icon that you want to use. This because you need to copy its URL (the address to the location where it is on the project server) so that your Google Map can find it.

  1. Right Click on the icon you want
  2. Click on Copy Image Location

Copy the URL to the new icon in Safari

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Now you need to go back to the page on this project site where you found the icon that you want to use. This because you need to copy its URL (the address to the location where it is on the project server) so that your Google Map can find it.

  1. Right Click on the icon you want
  2. Click on Copy Image Address

Copy the URL to the new icon in Google Chrome

http://google-maps-icons.googlecode.com/files/googlearthtutorial11.png' />

Now you need to go back to the page on this project site where you found the icon that you want to use. This because you need to copy its URL (the address to the location where it is on the project server) so that your Google Map can find it.

  1. Right Click on the icon you want
  2. Click on Copy Image URL

Copy the URL to the new icon in Internet Explorer

http://google-maps-icons.googlecode.com/files/GMI-HowToCreate-06.png' />

Now you need to go to the page on this project site where you found the icon that you want to use. This because you need to copy its URL (the address to where it is on the project server) so that your Google Map can find it.

  1. Right Click on the icon you want
  2. Click on Properties
  3. Mark the Address: (URL) by triple-clicking on the URL
  4. Right Click on the now highlighted URL
  5. Click on Copy

Add the selected custom icon to the placemark

Now switch back to Google Earth where the Icon Location dialog box is still open:

http://google-maps-icons.googlecode.com/files/googlearthtutorial07.png' />

  1. Right Click in the Icon Location field
  2. Click on Paste (or type CTRL-C in the Icon Location Field)
  3. Edit size, color and opacity if needed
  4. Click OK to close the Icon palette dialog box
  5. Click OK again to close the Edit Placemark dialog box

The placemark now has a custom icon in both the Places panel and 3D viewer:

http://google-maps-icons.googlecode.com/files/googlearthtutorial08.png' />

Recommended links

Download the latest version of Google Earth from http://earth.google.com'>http://earth.google.com so you have access to all the application’s features.

  • Google Earth User Guide
  • Google Earth videos
  • Google Earth Outreach
  • Producing Maps with Google Earth (University of Southampton)

Tutorial made by Arjan Veen, inspired from Google Maps tutorial by Matthias Stasiak.