Required headers for Mapping
Headers
They classify the information you want to appear on your map, they usually are in the first row, one in each column, and you can put as many as you want.
On the example the headers are: Name, Category, Address, Feature and Choice.
Required headers for Mapping
From all the headers already in your spreadsheet, you must select three that are necessary for conforming the map, these headers will take the role of “title”, “filter”, and “location”.
The image on the right shows an example for the header explanations below.
Title
The information in each cell of the spreadsheet under the header “title” will be the label on the information window that pops up on your map when you click on a marker and on the box that appears when you move your mouse over a marker.
The title in the example is: Name
Filter
The information under “filter” should be a reasonable small set of characteristics in which each of them is common to a group of items. All items will be sorted in groups according to their common characteristic. Each group will show a specific color on the map, according to its corresponding characteristic so you can see them as soon as you open your map.
The filter in the example is: Category
The characteristics in our example are: Attraction, Museum, Park, Theatre.
On the left side of your map you will find a list of the characteristics with their colours and a check box for each (top image on the right), you can uncheck them all by clicking on the upper right “x”, then you check the ones that you want to see on your map (second image), doing that you just have filtered your data, letting show on your map only part of it. You could also have them all checked and they all will appear on your map.
The number indicates the amount of items in the group.
The groups filtered in the example are: Museum and Park.
Location using a single column
This is the key piece of information to place a marker on the map. It has to be something that can be converted into a pair of coordinates (latitude and longitude). That being said, it could be a simple address or a name for a location.
The add-on will use that information under the column you choose as Location, to call the Google Geocoding service which would return the map coordinates that best match.
Location in the example is: Address
Location using multiple columns
Your location could be split across several columns, which means it contains several headers, one per column.
In this case you need a Template for Location and you can learn how to create it on this post.
Building your first map
After having all your data and the required headers, you can click on BUILD and when the work is done click on VIEW to see your map.
Watch the demo video on the right side to see how the map used on the examples was built.