Historical Mapping on Google Earth

This is a brief introduction on how to record locations on Google Earth.

Get Google Earth

First get the program which is free...Download Google Earth Page
Now you need to follow the instructions and install it, then open the program.

Your now faced with the entire world, so type your location "Martock" into the search area and press return. You should now see it zoom in. All normal mouse actions work for zooming and panning.

Make a folder

Now we need to create a file to store all the places you want to map.
Right click on "My Places" and select "Add" then "Folder". Give the folder a name, say "Shops".

Add the first pin

Click on your "Shops" folder to let the program know where to store the data, then click on the "Yellow Pin" in the tool bar.

This opens up a form, and there is a flashing pin on the map. You might have to move the form out of the way if it is covering the pin. Drag the pin to the location you want and give the pin a name on the form. Press "OK" and that is it done.

Next time when you open Google Earth, double click your "Shops" file to zoom into it

Adding photos

Right click on one of your pins to get a menu and select "Properties". This opens up the form you saw earlier.

Your images want to be reasonable small or you will create huge files later on. Say 300px wide should be a good starting point

On the form choose "Add local image", then select the image you want to add.
You get a load of HTML code appearing in the box below. This is needed to display the image, you don't need to worry about it, just press "OK". Now when you left click on the pin you should see the photo displayed.

Adding text

Open the form as above.
We are going to write in the box where the above photo code went. If there is photo code there already then simply write after it.

Now you are going to have to write in code, but it is easy. Everything has to be written in paragraphs. All paragraphs start with a "

" for paragraph, and ends with a "

". So your paragraph might be '

'"Martock Bakery - 1964" '

'. You can write as many paragraphs as you want as long as each starts and ends with the code.

Enter your text and press "OK"

Exporting your file

To share your file with others you need to export it.

Right click on "Shops" for a menu then select "Save place as". Choose the location to save it and either leave the name as shops or change it.The file it saves is a ".kmz" file. Double clicking on this should open Google Earth and zoom to the shops location. If this does not work then drag and drop onto the globe and it should zoom to the location.

Example file

This example file can be downloaded to your machine and saved where you can find it. If you then drag and drop it onto the Google Earth globe it should zoom into the pins. Clicking on the pin opens up the images and text. The underlying code, as described above, can be seen by right clicking the place in the left hand bar for a menu, then select "properties".