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  1. #1 Mastering Google Maps 
    Life Is Good! ChinaV's Avatar
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    May 2008
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    This is a basic tutorial for using Google Maps on your computer and transferring a route to your smartphone. Doesn't matter if you have a Mac, PC or Linux, and this works with just about every phone running Google Maps, with the exception of the iPhone. Also works with ditu.google.com AFAIK.

    Concept: Spend hours plotting an awesome route on your Mac/PC, jump on your moto, follow that exact route with your phone as a GPS.

    Problem: Google Maps has a tendency to take you on the shortest route, missing all those great twisty roads.

    Skills: You don't need to be a computer genius, but you do need a basic understanding of files and things like copy and paste.

    Tools: A browser (Safari, Firefox etc.), a plain text editor (Notepad, TextEdit, Pico etc.), a way to upload a file to the internet (FTP, SFTP, WebDAV etc.), and a smartphone running Google Maps. You will also be able to use the output file in programs like OruxMaps. A simple online converter can also convert these files to the GPX format for use on GPS units like Garmin etc.

    Let's begin...

    #1 Open you browser and go to Google Maps



    #2 Figure out where you want to go and right mouse click on a start point. Select "Directions from here"



    #3 Navigate to where you want to end the trip for the day and right mouse click on an end point. Select "Directions to here".



    #4 On the left hand side of the window, click the "Show options" link.



    #5 Select the "Avoid highways" box (as motorcycles are not allowed on those roads in most places) and then click get directions.



    #6 You now have a boring route between point A and B.



    #7 Use your mouse to "grab" your route by clicking on it and dragging the route to the road you actually want to take.



    #8 You can do this multiple times to create a complicated route adding lots of twisty roads. In this example, I made four custom points on the route. If you make a mistake, just right click on the little circle and select "Remove this point".



    #9 Now you need to get this route out of Google Maps. (Sure, you could just save it to "My Maps" if you have a google account, but the following gives you a bit more power and flexibility.) In the right hand corner click on "Link" and you will get a choice of links. "Copy" the top line of text.



    #10 Open a new browser window or a new tab in your browser and "Paste" the text into the URL box at the top. Don't hit enter yet... go to the end of the line you just "Pasted" and type "&output=kml". Now hit enter ( or return) and a kml file will download to your computer. It will probably be named something like maps.kml.



    #11 Let's open that "maps.kml" file in our text editor and have a peek. Lots of scary looking text. Don't worry, we're only going to use the coordinates, the part I have highlighted in orange. Go ahead and look for the <coordinates> statement and "Copy" it and everything else until you get to the </coordinates> statement. If you mapped a big route, you will have a lot of text to select. Just "Copy" all that info.



    #12 Now we need to make a new kml file with a header and footer that Google/Orux Maps will understand. Don't worry, I've already made one for you and you can download it here. This is the basic data needed to draw route lines on the map. You only have to worry about "Pasting" your data over the orange part I have highlighted.



    #13 After adding your coordinates to the the text file, you need to scan the file for "breaks" that google maps will sometimes insert on long routes. I recommend you remove these lines, as they sometimes cause problems and you will only see part of the route you created. Just scan the file and remove each occurrence you find, being sure you leave a space so it all looks uniform.



    #14 OK, the hard part is done, you can now save the file to your desktop, documents folder, or wherever makes you happy. Make sure you name the file "XXX.kml" and not "XXX.txt". You can put whatever you want for XXX, but I usually use something very short, like "107.kml", it's easier to remember short file names.

    Now this is where many of you have a problem. You can't open this file in Google Maps without it being stored online. That means you need access to a web server that will host the file for you. I don't know how you can get that for free, maybe someone can chime in with some suggestions. I don't mean something like rapidshare or mega-upload, you need a plain jane folder being served by a normal web server. I will be happy to post a file or two for people here, but it's not a service I can reliably offer to everyone. You can shoot me a PM and I will give you my email to send the file if you want to try it.

    Once you have the file stored online, you just go to the search box in Google Maps and enter the location of your file. You can do this on your computer or on your phone. You can also send that link to a friend and they can do the same. The file will be public and can be seen by everyone, so you might want to start your routes a few blocks from home if you're paranoid about that kind of stuff.

    Here's a route example...



    If you want to get all fancy, you can edit the XXX and YY part of the text file to add the distance and time. You can also change the route color and transparency. I made it pink because I'm secure with my manhood and can use such colors, you may feel more comfortable with blue or purple.

    Just remember, everything you are seeing is just an XML text statement being translated by the Google Maps program. The more you play with it, the more customized you can get. The basic route is simple, maybe later on I will go into things like correcting offsets and overlaying map layers for those that really want to go nuts.

    Fire away with questions and suggestions.

    Cheers!
    ChinaV
    Last edited by ChinaV; 04-20-2013 at 03:18 AM.
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