For bulk uploading of multiple markers on maps, ZeeMaps now accepts Excel files (.xls, .xlsx).
This is in addition to the Comma Separated Values (CSV) files, Google Spreadsheets, and copy-and-paste, that ZeeMaps already accepts.
To upload your Excel spreadsheet, use the Additions > Add Multiple Markers > Upload Spreadsheet menu item on your map, and follow the instructions.
Category: Add markers
Automatic Marker Categorization from CSV, Spreadsheet data
We now provide automatic marker categorization through copy-and-paste, CSV upload and Google Spreadsheets.
During the confirmation dialog for the upload process, make sure you mark the appropriate data column as the “Category” map field. There are no restrictions to the column name that you can use, as long as you mark it as the “Category” column during the upload process. Similarly, the category names can be your choice like “Restaurants”, “Hotels”, “Gold”, “Silver”, etc. ZeeMaps supports up to 31 categories (more coming soon).
The Categories that you define in your data will be added as a “Map Legend” to your map in the order that they appeared in the data. You can re-order them using the Map->Legend menu item.
The map legend appears below your map in the map editor and is clickable to show and hide markers of certain categories. You can get the legend in your published map using the “legend” option (having a “&legend=1” in the published map URL).
Improved Mapping from Google Spreadsheets
We have removed the limitation on Google Spreadsheet names, and simplified how we access your spreadsheets using the standard OAuth access protocol.
To upload a spreadsheet, use the Additions->Add (Upload) Multiple Markers menu item on your map, and select the Google Spreadsheets option. In the resulting dialog, click on the Fetch My Spreadsheets button to get a list of your current speeadsheets in Google.
You will have to grant ZeeMaps access to your spreadsheets. We ask for permission to access your spreadsheets now, and in the future, in case you want ZeeMaps to periodically update your map as the spreadsheet changes. You can revoke this right, at any time. Note that for the periodic updates to work, you must not change the header row of your spreadsheet.
Once you have selected the spreadsheet to use, ZeeMaps asks you to confirm the column headings to fields on the map. At this time you can also check the option to periodically update the map from the spreadsheet.
After you have confirmed the mappings, your data should get mapped. For small speeadsheets, it should get done in minutes or seconds. For larger spreadsheets (more than thousand or so entries) it can take a an hour or so. You will be notified by email when your data is uploaded. Alternatively, you can check your map in a little while to see how many rows were marked.
Improved Marker Manipulation
We made two things much simpler in ZeeMaps:
1. Reposition makers by just dragging and dropping them to the new location. Make sure you don’t have grouped markers. You can temporarily turn off marker grouping by un-checking the menu item “Settings -> Markers -> Group markers close to each other”.
2. Double-click on a maker to make changes to the marker’s details.
Both these are available only when you have Admin access to the map. If your map is locked (Map Access on the right top of the map says None), use the Map Access link to unlock the map with the Admin key. In case you’ve already unlocked, but it still doesn’t work, try refreshing the map page as sometimes the session may have expired.
Connecting two markers with a line or route
To connect two markers with a route between them, please do the following:
- Click on the first marker to open its information balloon.
- Click on the third icon of the four icons to the right bottom of the information balloon. You must have unlocked the map as Map Admin for the icons to show.
- This should result in a dialog box for the connection. Customize your connection, e.g., whether it is a route or straight line, etc.
- Click on the second marker for the connection.
- Hit Submit.
For connecting another set of two markers, please close the connection dialog and repeat steps 1 through 5.