Google My Maps is a free service that allows you to annotate and publish personalized Google Maps.
Create A Map
Navigate to Google My Maps and log in with your personal Google account. Do not use your Ramapo account because the college has disabled sharing settings needed to embed the map on a website.
You should see a screen like the one below.
Click the CREATE A NEW MAP button. You should see a map like the one below.
Give your map a title by clicking on the words “Untitled Map” a dialog box will open where you can add a title and a short description. Save the changes you made before closing.
Add points to your map
To add points, start by typing the address of the place you want. The more specific an address you have the better. If you just type a city or state name, the map will generally place it on City Hall. This can be misleading, especially if you have multiple pins in a city. Use newspapers and other web research to pinpoint exact locations whenever possible.
Once you have typed an address and pressed [Enter], a pin will appear and another dialog box will open.
Click the Add to map plus sign at the bottom of the map label. The label will change at that point, and you can edit it by clicking the pen icon.
- Edit the top label, making sure not to make that too long.
- In the second box add a brief description of the event or meaning of the place for your map.
- Click Remove on the grey box to remove the default link that Google selected.
- Click the camera icon at the bottom to attach a photograph to the map.
- You can either upload a photo, pull one from Google drive, or use a URL. If using a URL, load the image into the Discovering the 1920s media library and use that, so that we can be sure that the link does not break.
- You can load multiple images if you like.
- Press SAVE.
You should see the following (with your own content, of course)
You can customize the map pointer by clicking the paint can icon.
- You can change the color (either for the whole map, or to make colors mean something).
- You can change the shape of the icon by choosing one of the “popular icons” or clicking “More Icons”
- Click the X in the upper right to save the entry. The point will close, but appear on the map again when clicked.
Customizing the Base Map
You can choose from several base maps, which will help to set your even apart from all the other pins on the basic Google Map.
Clicking on the drop down Base Map, will show you the options.
Try them out and select the one that you like the best.
You can also change the zoom level of your map. Click the Plus/Minus buttons in the lower right of the map until it is where you like it, and then click the three dots next to the map’s title. Click on “Set Default View” and this Zoom level will be saved.
Embedding Your Map
You can embed your map in your WordPress post at any time. Changes made on the map will automatically update in the post.
Make your Map Publicly viewable
- Click the Share icon on the map legend.
- Edit the sharing settings so that anyone can view the map who has the link. Then Click Done.
Go back to the three dots near the map title and open the menu again.
This time click “Embed on my Site” A dialog will appear with some HTML Code. Copy that code.
Open your WordPress Post.
Create a New Block where you want the map to appear in the post.
Search for the block type “Custom HTML”
Paste the iframe code in the box.
Click the “Preview” button to see if it worked. You should see the map appear.
The map should be interactive in your post now. If you are having trouble getting it to work, just email me with the map URL and the place where you want it.