* Map markers

[wolfswald]

Hi all,

I find the new map functionality highly interesting - it is something I've previously done manually with Google Earth. I have a number of questions, though.

1. As long as no manual editing has been done, the markers land anyhwere, partly because the lat/long info (which seems to get into the file automatically as soon as I draw a map for, example, selected individuals?) is limited to full degrees, like 51°0'0,00°N 9°0'0,00°E etc. As a consequence, the Austrian Braunau, for example, lands somewhere between Marburg and Kassel in Hessen.

2. I see that I can change the coordinates. I was, however, unable to change them correctly in the Lat/Long format. For example, Braunau landed, automatically, at the above-mentioned full-degree coordinates. When I wanted to change them to the correct 48°15'27,00°N 13°2'2,00°E (according to Wikipedia), the Eastern coordinate inadvertendly ends up as 0°13'2,00°E - which is wherever, but not in Austria. As entering these data is pretty cumbersome anyway with all these °, ' and commas, I then decided to switch to degrees, having found those data at here.com; but if I do so, I would like to get the Degree option automatically in the Place window, instead of clicking the button on the right of the Lat/Long field each time to get into the dialogue.

3. This is probably something for the wish list. Something similar was discussed in an earlier thread, but I would like not references to the events as labels on the map markers, but the actual place names (if possible in PLAC:SHORT form). Because some of the places I am dealing with are so tiny that I get the name only when zooming in on the 5 kilometers range (or even less). I am attaching a jpg showing how I do it in Google Earth:

example.jpg (254.76 KiB) Viewed 2967 times

TIA!
Sabine

[wolfswald]

Some additions ... I found that I can also type degree values into the Lat/Long field, like 48.63172N, 8.10775E - yet that value is automatically converted to a Lat/Long value that _ignores_ the digits after the dot, ending up in 48°N 8°E. This does not happen if I go via the Latitude&Longitude dialogue.

Then I thought it might have to do with using commas or dots, but if I type the degree value into the Lat/Long field with commas - like, 48,63172N, 8,10775E, nothing at all is stored.

[LornaCraig]

Hi Sabine,

I am not sure why you are experiencing the problem with lat/long coordinates being truncated to whole degrees. There was at one time a problem with FH not recognising the format if commas were used instead of decimal points, but that was fixed in v6.0.4.
If you open the Map Window and then use Help>Help with Current View you will be take to the section of the Help files dealing with the Map Window. If you scroll down to the section on GEOCODING you will see that there are various ways of entering the coordinates. One of the easiest ways to correct a position on the map is to Enable Marker Dragging and simply drag the marker to exactly where you want it.

See also the Help file for the Map Window Menu, which can be reached by clicking the link in the above section. It is a good idea to use Tools>Preferences>Map Window to 'Mark Auto-geocodes as Tentative' always, and 'Block Refresh for Non-tentaive Geocodes'. This means that when you have manually adjusted the coordinates they will become non-tentative and cannot accidentally be altered again by Auto-geocoding.

When you click on a marker in the Map Window the pop-up box is headed with the name of the Place, with the list of events below. So I am not sure what you mean by 'references to events as labels', because the events are only listed below the place name. I understand that it might be useful to have the place name displayed next to the marker without having to click the marker, but that might not be practical when there are many markers close together, which they often are at low zoom level.

[wolfswald]

Hi Lorna,

thank you!

It turns out that I have V 6.0.0 - bought it a few days ago from TWR, on CD. So I'll download the latest available version and see how far I get with that.

Thank you for the hint reg. tentative and non-tentative geocodes. Good to know.

As to the marker labels: I am aware of the fact that labelled markers would get pretty clustered if there are many in one spot. That's the same with Google Earth. I usually send printouts with different scales to my clients: a general, and then a zoomed-in version of the "hotspot area". Printing out those maps from FH doesn't make too much sense if the markers are not labelled at all. What I want is kind of an overview, not the specific information which event happened in which place.

Sabine