How to Create a Legend in Google Maps

Google Maps offers an excellent way to find driving, walking and transportation routes around your local area; with this tool you can even drill down to street-level to see photographs of important landmarks and destinations. An important feature of Google Maps is the ability of users to add unique legend icons to important places around a geographical area. Free registration to Google is required to use this feature, but anyone is allowed to register.

Instructions

1. Sign in to Google Maps, at maps.google.com, with your Google username and password. This can be done by clicking the "Sign In" button in the top-right corner of the Google Maps website.. Click the "Create an Account" button if you do not have an account and need to establish a new one.

2. Get started creating a personalized map with landmarks and legends. Enter a specific city and state or address to have Google Maps zoom in on a geographic area.

3. Click the "My Maps" button near the top of the page under the Google search bar. Choose the "Create a new map" button; enter a name and short description of your personalized map. Choose whether you want the map to be public, for everyone to see, or unlisted, so only you and designated others can view it.

4. Mark a location or landmark on your map using the legend markers provided in Google Maps. Use the zoom in and out buttons along the left side of the map to drill down to street level to identify where your favorite places or landmarks reside. Click the blue placemark icon in the upper-left hand corner of the map screen to generate a blue balloon-looking marker. Move your mouse to the desired landmark location and click once to put the legend icon down.

5. Edit the details for your landmark. Fill in the title and description of the landmark in the placemark bubble. Choose a specific legend icon by clicking once on the the blue marker icon in the placemark bubble and selecting your preferred legend icon. Different icons exist for hair salons, bars and restaurants, camping grounds, post offices and other type of places.

6. Continue adding placemarks and legend icons for all of the important landmarks that you'd like to identify on the map. Draw your own legend icons using the Google Maps drawing feature if no appropriate icons exist in Google's icon legend. Use this feature by clicking on the drawing icon in the upper-left corner of the map screen and then clicking anywhere on your map to begin drawing a unique shape for your landmark.

References

• Google Maps: Creating a Map
• Google Maps: What is My Maps and how do I use it?