Henry County GIS Online

 

How to make a map

 

This is the image that you will see when the map first displays on your computer. As you can see, there are a number of buttons that do many things. If you hold the mouse cursor over a button for a moment, it will “pop up” a description.

This image shows some of the buttons we will use for this exercise. This first button you will use is the Window Zoom In button.

 

Click on the Window Zoom button with the left mouse button and while holding it down, drag a window around the area that you want. You will see a red box as you draw the window.

The map will zoom into that area. It might take a moment or two, so be patient ! The map will look like this next image when it is done.

 

You will see that the aerial photograph has automatically displays. You will also notice that the lake “polygon” covers the photograph. You might want to turn this “layer” off. The next part will show you how to turn on and off layers.

 

If you click on the check box (square button) for the layer status, it will turn on and off the layer. Next, click on the Update button to “refresh” the map display. The round button sets the layer as the active layer.  The other items shown by the red arrows cannot be changed, but are shown here for future discussion.

 

 

Your map should look like this when you are done.

 

 

In the next section you will learn how to turn on the additional tools menu.

 

In the image below, you have zoomed into the area that you want to see. You have turned off the layers that you do not want to see and you are now ready to change the tool menu to use the tools that will label and create your map. The button shown by the red arrow in this image shows the button to click to open the other tool menu.

Click the button and the map switches to the Tools Menu as show in this image.

 

As you can see there are a number of additional tools that you can use to help you make your map or do other things with the map. This next section you will learn about some of those tools and how to use them. For you to make a map that is easy to read and understand, it is important to have as much information on the map. One thing you can do to improve your map is to label the map with information in the map database.

Click on the button shown by the red arrow to label the map.

When you click on the Label Layer button, this box will pop up.  You want to make sure that you do not have “pop up windows” disabled in your browser while you are doing this part.

The layer is the item that you want labeled. The Attribute is the field in the database you want displayed on the map. The Font is the style of lettering that you want to use. And the Font size is the size of the lettering you want to see on the map. These next images show the buttons on the selection boxes you will want to select to label your map.

 

Your selection box should look like the next image. Click the OK button to label the map. Depending on how big of an area you have on your map, and the number of items that will be labeled, it may take a few moments for the map to re-display. So be patient !

 

Your map should look something like this. In this example, I have labeled the parcel boundary with the Parcel ID number, or TAG as it is called in the database. Each map feature has many fields in it’s database that you can use to label your map. An example would be the Property Owner Name in the parcel layer, or the Road Name in the street layer, or even the name of creeks in the water layer.

 

Now you are ready to print or export you map. There are several other things that you can do to make your map more detailed that we will cover in later sections. This next image shows the button to click to open the map print/export set up page.

Clicking on this button will bring up the print/export set up page.

 

The print/export set up page has several parts to customize your map. In the next image you will see the various parts that you can change to either print or export you map to a variety of image (picture) types.

 

Try the different settings and click the preview button to see your map. When your map looks like you want it to, you can either print your map by clicking on the print button on your browser page, or select File from the browser menu, and select print. If you want to export your map to an image file, this next image shows you the buttons to use.

 

Choose one of the image types that the software you have on your computer will recognize. The most common is the jpeg format, and is recognized by most image software. At this time the PDF export is not available. When you have selected the type of map that you want to export, click on the save button. This next box will pop up.

The Map Server computer is preparing to export the map to your computer. In a few moments, you should see this next box appear.

 

 

Click the save button and select a place on your computer to save the file. Follow the same procedures you would normally use when you save a file to your computer. You can then open the map in your image software or email the map to a friend of colleague.

 

Congratulations! You have made your first map using the Henry County GIS Online.

 

Feel free to save this file to your computer for easy reference.