Mapping Sheets add-on Preferences

In General, and any other sections, there is a Save button to save all your preferences and a Help button that would bring you to this page.

• The Beta program would give you access to new, advanced and experimental features, only in those Google Spreadsheets from where you enrol. You will keep using the stable version in any other Spreadsheet.

The Document section would include some options related with your data sheet and the way the add-on will process your data into a map

• The Unattended BUILD allows to update your map automatically when the data has changed in your datasheet. See more details on this post.
• The "data headers row index" is the row number in your sheet where the headers are (the default and most common value is 1)
• The "template for Location header" would allow for multi-column address using headers as {{placeholder}}. See more details on this post.

• You need to set the number of additional filters you want to use on each map, ahead of assigning them from the add-on sidebar
• Additionally, you can decide on a few options
  • Show the number of locations that includes each specific filter values (only applies to checkbox filters)
  • Show one value per line, if unchecked it'd put the values side by side as they fit so save space (this option will be deprecated on version 4.0)
  • Multi-value separator is very useful when the locations might have several values under a specific column
• If you check "Hide filter menu ..." when the map loads in the browser the left side filters section will be collapsed by default

• Find a place would show the matches for what you type on an input box and when you select a place from that list, it would place a marker on the map for that location, with an optional circle around using the current radius and unit, also centering the map around that place
  • The default values for radius and unit you set here will be used on your map. While working with the Mapping web app, you can change the value for the radius (by clicking on the circle icon), but the unit will be what you select as default here.
  • Optionally, you can set the Mapping web app to filter out any location outside the circle around the selected place.
• Center on a click would pan the map to a new position with centre where you clicked. It might be useful in some specific scenarios
• The style map definition would create a custom map appearance available for you to choose. Find more details on this post

If you have already built a map on the active Sheet, by clicking eye-like icon, you will get the current default or example values.

• Icon set are the shape of icons that would apply to each location in the map
  • The color of each icon will depend on the value of the column you select as Filter in the sidebar
  • You can also customize the shapes and colors of the icons as explained on this post
  • Draggable icons is not recommended but is an option for backward compatibility and future extended custom options.
  • Overlapping feature, when selected, it will spread out too close icons in the map on a click, very useful when several icons share the same coordinates in the map.
• Clusters (enable by default since Mapping 3.0) is a way to improve performance and usability by grouping close icons (locations) in a cluster, particularly useful when dealing with a large number of locations (tested with 40,000 icons so far)
  • Cluster size is the minimum number of icons that would cluster together if close enough
  • Cluster zoom is the maximum zoom that would show clusters, after that any visible cluster will break apart in icons
  • The optimal combination of cluster's size and zoom would depend on the specific number of icons and distribution
  • Cluster toggle is a (experimental) button in the filters section that will toggle on and off the clusters. It's very useful when you have already zoomed in the area of your interest in the map, to show all the individual icons. It's not recommended to toggle off, if still showing a large number of locations in clusters, because of performance
• Templates are text strings including placeholders between double mustaches {{}} with any header name as they appear in row #1 on your Sheet. You can use \n to enter a new line.
  • The Icon Title is the small text tool-tip that shows up when you hover over any location's icon

• Headers-to-Show are a comma-separated-values list with the column headers you want to include in the Info Window associated with each location on the map.
  • If you have already built a map on the active Sheet, by clicking eye-like icon, you will get the current default values.
• Directions link would open the official Google Maps app in Directions mode ready for you to set the starting point
• Zoom link would zoom the map with center in the selected location and zoom in
• [coming soon with Mapping 4.0] Infowindow dimensions (width and height) allow to set the Infowindow size
  • If Lock is unchecked the Height would be the maximum height, so the Infowindow would grow if/when required up to that height, otherwise it would adapt to the height content

Templates are text strings including placeholders between double mustaches {{}} with any header name as they appear in row #1 on your Sheet. You can use \n to enter a new line.

• The Location List is the description associated with each location as they appear in the right listing dialog on the map

If you have already built a map on the active Sheet, by clicking eye-like icon, you will get the current default values.

First, you have to enable the Optimal Routing feature, to show the options and set your preferences

• Enable First to Last allows to select First and Last stops (origin and destination) in the optimal route from the Listing
• Enable Homebase allows for routes that starts and/or ends in an specified address you would provide
  • If entering a specific valid address, you must click the right-arrow button to calculate the corresponding latitude and longitude
  • Otherwise you should enter a valid pair of comma separated latitude and longitude values
  • Also, you can set the Homebase draggable around the map and always visible
• You can also select the driving mode (bicycling, driving, walking) and the unit system (imperial, metric) for your route
• As well as setting restrictions to avoid highways, tolls and ferries in your optimal route
• There are other options to control what routes details to show and for the directions details panel

Check more details on the Optimal Routing page

Custom Layers feature is still under development, just adding a few layers with minimum essential settings

• Even though the Layers setting are under Preferences, we are documenting this feature in a separate page for more extended details and consistency
• See more details on this dedicated page for adding Custom Layers to your map.

The above screenshot shows a partial map corresponding with some/most of the preferences described above.

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