Mapping Sheets add-on Preferences

General

The header on each section includes several buttons:

• a 3-line menu button to access each section, it opens on mouse-over

• a Star button to rate and review the Mapping Sheets add-on. If we have not earned a 5-star rating, please let us know how we can improve

• a Help button that would bring you to this page

• an Export button to download your Preferences as a file

• an Import button to upload a Preferences file (Save is required)

• a Save button to save all your Preferences for the current spreadsheet

Also,

• 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.

• As the legend indicates Premium features are marked as (+)

Document

This section includes some options related to your current datasheet 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)

• "Get data as displayed" will respect the general format of each cell in the datasheet

• The "template for Location header" allows for multi-column address using headers as {{placeholder}}. See more details on this post.

Filters

This section is all about filtering and the sidebar

• Enable "Search" and restrict the searching to a group of headers (csv)

•  Set the number of additional filters you want to use on each map before assigning them on the add-on sidebar

• Additionally, you can decide on a few options

  • Expand the panels in the sidebar on loading, starting with main filter as 0 (csv)

  • Show the quantity of locations matching each specific filter value (only applies to checkbox filters including the main filter)

  • Multi-value separator is very useful when the locations have several values under a specific column (usually a single comma or comma-space)

  • Empties as the default text to use for not available filter values 

• Enable sidebar (default value), if disabled there won't be any filtering or sidebar

• "Sidebar collapsed" hides the sidebar when the map loads in the browser

• Save app "state" to the browser local storage to apply when loading the map, it would include filters, panels, zoom and center

Learn more about Filtering on this page

Map

• "Find a place" shows a list of places matching with what you are typing on the input box and when you select one from that list, it draws a circle and centers the map around it.

  • You can set the circle radius and its unit to be used on your map

  • You can change the radius directly in the circle on the map

  • "Viewport" enabled will restrict the place search to the current map view

  • "Filter" enabled will filter out all locations outside the circle 

  • You can disable and enable the filter with a click on the center of the circle

• Enter the app title to show in the browser (tab) title

• "Center @click" pans the map to a new position centered where you clicked. 

• "Location" enables the option Find/Follow me to show the user's device location as a blue dot. A click on the dot draws a circle and filters out the locations outside it.

• "Measures" allows to measure distances on the map (warning: this feature will disable clicks on the default points of interest icons like restaurants, schools, etc provided by Google Map base layer)

• Select the map "Controls" you want to show in your map

• Select the map "Types" (styles) to have, the first you choose will be the default

• The "Styled map definition" would create an extra custom styled map appearance, available for you to choose. Find more details on this post

• About [the map] information to show in the bottom sidebar panel when expanded

• Legend URL to open a web page from the rhombus icon in sidebar footer

Icons

• "Icon set" shows the shape of icons for each location in the map

  • "Icon shape", "Icon size" and other options allow for further customization of your icons, as explained on this post

  • "Draggable"  is for backward compatibility and extended custom options.

  • "Overlapping" feature, when selected, it will spread out too close icons in the map on a click, useful when several icons share the same coordinates in the map.

• Labels for icons associated with a header or a template in the specified position with some options for style

• Icon title is the small text tool-tip that shows up when you mouse over an icon

• Clusters is a way to improve performance and usability by grouping close icons (locations) in a cluster, particularly for a large number of locations

  • Cluster size is the minimum number of icons that would cluster together

  • Cluster zoom is the maximum zoom that would show clusters

  • The optimal combination of cluster's size and zoom would depend on the specific number of icons and distribution

  • Cluster toggle is a button in the filters section that will toggle on and off the clusters. It's very useful when you have already zoomed in your target area, to show all the individual icons. It's not recommended to toggle off, if still showing a large number of locations in clusters.

Infowindow

• Enable the Infowindow and set the headers to show, as a CSV list 

• The data under headers using markdown (csv) will render as html content

• Enabling "Markdown" allows to set your own markdown template content

  • Click the pencil button to edit the markdown template, more on next section (*)

•  "Width" and "Height" allow to set the Infowindow size

  • If "Lock" is unchecked the height would grow as required up to that height, otherwise the height will be fixed at that value

• "Add Directions link" opens the official Google Maps app in Directions mode, ready for you to set the starting point

• "Add Zoom-in link" zooms in the map with center on the selected location

• "Link text" provides a custom text to anchor the links in the standard Infowindow, by default (if empty) it  only shows the small square-arrow link

• "Buttons" position sets the buttons strip at the bottom or at the top (header)

(*) Editing the Infowindow markdown content template with realtime view

• Left section is a text area editor for the markdown template

• Right section renders the markdown (as html) as you edit the template on the left

  • It uses the Infowindow width/height/lock you set up before

• Insert {{header-name}} placeholders to show content from your first data row

• The "Preserve line-breaks (\n) in data" option is just for backward compatibility

• The left arrow button will bring you back to the Infowindow section

  • You can also use the top 3-line menu button for navigation

Learn more about using Markdown for content template on this post

Listing

• Enable Listing to show a right sidebar with information for the filtered locations

• Enter a content template for each item in the list as plain text with placeholders

  • Or click the pencil button to edit as markdown template, see next section (*)

• Set the width for the listing right sidebar

• Enable the (✚/✜) cross anchor to open the location Infowindow

• Enable "Export Listing to a new tab" (Export HTML)

  • Include a "View Directions @ Google Maps" link in that new tab

  • That listing in a new tab will include a button to save the content as html file

• Enable "Export Listing as a CSV file", ready for Google Sheets or other editors

  • It will include all the original headers from your datasheet

• Enable "Sortable" to move an item in the Listing (drag n drop) if showing no more than 50 locations with the filled anchor ✚

(*) Editing the Listing markdown content template with realtime view

• Left section is a text area editor for the markdown template

• Right section renders the markdown (as html) as you edit the template on the left

  • It uses the Listing width you set up before

• Insert {{header-name}} placeholders to show content from your first data row

• The "Preserve line-breaks (\n) in data" option is just for backward compatibility

• The left arrow button will bring you back to the Listing section

  • You can also use the top 3-line menu button for navigation

Learn more about using Markdown for content template on this post

Routing

First, you have to enable "Routing on Listing", to show and set the options

• "First to Last" allows you to select First and Last stops (origin and destination) in the optimal route from Listing

• "As-Is" provides an option to get the route without optimization keeping the current order in Listing

• "Reverse" provides an option to sort the Listing in reverse order, so if you then click "As-Is" you would get the 'reverse' route

• "Homebase" allows for routes that starts and/or ends in a specific place

  • Select the Homebase option (Roundtrip, Start, End)

  • After entering the Homebase valid address, you must click the right-arrow button to calculate the corresponding latitude and longitude or enter the Homebase latitude and longitude pair of values separated by commas.

  • Also, you can set the Homebase Draggable around the map and always Visible

• Select the travelling mode (bicycling, driving, walking)

• Select the unit system (imperial, metric) for your route

• Set restrictions to avoid highways, tolls and ferries in your route if needed

• There are other options for controlling what routes details to show and for the direction details panel

Check more details on the Optimal Routing page

Layers

The custom layers will add context, relevance and insights into your own data, in a way of enriching your mapping experience.

The layers are grouped based on complexity and access level into Basic, Advanced, Extended and Extras

Details and explanation of the process are on this page

What's next?

...