Map Help Guide

 Toolbar Controls

The toolbar provides the basic navigation controls to move about the map. To see a description of each button, float the mouse cursor over the button for a couple of seconds and the description will pop up. From left to right across the toolbar, the functions are:

Toggle Legend On/Off: Using this option will enable the layer legend on the left-hand side of the map to be visible or not. The default is off.

Select: Allows you to choose items on the map. You may hold your mouse over any area on the map and view a description in the status bar. When you Mouse-over an asset you are presented with a brief description of its statistics. Double-Clicking an asset shows a full description in a new window.

Pan: Select this button and a hand will appear in the application. Clicking on the map allows you to grab and drag to your area of interest.

Zoom In: Selecting this button and then Single-Clicking anywhere on the map zooms the application in by a factor of 2 centered on where you Clicked. In addition to Single-Clicking, you can zoom to your area of interest by Clicking, holding and dragging a boundary box around your area of interest, then releasing the mouse button.

Zoom Out: Selecting this button and then Single-Clicking anywhere on the map zooms the application out by a factor of 2 centered on where you Clicked.

Zoom All: Expands or contracts your current general area map to fill the entire viewing area.

Zoom by Scale: Opens a dialog box allowing the user to enter the map scale to zoom to.

Zoom by Width: Opens a dialog box allowing the user to enter the map width to zoom to. The units for width are whatever the current map units are. See the discussion below regarding the Help-->Preferences option of the Right-Click pop up menu for information on changing the map units.

Zoom Previous: Returns you to your last zoom level in the current general area map.

Enter Current Position: Opens a form that allows you to update the position of an asset either by typing in the Latitude and Longitude or by selecting a position on the map.

World Map: Takes you out to the World Map view.

Get Distance: Displays on-the-fly distances between selected points in the current map units. Right-Click ends the command, double-clicking also ends the command but shows total trip distance in Miles and Kilometers.

Clear Selected Objects: If you have objects in the map that are highlighted, use this button to un-highlight them.

Print Map: Opens a dialog box allowing the user to print the current map display.

Stop Map Loading: If, for any reason, you would like to cancel the map from loading, select this button.

Trip History: Opens a form that allows you to the enter an asset name and trip. Submitting this form displays a report showing the detailed trip information. You can now view a trip visually on the map by selecting the chart locations button. selecting a position on the map.

Help: Selecting this button opens this document for viewing.

Right Click Functions

In addition to panning and reloading the map window, the following functions are available by right Clicking anywhere on the map.

· · · Printing. Page setup and print options. Under page setup, you can give the printout a title and optionally chose to print Legend, Scale Bar, North Arrow, URL or Date and Time. You can also choose to plot at a certain scale or Fit to Page.

· · · Copy. Copy and copy as URL. Copying copies the current map window into your Windows clipboard allowing you to paste it into other applications. If you copy the URL (universal resource locator, or what you see in the address window of your browser), you can essentially save your current map window settings in URL format. Or, you can forward this URL on to somebody else so they can look at the same area you were.

· · · Zoom. These are essentially the same commands you have available through the toolbar but some of them have different names. Zoom is “Zoom In and Out is “Zoom Out”.

· · · Bookmarks. You can save map window views with a name that you specify. This allows you to go to a view that you have saved in a previous session. Do not confuse these MapGuide bookmarks with Netscape bookmarks.

· · · Select. You can select map objects for the purpose of zooming to the selected objects or to generate reports in the case of parcels. Using the Select Objects option, a dialog box will appear. This will show all visible and selectable layers and the objects on those layers. Highlight object(s) in the right hand box to select them. You can also select by drawing a circle with a radius, by windowing the objects, or by drawing a polygon. To select or deselect additional objects, hold down the shift key while selecting. The select within option, allows you to select only objects that fall within a polygon contained on another layer. Lastly, the clear option un-highlights all selected objects.

· · · View. The only option here is the same as the get distance function available on the Tool Bar.

· · · Help. The help menu is always a good place to go for general assistance. Using Preferences, you can customize your map menu to some degree. You have the option to display your map units in the lower left corner of the map in either feet or latitude-longitude as you move your mouse around the map. You can also choose to turn off the width and scale displays and to change the object selection mode from only objects within the drawn window (centroid) or objects that cross the drawn window (intersection). Also available is the Generic MapGuide Viewer Help Documents.

Click here to view the generic MapGuide Viewer Help Documents.