{"id":117,"date":"2018-07-09T13:28:37","date_gmt":"2018-07-09T13:28:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sarahjpurcell.sites.grinnell.edu\/sandbox_clone\/?page_id=117"},"modified":"2018-10-02T15:21:58","modified_gmt":"2018-10-02T15:21:58","slug":"introduction-to-mapping-partii","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sarahjpurcell.sites.grinnell.edu\/digital_methods\/tutorials\/introduction-to-mapping-partii\/","title":{"rendered":"Introduction to Mapping- Part II (Google My Maps)"},"content":{"rendered":"

This tutorial was written by Katherine Walden<\/a>, Digital Liberal Arts Specialist at Grinnell College. The tutorial framework was created by Sarah Purcell (L.F. Professor of History, Grinnell College) Sophia Gates Stern, student mentor for this class.<\/p>\n

This tutorial was reviewed by Gina Donovan<\/a> (Instructional Technologist, Grinnell College) and Lauren Frankel and Martin Toney, student workers in Grinnell College\u2019s Data Analysis and Social Inquiry Lab<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This tutorial uses data generated by Cameron Blevins<\/a> and posted on his personal site.<\/p>\n

\"Creative<\/a>
\nIntroduction to Mapping Part II (Google MyMaps) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Google launched Google My Maps<\/a> in 2007 as part of the Google cloud services suite of programs. Through the My Map interface, users with a Google account can map points, lines, and shapes, with additional display customization options. My Maps allows users to generate maps from spreadsheets, work collaboratively on maps, and share interactive maps.<\/p>\n

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1-Sign up for a free Google Account<\/a>, and use those credentials to log in to My Maps<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\n2-Click on the Create New Map<\/strong> icon in the top left-hand corner.<\/p>\n

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3-Name the map by clicking on Untitled map<\/strong> in the top left-hand corner. Use Postmaster Salaries<\/strong> or a similar descriptive name.<\/p>\n

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\n4-Click the blue Import<\/strong> icon to start the data import process. Select or drop the same 1871_Postmaster_Salary CSV<\/strong> we used in the Carto tutorial to upload the data set. If needed, you can re-copy the file from \\\\storage\\projects\\HIS\\HIS-295-02\\Postal_Data.<\/p>\n

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\n5-Check that only Latitude<\/strong> and Longitude<\/strong> are selected before clicking Continue<\/strong>. My Maps will keep all the original data records but needs to detect which fields contain spatial data.<\/p>\n

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\n6-The next screen asks what field you want to use for the place marker titles. Select Name<\/strong> and click Finish<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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\n7-Like with Carto, we can click on the three vertical dots<\/strong> next to the layer to rename the layer. Name the layer Postmaster Salaries<\/strong> or a similar descriptive title.<\/p>\n

8-My Maps is showing a message that 32 rows in the data could not be drawn on the map. If you have additional time, you can come back and explore this error message. For now, click Dismiss<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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\n9-At the bottom of the pop-up in the top left-hand corner is a Base map icon<\/strong> with a dropdown icon. You can explore different available base maps to see what works best with your data. For example, My Maps\u2019s default base map includes topographical data. If that data is not essential for our analysis, a simpler base map (like Simple Atlas<\/strong>) can help users focus on the most important aspects of the spatial visualization.<\/p>\n

10-Click on the blue paint roller icon<\/strong> to open a pop-up with style customization options.<\/p>\n

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\n11-Click Uniform style<\/strong> and click Group places by<\/strong>, then select PM_Salary<\/strong> under Style by data column<\/strong> to color the data points based on salary categories.<\/p>\n

12-Based on looking at the legend created in the last step, the number of Nulls<\/strong> and Others<\/strong> means the default options for this style don\u2019t work effectively for our data.<\/p>\n

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13-Click the blue paint roller icon<\/strong> again to reopen the customization pop-up. Change the selection from Categories<\/strong> to Ranges<\/strong>, and change the number from 4<\/strong> to 10<\/strong>. My Maps\u2019s default setting calculates categories for the data, but the range<\/strong> option lets us determine a specific number of range distributions<\/strong>. In this case, specifying 10<\/strong> ranges effectively represents our data. You can click on the color<\/strong> dropdown to select a color gradient<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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\n14-Now that our data is grouped and displayed on the map, click on points<\/strong> to see how the My Maps pop-up compares to Carto. What are the limitations of this platform compared to Carto? What are the advantages? Where would you go next in your customization or analysis?<\/p>\n

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Additional exploration:<\/strong><\/p>\n