Dear Cartographiles,
Our esteemed webswami, John "Aladdin" Chidester, has asked that I do this, so here goes! (You only have two left, John!) :-)
Most of the maps in the Map Room Forum thread "
Maps for Mid-Atlantic Lighthouse Hunting " were generated using the Mapquest website:
http://www.mapquest.com Lesson 1: What NOT to do.I started out with an atlas (dead tree edition). Finding the town nearest my point of interest and entering it into "Find a Map" on Mapquest (click on "Maps" on the home page), I could then zoom in or out, page up or down, and adjust the map size using Mapquest's interactive features. So far, so good.
When I was satisfied with the maps I had created in Mapquest, I started off by trying to establish links in the Map Room Forum to the URLs that came up with the interactive maps. No dice. It doesn't work.
Next I attempted to capture a static image (non-interactive) of those same maps. I selected the "Printable Maps" option. From the resulting page, I right-clicked on the image, left-clicked on "Properties" and copied the URL. I inserted these as links into my post in the Map Room Forum. They worked from both my desktop and laptop computers, so I was reasonably sure it was not dependent upon my "cookies". Then I started getting reports from people who couldn't open the maps. I tried again myself, and this time couldn't open the links. This leads me to believe that the links expire after a short time, similar to the way secure website links expire after you leave them.
Lesson 2: What worked.To exercise this next option, you must have (or start) your own web page. Many ISPs make some space available at little or no additional cost to their individual subscribers. I am presently using AOL, and the web page space I use is free of additional cost to me. (I don't recommend that you waste your time visiting my site -- there's nothing there that you haven't seen in these Forums.)
OK. Let's start fresh:
This time around I
register ed at the Mapquest site. This allows you to save maps (on Mapquest's server, not yours ¦-) ) and to enter icons at points of personal interest. (Those little camera icons you see at the lighthouse locations on maps in my post can only be done if you are a member.) Membership is free, and all they ask of you are (a) your real name and (b) your e-mail address to register. Members-only features are available for use immediately upon registration.
I started out (again) with an atlas (dead tree edition). Finding the town nearest my point of interest and entering it into "Find a Map" on Mapquest (click on "Maps" at the homepage), I could then zoom in or out, page up or down and adjust the map size using Mapquest's interactive features.
When I was satisfied with the map I had created in Mapquest, I right-clicked on the map image, then left-clicked on "Copy". I then pasted the image into a graphics software program (I used Adobe Photo Deluxe.) I then manually added the yellow text boxes describing the points of interest using the graphics software features and saved the image as a 256-color .GIF file to my hard drive.
Next, I set up a web page for each individual map (follow your web page publishing software instructions for how to do this). At the top of each page I added the
logo (in the same manner that I had saved the maps) and linked it to the Mapquest site to comply with the
terms of use set by Mapquest.
Finally, I linked my post in the Map Room Forum to my web pages of Mapquest map images. One can
learn how to do this elsewhere in this forum .
If you are a member, there
is a way to link directly to Mapquest for stored images of interactive maps, but I haven't attempted to do that yet. Only by storing the static images on my own web pages can I keep the yellow lighthouse markers on the maps, and I kinda like those. The tradeoff, of course, is that the interactivity is gone. What do
you think? Is the interactivity or the are the markers of more value to you?
Thanks, Job!
-Gerardus Mercator
[This message has been edited by Art (edited 02-02-99).]