Exploring the world of free tools for GIS, GPS, Google Earth, neogeography, and more.
A video/demo tutorial on creating a thematic map using just Excel, no GIS or extra programs required. I’d rather use a GIS, but if you’re really comfortable with Excel, it’s worth a look. Note: Any time the video demo stops, it probably means it’s waiting for you to click on something on the screen, usually highlighted in blue.
HT to Askan Schmeisser.
After yesterday’s post on thematic mapping in Google Maps, John Stewart of the University of North Carolina’s MEASURE program wrote to tell me about their own thematic mapping tool, the E2G Thematic Mapper. This Microsoft Excel macro spreadsheet data and links it with polygon data for countries and their administrative units to create thematic maps for Google Earth:
Image is from the excellent PDF manual included with the distribution. I can’t try it out because I don’t currently have a computer with Excel (2003 or 2007), and it doesn’t seem to run on Open Office Calc.
It also currently only has polygon data for sixteen countries:
But John says that an update coming this summer will add polygon data for more countries, along with more macro features.
If you’re interested in field data acquisition, the entire Monitoring and Evaluation Systems section of the MEASURE site is worth a look.
5/2/2009: Doesn’t appear to be available anymore, but you can always check the MicroPath website. Otherwise, click on the “geocoding” category on the right for more options.
A few days ago, I covered the free gMapExplorer from Micropath, a stand-alone augmented Google Maps and Google Earth browser. Micropath has another useful stand-alone program called Geocode that can geocode an address (convert it to latitude/longitude), as well as reverse geocode (take a latitude/longitude position and find the nearest address). And you can do this either one address or coordinate set at a time, or in batch mode by creating a comma-separated value (CSV) file with the required data. Read the included PDF help file to make sure you put the data in the correct format, and also name the file correctly and put it into the program directory. The program comes with sample CSV files for both batch geocoding:
And reverse geocoding:
Output CSV files with this information are generated, and can be found in the program directory under a specified name. If you need to convert them to KML format, I’ve posted before about a program that can do that. Double-click on an address line to open your default browser and plot the address/position in Google Maps.
One oddity, at least in Windows Vista – every time you start up the program, the install program window comes up. But it doesn’t seem to affect the actual program startup time significantly, nor interfere with functionality.
Remy Paternoster writes to announce a new tool he’s created, an Excel app called KMLxl that imports a KML polygon/placemark file created in Google Earth, and lets you both attach data to each polygon and scale the height of the polygon to a variable value:
The process is straightforward, involving creating polygons and associated placemarks in Google Earth, importing the KML file into Excel with the app, adding data, and then exporting the results as a new KML file. You can update the Excel spreadsheet at any time with new data, and create a new KML that reflects the newer data. In addition to the app, Remy has an easy-to-follow step-by-step tutorial of the process in an accompanying PDF file.
Just announced: a new version of Google’s online Spreadsheet Mapper tool (version 1.0 posted about here). Enter data in a Google Docs spreadsheet using the provided sample template, and create a network link to display the data in Google Earth. New features include more pre-made balloon designs, an HTML templating system for designing your own balloons, and it now works with both Google Earth and Google Maps. Visit the announcement page for more info, instructions on use, and a video demonstration.
Bill Clark, the author of the useful Google Earth Public Land Survey System (PLSS) tool, has a new online app for converting spreadsheet data into point KML files, and opening them directly in Google Earth. Spreadsheet files can be in XLS (Office 2003 or earlier for now, Office 2007 support coming), CSV, or TXT (tab-delimited format); the minimum data required includes only latitude and longitude (either decimal or degree-minute-second formats are acceptable). Optional additional data accepted includes:
Make sure the column headings are included, exactly as specified on the web page’s instructions; there’s an option on the web page to review the spreadsheet data online to make sure it’s correct. The data is formatted into KML at the server, then sent back to your computer to be opened in Google Earth; the original data is then deleted at the server end for security. If you want to save the data displayed in Google Earth, make sure you right-click on the data item in the Places window on the left, and save it in either KML or KMZ format.
I’ve posted before on several programs and websites that will convert spreadsheet point coordinate data (CSV or XLS) to Google Earth’s KML format (here and here). XLS2KML is another option, but it does a few things the others don’t:
- You can have additional data fields automatically appended to the Description section in the KML file
- You can automatically put points into folders and subfolders
- Columns labeled with case-insensitive KML descriptors (like Altitude, Range, Tilt, Heading, Icon, Time Start and End (for Timespan), etc. will have their data properly encoded in the proper KML format for that descriptor
- There are additional options for drawing paths, polygons and grids from this Excel spreadsheet, but they’re not well-documented with recently-added documentation. Still, you’d probably be better off converting line and polygon shapefiles into KML for the first two, or using GE-Path to create paths, polygons and grids, rather than doing it point by point with this method.
Download the spreadsheet from this site (see the link at the bottom). Click on the “Important” button near the top of the spreadsheet to get what little “Help” information come with this Excel macro-enabled spreadsheet.
Newer Garmin GPS units support the upload of sets of POIs, containing both position data and descriptions of the Points Of Interest. The KMLCSV Converter is a Java application that lets you convert placemarks created in Google Earth and saved as a KML file into a CSV (Comma-Separated Values) file compatible with Garmin’s POI Loader; this CSV would also be compatible with most spreadsheet programs as well. The process is straightforward:
1. Create placemarks in Google Earth using the “Add Placemark” tool, search, or other means.
2. Add a description to the placemark.
3. Drag all the placemarks you want to save into a single folder.
4. Save the folder as a KML file
5. Convert it to a CSV file with the KMLCSV Converter Program (screenshot from website)
6. Upload the CSV POI file to your Garmin with the POI Loader program, or into your spreadsheet as a standard CSV file.
There’s a short PDF tutorial file that covers these steps quite clearly with screenshots.
You can also convert CSV files, either POI files or spreadsheet files created by yourself or someone else, into KML files for viewing in Google Earth; a search for “Garmin POI” files on the web will bring up links to many sources, both free and paid. But I prefer the program csv2kml for that purpose.
