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Advanced dots & shapes: every column

This importer adds labels and per-location styling, including squares, triangles, hexagons and stars. Review the columns before importing: the new collection replaces the existing dots and shapes.

Watch tutorial video Opens YouTube · some videos show an earlier layout

See it on the map

Real map artwork · example settings
A Yorkshire map with a green circle, blue square, yellow triangle, purple hexagon and orange star at different locations. A larger hollow dashed circle appears around York.
Different dots and shapes. Advanced dots can use circles, squares, triangles, hexagons and stars. Different shapes and colours help distinguish depots, customers or other location types. The larger hollow circle demonstrates a coverage-style outline; the basic dot controls also let you adjust fill, transparency and line appearance. These are example positions.
Advanced dots & shapes: every column — current GBMaps controls 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 12
Advanced dots and shapes: up to 2,500 locations per import. Example details are shown; choose a numbered circle for the control guide.

  1. CSV file, sample or pasted Excel table

    Load a CSV smaller than 2 MB, with up to 2,500 rows. Download sample CSV for the expected order. A recognised heading row is allowed in a file; paste separate columns without headings. A whole Excel table can be pasted into the Postcodes box.

  2. Postcodes and Labels

    Use full UK postcodes, one per row. Labels are optional, so a location can be a plain shape. Keep each postcode and its settings on the same row. Multi-line spreadsheet cells are joined with spaces.

  3. Radius

    A distance in miles, from 0.1 to 500; blank cells use 10. This controls shape size around the location. It is not the line thickness or a screen-pixel measurement.

  4. Line width and Line colour

    Width accepts 0.1 to 100, defaulting to 1. Line colour defaults to black. Colours can be recognised names or hex values such as #E8AC25.

  5. Fill colour

    Sets the inside colour for each shape, defaulting to red. Use one value for the entire collection or a complete row-by-row column.

  6. Label size

    Accepts 0 to 20 and defaults to 3. Zero hides the label text. This is useful if the label needs to remain in the data but would overcrowd the map.

  7. Shape

    Use circle, square, triangle, hexagon or star. Blank settings use circle. Keep the spelling from the column guide so the importer can recognise the shape.

  8. Label position

    Use top, bottom, left, right or middle, with top as the default. Choose a position that keeps text away from a neighbouring shape or important map label.

  9. Shared values, blanks and errors

    One setting on its own applies to every postcode. Otherwise supply one row per postcode. Blank optional cells use the defaults. The status line identifies invalid rows or values before import; fix them rather than shifting a column to make the counts match.

  10. London points and the inset

    In Manage dots & shapes, choose Main map, Inset map, Inset & main map, or Hide London dots. If London points seem missing, check this choice as well as the London inset under Regions & Insets. Imported shapes are placed in the appropriate main-map/inset position. Changing this placement does not require importing the spreadsheet again.

  11. Manage the collection

    Show/hide changes map visibility; Delete all dots from map removes the collection. Download your dot data exports the values currently in the dialog’s columns, including draft edits: keep a copy before clearing or replacing them. Colour postcodes turns the placed shapes into territories using polygon centres. Choose Add to existing to preserve current colouring, or Replace colouring to replace it; Undo restores the previous result.

  12. Import, Close and Clear columns

    Import to map validates and replaces the map’s dots and shapes. Check the final lookup feedback for missing locations. Close leaves unimported drafts unapplied and stops an in-progress import. Clear columns empties the draft input fields, not the current map layer.

  13. Make stars and circles equally opaque

    After importing, close this dialog and open Create Dots → More appearance options. Set Fill opacity to 100% for solid circles, stars and the other shapes together. Adjust Line opacity separately. These are collection-wide settings, not extra spreadsheet columns. Save afterwards; see Dot transparency for the controls.

  14. Maximum import size

    Dots and shapes support up to 2,500 locations per import. Marker boxes remain limited to 500 locations per import. On supported Eircode maps, no more than 200 of those locations can be full Eircodes. These are import limits, not a promised total number of objects per map. If you need more, choose Contact GBMaps and tell us the map, the type of import and approximately how many locations or rows you need, so we can discuss options. Advanced CSV files must be smaller than 2 MB. See Import limits for the other tools.

Classic GBMaps · Written by GBMaps · Updated Download this guide for your AI (.md)
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