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Add locations & coverage

Colour postcodes inside dots

Turn your dots into coloured postcode territories with one button. The matching areas appear in your normal map key, using your coverage colours or automatically chosen colours for black outlines. There is no list to find, copy or import first.

Watch tutorial video Opens YouTube · some videos show an earlier layout
Colour postcodes inside dots — current GBMaps controls 1 2 8
Current controls. Select a numbered marker for its explanation.
  1. Set up your coverage

    All dots and shapes already placed on the map are used, including those added through Advanced import. Check the position, sizes, colours and labels before colouring. Hiding the coverage does not remove it from this calculation.

  2. Colour postcodes

    Click Colour postcodes. On an uncoloured map the result appears straight away. On a map with existing territory colours you choose what to keep. This uses the shapes already on your map; it does not make another travel-service request.

  3. Add to existing

    Keeps every postcode that already belongs to a coloured territory, even where the new coverage overlaps it. Only uncoloured matching postcodes receive the new colours. Your existing key entries and notes stay in place.

  4. Replace colouring

    Clears all existing territory colouring and its key entries, then colours only the matching postcodes. Areas outside the coverage become unassigned. Your circles, dots, travel areas, images, text and other map artwork stay in place. Cancel or the close button leaves everything unchanged.

  5. What counts as inside?

    The tool tests the representative centre of each polygon at your map’s postcode level. It colours the whole area, district or sector when that centre falls inside the coverage. A polygon may extend beyond the edge, or partly overlap the coverage without being selected. This is not a list of individual addresses or an exact clipped boundary.

  6. Colours, labels and overlaps

    Dot labels become the territory names; a dot without a label uses its postcode. Coloured fills are kept, and an unfilled shape uses its line colour. Black dots or outlines receive automatically chosen zone colours instead of black fills. You can change any zone colour in the map key, including choosing black yourself. Existing generated colours are reused when the same named coverage is coloured again. If shapes overlap, the first matching dot or shape takes precedence.

  7. Undo, save and refresh the result

    Undo reverses the whole colouring operation in one step; Redo restores it. Save keeps the new territory colours and key. Colouring is a snapshot: moving coverage or changing its labels later does not recolour the territories automatically. Click Colour postcodes again and choose Replace colouring to rebuild just this coverage, or Add to existing to fill only uncoloured gaps.

  8. Advanced dots and shapes

    Advanced import has the same Colour postcodes button under Manage dots & shapes. Import your rows first; then colour from the shapes on the map.

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