Shapes & Text: draw, highlight and explain your map
Show a planned visit, outline a patch that crosses postcode boundaries, mark a meeting point with a star, or add a note for the person reading your map. Shapes & Text lets you do all of this without changing your territories or their totals. You can try every drawing tool before buying or signing in.
See it on the map
Real map artwork · example settings
Add a shape or text box
Open Shapes & Text in the left-hand menu. Choose a shape symbol, or Add a text box. Hover over a symbol to see its name: Circle, Square, Rectangle, Star, Triangle or Hexagon. Your item appears with blue handles and a green tool panel. The panel stays open as you work; drag its green heading to move it out of your way. Rectangle starts wider than it is tall. Untick Keep proportions to turn a circle into an oval or stretch another shape. For a measured radius in miles, use Radial Circles instead.
Hold Space to pan through a shape
If a shape covers the bit of map you want to grab, hold the Space bar, drag with the left mouse button, then let go of Space. The map moves behind your artwork instead of dragging the shape. Dragging with the middle mouse button does the same thing. Without Space, dragging a shape moves that shape; dragging empty map space pans the map. The Space shortcut works when you are not typing in a text field. Scrolling still zooms when your pointer is over a shape.
Draw a line (polyline) or a filled polygon
Choose Draw line for an open line, or Draw polygon for an enclosed patch. Click once at each bend or corner on the map page; a blue preview shows where the next section will go. A line can mark a connection, a dividing line or a rough visit plan. It is drawn by you, not calculated along roads. A polygon is useful for a proposed service patch that does not follow existing boundaries. Drag to pan or scroll to zoom whenever you need a closer look: earlier points stay with their map locations, and dragging does not add a point.
Finish a drawing, undo a point or start again
Choose Finish or press Enter after your last point. You can also double-click the last point; for a polygon, clicking its first point closes the shape. A line needs at least two points. A polygon needs at least three that enclose an area. While drawing, Undo point, Backspace or Delete removes the latest point. Cancel or Escape discards the unfinished drawing. You can place up to 200 points in one line or polygon. Finish the drawing before moving to another menu or view.
Adjust the bends and corners afterwards
Select your finished line or polygon. Drag a blue round point to move that individual bend or corner, or drag the item itself to move the whole drawing. The blue square corner handles resize the whole item. Change its line colour and thickness in the panel; a filled polygon also has fill colour and opacity controls. New lines and polygons move and zoom with the map by default. Choose Fixed to the page under Position & size if you want a diagram or decoration that stays in one place on the paper.
Copy the outline of a postcode or boundary area
Choose Copy outline, then click inside the map area you want to highlight. The tool copies its boundary into a separate shape, including detached pieces such as islands and any holes. It starts as an unfilled outline attached to the map. Choose its line colour and thickness, or increase Fill opacity to shade it. The original territory and its assignment stay as they were. This is a copy of the boundary at the time you click, not a live link to the original polygon: changing a territory colour later will not change the copied shape. You can move and resize the copy, but it does not have individual point handles. For exceptionally detailed boundaries, the tool may ask you to use Box around area instead of saving an incomplete outline. You can drag to pan or scroll to zoom while choosing an area; only a click copies it.
Put a rectangle around a map area
Choose Box around area, then click inside the area you want to frame. A clear rectangle is fitted around the whole area, including any separate pieces, with a small gap around its edges. It starts attached to the map so it follows the same location when you pan or zoom. Change its line colour and thickness, add a translucent fill if useful, or drag its handles to adjust the frame. Use this for a simple highlight when the exact boundary would be too busy.
Choose the item you want to change
While editing, click an item on the page or choose it from Your shapes & text. The list is useful when items overlap. It shows a short extract of each text box and whether the item belongs to the page or the map. The controls beneath it apply only to that selected item. Click an empty part of the page to clear the selection.
Fixed to the page, or attached to the map?
Choose Fixed to the page for a heading, contact details or a note that should stay put while you adjust the map behind it. Choose Moves and zooms with the map for a highlight over a location: it follows that location as you pan and grows as you zoom in. Ready-made shapes and text start fixed to the page; drawn lines, polygons, copied outlines and boxes around areas start attached to the map. Switching this setting keeps the item in the same visible place and at the same visible size. It changes what happens when you next pan or zoom.
Write a heading, explanation or list
Choose Add a text box, replace Your text here with your own words, and press Enter wherever you want a new paragraph or list line. Paste plain text from another document if that is easier. The text wraps automatically inside the box, including long references. A narrower box produces more lines; it grows downwards when necessary so those lines are not cut off. This is a plain text box with formatting for the whole box, not a word processor with different styles within one paragraph.
Choose a font and size
Choose Sans serif, Serif or Typewriter and adjust Size until the text is comfortable to read on your page. Dragging a text box corner changes its space and wrapping, not its font size. A box attached to the map will also grow or shrink with the map zoom. Saving and reopening retains your wording, font and size.
Bold, italic, underline and text colour
Use B, I and U to switch bold, italic and underline on or off. A green button indicates an active style. Text colour changes the letters independently of the box fill and outline, so you can have dark text over a pale, partly transparent background. The text stays opaque when you reduce the background fill opacity.
Align the text
Choose Left for ordinary notes and lists, Centre for a heading or short notice, or Right when the box needs to line up with the right edge of the page. The alignment applies to every wrapped line in the selected box.
Choose the fill and line colours
Fill colour paints the inside of the selected shape or the background of a text box. Line colour changes its outline. Click a colour square to use your browser’s colour picker. Changing these colours leaves your territory colours, map background and legend alone. An open line has no inside to paint, so its fill controls are disabled; use Line colour and Line thickness instead.
Let the map show through: fill opacity
Move Fill opacity towards 0% for a lighter highlight. At 100% the fill is solid; at 0% it disappears completely. The outline and any text remain opaque, making it possible to draw a clear ring around an area without covering its labels. Overlapping translucent shapes naturally blend where they overlap. The same opacity is included in your exported artwork.
Set the outline thickness
Increase Line thickness for a stronger outline, or set it to 0 for no outline. For an unboxed note, set both the line thickness and fill opacity to 0. When an item is attached to the map, its outline scales with it as you zoom.
Move and resize with the blue handles
Click an item to select it, then drag inside it to move it. Pull a blue square corner to resize it. Keep proportions retains the width-to-height ratio; untick it to stretch the shape. Holding Shift while resizing also keeps a shape in proportion. Text boxes resize freely so their text can wrap. When you are not typing in a field, the arrow keys nudge the selected item; Shift with an arrow makes a larger nudge. A small movement while clicking is ignored, so selecting an item does not accidentally shift it.
Arrange overlapping items
Bring forward moves the selected item one place above another drawing item. Send back moves it one place behind. The order applies within the same attachment type: page-fixed artwork sits above map-attached artwork. Use the item list to pick a shape hidden behind another. This does not reorder the map’s boundaries, legend or regional inset layers.
Duplicate, delete and undo
Duplicate makes another copy with the same appearance, slightly offset so you can see it. Move the copy and change its words or colours as needed. Delete item removes the selected shape or text box only. The main Undo and Redo buttons also work with drawings, including moves, resizes, formatting and deletion. A map can hold up to 60 drawing items, with up to 2,500 characters in one text box. If the combined drawing detail and text become too large to save, the tool asks you to simplify them or remove an unused item instead of silently cutting anything off.
Finish editing and return to your territories
Choose Done in the floating panel, or Finish editing in the sidebar, to return to your territories. The blue handles disappear and your artwork stops responding to clicks, so you can colour and move the map normally. Edit shapes & text lets you change it again. Escape also leaves editing mode when you are not typing or drawing. Another menu or view closes the tools: finish any line or polygon first, as an unfinished drawing is discarded when you leave this way. Your finished additions appear in Print View and Design, but not in the separate On Google preview.
Save, reopen and download
Finish your drawing, then use the normal Save button to store it with your map. Every point in a line or polygon, copied boundary, position, page or map attachment, size, order, opacity and text setting is retained. Saving a copy includes its own independent copy of the artwork. The drawings are included in PDF, SVG, PNG, JPG and PowerPoint output; editing handles and the floating panel are left out. Text remains editable when you reopen your saved map in GBMaps. In downloads, the letters are vector outlines so wrapping and appearance do not depend on fonts installed on another computer; they are not directly editable text in a PDF or SVG editor. Trial users can try the editing controls, while the usual map licence is still needed for saving and downloads.
Drawings in inset maps
A custom inset includes drawings that move with its source map. Page-fixed notes stay on the main page, keeping the inset clear of the original page’s headings and instructions. This works for an inset of the map you are editing and for a linked inset from another saved map in your account. Save changes to the source map and refresh the linked inset to show them. Hide unassigned areas does not erase your own drawing items.