Adding Location Markers/Marker Flags

These are useful for showing the locations of key people or properties on a map. After a map has been split into territories or zones, it is often useful to show where the person that is responsible for that territory lives or works. Marker flags can be used to add additional data to a map also. They can have no ‘tail’ and just become a coloured box containing text or if the box is set to the colour of the background it will appear like a line of text floating on the map which can be used to add additional text to a map such as a phone number of address etc.

The marker dialog box has been kept as simple as possible, yet it is a very featureful part of the software.

The first thing to do when adding markers is to switch the 2 toggles, Show/Hide and Position.

Show/Hide effects all the markers on a map at one time. Position is used to determine whether a marker is positioned on the map when clicked. If this is un-ticked, you can click and drag the map around without positioning or repositioning a marker.

After these toggles have been switched, click on the green Create a New Marker button. This will reveal a new text entry box, a radio button and a red ‘delete marker’ circle. Enter the text you would like to appear inside the marker and then click on the map where you would like the marker to appear. The marker will now be positioned on the map with the default settings.

The chances are, the marker won’t be formatted as required so there are various options for customization.

Marker Settings

We can set the colour of the text that appears within a marker and also the colour of the outline box and marker tail with the colour palette selection boxes.

Setting the size slider will increase the font size of the text within the currently selected marker. The surrounding marker rectangle is dependent on the size of the text so this increases the overall size of the marker. The tail length is not affected.

Setting the height of the currently selected marker tail is done with this slider. The marker text remains positioned and the tail lengthens or shortens. You should not that if a marker has been positioned and the tails length has been changed it may be necessary to reposition the marker.

Setting the height of the currently selected marker tail is done with this slider. The marker text remains positioned and the tail lengthens or shortens. You should not that if a marker has been positioned and the tails length has been changed it may be necessary to reposition the marker.

It is often not visually appropriate to always have the marker tail protrude from the bottom of a marker box. Use this toggle to select whether the currently selected marker has a tail above or below the marker text and box. If changing an already positioned marker, the marker box moves and the point of the tail or line remains in place. The marker should not need repositioning after flipping the marker tail.

Clicking this button will reset the colours of the currently selected marker. All the other setting for the marker will be retained, just the colours are reset.

Adding/Deleting Markers

The red cross deletes a marker from the list of edit boxes and also removes it from the map. It will be removed forever and cannot be undeleted so be careful, there is no warning box! Once clicked the marker will be instantly deleted.

If you have multiple markers defined and positioned on a map and want to edit the properties of a particular marker you need to click the radio button next to the marker you want to change. Once clicked, all the user interface properties and colour settings of the selected marker will be changed to reflect the settings for that particular marker.

When multiple markers have been created it can sometimes be difficult to locate a marker on the map. For this reason, when you hover the mouse over each of the marker text entry boxes in the create marker dialog box, a red border will temporarily appear around the corresponding marker on the map. This red box will not appear on the map itself once saved. It is only there to show you which marker you are about to select.