Open and share a map

You’re looking for a map to share with other teachers in your department. To find one that contains the data you need for your lesson, you can use the map description. Each map and layer in MapMaker includes a detailed description that provides additional information about the topic of the data, information about the data source, and any decisions made by the map's creator that would impact the understanding of the map. In this tutorial, you'll learn how to open a map, read about the map's data, and share the map with others.

In this tutorial you will learn to:

• Search for maps and layers
• Access the description for maps and layers
• Share maps and layers

This tutorial was last tested on September 12, 2024.

Requirements

Open and share a map

Open and share a map

First, you'll open a map in MapMaker.

1. Open MapMaker.

   

2. On the toolbar at the bottom of the screen, click the Open map button.

   

3. In the Open map pane, in the Search bar, type Significant Volcanic Eruptions.
4. On the map card for the Significant Volcanic Eruptions map, click the information button to read about the map.

   

   This map description includes details such as what the map is about, where the data is from, and any choices made by the map's creator critical to the understanding of the map.

   Mapmakers make hundreds of choices that ultimately shape the final map created. Critical choices include the map projection, scale, how to simplify the map for easy interpretation, how data might be grouped or otherwise adjusted, and map style and design.

   For example, if a mapmaker chose to make roads blue, they might be mistaken for rivers or streams. Large eruptions could be marked with small circles, but this could cause confusion as most readers would expect large eruptions to be marked with large symbols.

5. On the map card for the Significant Volcanic Eruptions map, click the share button.

   

   The share button copies a link to this specific map to your clipboard. You can paste the URL in any text box, including an email message. Anyone you send the link to, like students or educators, can open the same map you are working with.

6. In a new browser tab, paste the URL.

   The map opens. You can also open the map from the Open map pane.

7. Return to the original browser tab. Open the Significant Volcanic Eruptions map by clicking the image of the map.

   You can now pan and zoom the map and click on volcanoes to see more information about them.

   Note:

   To explore the Significant Volcanic Eruptions map, try the Explore layers and data tutorial.

In this tutorial, you learned how to open a map, open the description, and share the map with others.

You can find more tutorials in the tutorial gallery.

Acknowledgements

• Volcanic Eruptions (Significant): National Geophysical Data Center / World Data Service (NGDC/WDS): NCEI/WDS Global Significant Volcanic Eruptions Database. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. doi:10.7289/V5JW8BSH.
• National Geographic Style Map sources: Esri, HERE, Garmin, FAO, NOAA, USGS, © OpenStreetMap contributors, and the GIS User Community