As I wrote in the introduction, a Google Earth Project is basically a collection of locations linked together. In this tutorial I’ll show you the details of building one of those locations.
Once you’ve started a new project and entered the title and description, click on the New feature menu to see your options. In most cases we want to Search to add a place but there are a few other elements available.
Add placemark if your location is already showing in the display.
Drawing a line or shape can be a little tricky but those elements can also be useful to direct the users attention to a particular feature.
A Fullscreen slide is a good way to add titles or information screens at the beginning or within your tour.
So, let’s use Search to find our location. Searching in Google Earth is pretty much like searching in any other Google application: usually good, sometimes quirky. It always helps to know what you want, of course.
In this example, I want to visit the castle in Edinburgh, Scotland. But if I don’t pay attention to what Google is suggesting, I might wind up at a pub in San Francisco or a landmark in Jamaica.
In the lower part of the column, Google will also suggest other Earth content that you may like, in this case a guided tour from the Voyager section.
Click the location you want to include and it will be listed in your project. Click the pencil icon next to that element to begin editing the information. In the following example, I’ll be using a location from my tour of Amsterdam that was used in the introduction.
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Images, Title, Description
In the first section of the edit column, you can add images that users will see in the information box when they arrive at the location (shown in the image at the right). Click the camera icon to choose images from your computer, Google Drive, or on the web. You can also search for and include videos from YouTube. Videos will be played full screen when clicked on.
Enter a title for this location and type or paste text for the description. Some basic formatting is available for the description, including links. If you know HTML, you can click on the More menu (the three buttons) and switch to an HTML editor.
Finally in this section, you have the choice of a small info box (shown), a large one, or none at all.
Placemarks
In the next section, you can choose the icon to be used for this location. Choose the style and size, small, large, extra large, or default, which is sort of a medium.
If you don’t like the color, click the paint bucket to choose another. If you don’t like the limited selection shown, click More menu for a much larger selection or to upload your own. Uploading works best if you have an icon-sized GIF or PNG file.
The advanced options, allow you to show or hide the title of this location next to the placemark, and to change the color and size of the text.
Setting the View
Finally, you have the controls to manually set the view your visitors will see when they arrive at this location.
Don’t use them. It is far easier to use your mouse to change the view in the main window and then click the blue button that says Capture this view.
When finished, use the Preview presentation button at the top of the column to see if everything is to your liking. You can also use the Reset to defaults button at the bottom to start over.