Mapopolis free maps for Palm computers Mapopolis 2.0 User's Guide 1 Basics Mapopolis is a free map viewer for Palm computers. It dynamically renders maps based on Mapopolis map files. The current map file database covers the whole U.S. and will soon cover other parts of the world. Each county map file contains information for one county or county equivalent. Two types of map files are available, the basic map file and the enhanced map file. Basic map files contain streets, landmarks and business locations. Enhanced map files also contain water boundaries, city and town boundaries, addresses, and alternate street names. Enhanced maps require about 50% more memory than the corresponding basic map file. Map files are currently available for download from the Mapopolis web site. Smaller basic map files containing a subset of county information are also available on the Mapopolis web site. Maps can be scrolled by dragging the Palm's stylus and can be zoomed to 16 levels of magnification. The level of detail shown on the maps can also be varied. Mapopolis includes a powerful find feature, which allows streets, landmarks, and businesses to be searched and selected by name and businesses or landmarks to be searched and selected by category and name. The selected item or items is then highlighted on the map. Street intersections or street addresses can also be located. Multiple maps can be stored on the Palm and accessed by Mapopolis. When contiguous maps are present on the device, they seamlessly join to form a single continuous map. 1.1 System Requirements Mapopolis requires a Palm OS device running Palm OS 3.0 or later and at least 1 MB of memory. An Internet connection is required to download map files. 1.2 Installation First, synch the application file Mapopolis.prc to the Palm device using Install App. Second, download maps from the Mapopolis web site and synch them to the Palm. Map files have names such as MiddlesexMA.pdb which contains the map information for Middlesex County, Massachusetts. 1.3 New Features in Mapopolis 2.0 Street Addresses. Tapping on a street will now display the address of the point tapped. The Find function supports searching by street address. City and town boundaries. There is a display option which displays only cities and towns on a map. This makes it possible to zoom into a particular city or town. The Find function also supports searching for a city or town. When selected, the boundary of the city or town is displayed on the map. This makes it possible to determine which highlighted features are within a particular city or town. Water feature display. Bodies of water are now displayed. They appear as gray areas at large zooms. At small zooms, the water line is displayed as a dashed line. Alternate names. All the alternate names of a street are now displayed. Maplets. Maplets are user-built collections of landmarks and businesses that appear as part of a base map. For example, you might create a maplet called myplaces and add the locations of your house, your office, your favorite store, etc. Each of these locations will then appear as part of the map on which they were defined. Seamless scrolling between maps. When adjacent county maps are loaded, they will appear as one large map. You can now create a map of your metro area from several county maps and they will work together. Street intersection search. It is now possible to search for street intersections. Display options. You may now customize the display by turning on or off street names, landmarks, businesses, etc. You can also view the current latitude and longitude coordinates as you view the maps. Center and Zoom. To zoom in towards a particular point on the map, tap the point of interest first. When you zoom in, the center of the map will shift to that point. A square is drawn momentarily on the screen to show the area that will be displayed at the next zoom level. Go To or Highlight Option. When viewing the results of a search, the position of the map can be changed to center on the resulting locations or the results can be highlighted without changing the current position of the map. 1.4 Starting Mapopolis Tap the Mapopolis icon on the Palm device to start Mapopolis. The Mapopolis splash screen will be displayed. The splash screen can optionally be turned off. In that case, Mapopolis will start at the last map viewed or at the Choose Map screen. 1.5 Viewing, Deleting and Beaming Maps The Choose Map screen presents the list of available maps on the Palm device. Once a map is selected by tapping its name, the map can be viewed, beamed, or deleted by tapping the appropriate button. 1.6 Accessing the Quick User's Guide while using Mapopolis To view the Mapopolis Quick User's Guide, tap Menu and then View Quick Guide. The guide is a brief summary of information on hoe to use Mapopolis. 2 Map Navigation Scroll or move the map by dragging the stylus across the screen. When the stylus is lifted, the new map will be rendered. Tapping the right arrow button increases the magnification by a factor of two. Tapping the single left arrow decreases the magnification by a factor of two. Tapping the double left arrow decreases the magnification by a factor of four. The zoom buttons will be grayed when the map is at the limits of magnification. 2.1 Map Rendering Interstate highways are displayed in black. All other streets are displayed in gray. On color displays, each type of feature is rendered in a different color. At low magnifications, landmarks and businesses are not displayed. At higher magnifications, landmarks and businesses are displayed as gray squares. Airports are always represented by an airplane icon. An item that has been selected with the find function is displayed at all magnifications. Selected streets are displayed as bold, black lines. Selected landmarks or businesses are represented by a circular icon. North is always to the top of the screen, east to the right, etc. 2.2 Displaying Names Because of the limited display of the Palm, not all street names can be displayed clearly. When the screen is tapped near a landmark or business icon, a pop-up box will appear showing its name and additional information about it if it exists. When the screen is tapped near a street, if the street has assigned addresses, a house icon will appear along the street and a pop-up box will appear with the approximate street address and any alternate street names. If the street has no assigned addresses, the name alone will be displayed. Tapping on the pop-up box will remove it. 2.3 Changing the Level of Detail The level of detail shown in the map can be increased by pushing the More button and can be decreased by pushing the Less button. The buttons will be grayed when the map is at the limits of available detail. 3 Finding Map Features There are several ways to search for features on the maps. Features can be searched by name, or by category for landmarks and businesses. The map can also be searched for street intersections or for street addresses. 3.1 Find Any Feature by Name Tap Find and then Any Feature By Name to search for a feature by name. Enter the first few letters of the feature name. Then check street, business, city/town, or landmark and push Search. All matching feature names will be displayed. Scroll through the list by tapping the up and down arrow icons. The feature name will be followed by >1 if the name occurs more than once in the map file. If more than 35 features match the request, the last item in the list will be (view more matches). Tap this entry to view the next set of matches. To select a feature, tap its name and then push either the Go To button or the Highlight button. The Go To button will cause the map position to change to view the selected feature. The selected feature will also be highlighted. The Highlight button will highlight the selected feature without changing the position of the map. 3.2 Find Business or Landmark Tap Find and then Business or Landmark to search for a business or landmark. Businesses and landmarks are arranged in categories. Tap a category in the category list to view all the businesses or landmarks under that category. Scroll through either list by tapping the up and down arrow icons. The business or landmark name will be followed by >1 if the name occurs more than once in the map file. If more than 35 business locations or landmarks match the request, the last item in the list will be (view more matches). Tap this entry to view the next set of matches. To select a feature, tap its name and then push either the Go To button or the Highlight button. The Go To button will cause the map position to change to view the selected feature. The selected feature will also be highlighted. The Highlight button will highlight the selected feature without changing the position of the map. 3.3 Find Street Intersection Tap Find and then Street Intersection to search for a street intersection. Enter any part of the name of each street and tap Search. Select the first street by tapping its name in the top box. All streets that intersect the first street and contain the second street search string will appear in the lower box. Tap the second intersecting street in the lower box and then push either the Go To button or the Highlight button. The Go To button will cause the map position to change to view the selected feature. The selected intersection will also be highlighted. The Highlight button will highlight the selected intersection without changing the position of the map. 3.4 Find Street Address Tap Find and then Street Address to search for a street address. Enter any part of the name of the street and tap Search. Select the street by tapping its name in the box. Now enter the address. To check whether it exists, tap Find. Tapping Go To or Highlight will return to the map only if the address is found. The approximate location of the address will be represented by a house icon. The Go To button will cause the map position to change to view the selected address. The selected address will also be marked by a house icon. The Highlight button will highlight the selected address without changing the position of the map. 4 Maplets Maplets are user-built collections of landmarks and businesses that appear as part of a base map. For example, you might create a maplet called myplaces and add the locations of your house, your office, your favorite store, etc. Each of these locations will then appear as part of the map on which they were defined. Maplets can be shared. They are saved to your PC when you HotSync. From there, they can be emailed to others, posted on your web site, etc. They can also be beamed just like normal maps. Eventually the Mapopolis web site will include the Maplet Exchange where you can post your maplets and download those built by others. Maplets are backed up when you HotSync to the backup directory, typically c:\Program Files\Palm\UserName\Backup. Your system may store the backup directory in a different location. Any set of maplets based on a county map will all appear together on your map. So you can build one maplet of personal points, one of your important business locations, and one for your out-of-town visitors. They can then be individually shared. 4.1 Create a Maplet Tap Create a Maplet from the main menu to create a new maplet. Enter the author's initials, the maplet name and maplet description. The author's initials and maplet name are used to create a system name for the maplet. Author's initials are included to differentiate maplets created by different authors if the names happen to be the same. 4.2 Edit a Maplet Tap Edit a Maplet from the main menu to edit an existing maplet. Select the maplet from the list and choose either Edit Info to edit the maplet's name, author, and description or Edit Locations to edit individual locations. 4.3 Add a Location to a Maplet Tap Add a Location to a Maplet from the main menu to add a location to an existing maplet. The maplet must be created prior to adding locations. The map screen displays the message Tap Position for New Location. The map may be dragged or zoomed until the desired location is found. Tapping the screen selects the position for the new maplet location. An input form opens for the user to enter information about the location. 5 Partner Services The Partner Services section of the Find screen contains a list of Mapopolis partners with links to information about their products or services. Tap a link to access information about that partner's offerings. 6 Option Settings To view or change option settings, tap Menu and then Set Display Options. The following option settings are available: Show Scale Bar - displays a reference scale bar in the lower right of the map screen Show Coordinates - displays GPS coordinates of the point at the center of the map screen Show Landmarks - show icons for landmarks Show Businesses - show icons for businesses Show Street Names - show street name labels Show Un-named Streets - display streets that are un-named Show City/Town Names Only - shows city/town boundaries along with their names, display of street names is turned off Show Water - display water graphics and water lines Show Splash Screen at Start - show the initial splash screen at program start 7 Latest Updates and More Information The Mapopolis map database will be frequently with more business locations and the latest street information so visit the Mapopolis web site for the latest maps and software releases. If you have any questions or comments about Mapopolis, please go to our contact page and contact us at the appropriate email address. 8 Disclaimer of Warranty The Software is provided "AS IS," without any warranty or representation of any kind. ALL EXPRESS OR IMPLIED REPRESENTATIONS AND WARRANTIES, INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR NON-INFRINGEMENT, ARE HEREBY EXCLUDED. Please see the accompanying license for full terms and conditions of use. Copyright © 2000, Mapopolis.com, Inc.