Power Map Help

Help using the address lookup feature

The geocoder has a few quirks you should be aware of when using it. Unfortunately, Google has yet to include geocoding -- that is, physical address -> lat/long coordinate conversion -- features in the current version of the Google Maps API. As a result, this means that the superb place lookup features present within the standard Google Maps interface aren't a reality for Power Map as of yet.

However, through the use of a very cool geocoding service, http://www.geocoding.us, Power Map is capable of locating and marking street addresses. The street address parser of the geocoder isn't as robust as that offered by Google, so several hints are worth keeping in mind in order to make using it a bit easier:

Apartment and unit numbers tacked onto street numbers (e.g. 42C, 11235D, 31337-C) seem to cause the geocoder.us parser to fail. Remove all leading and trailing metadata from street numbers from entered addresses.
Failure to separate your street address and city/state with a comma has been known to cause parser breakage. If you're getting error dialogs when searching for an address, verifying that the character is present is a worthwhile exercise.
Surprisingly, given its rigidity in other areas, the parser seems perfectly content with addresses in the form 1 Infinite Loop, 95014 that include a ZIP code, but no city or state information. Once the address is located, you can click on the marker and see the city and state information revealed :)

Map Controls

Left column options

Enable dynamic dragging
If this option is set, the map may be freely panned. Clearing this option prevents the map from being panned. The map may still be zoomed, however.
Display small map control
If this option is set, a directional map control with a central 'return home' button that does not include the zoom slider widget will be displayed. If the large map control is also displayed, the two controls will overlap with one another, but coexist happily together.
Display large map control
When this option is set, a large map control which includes four directional buttons, a 'return home' button, and a zoom slider will be displayed on top of the map. If the small map control is also selected for display, the controls will overlap with one another, but coexist happily together.
Display map/satellite mode switcher
This toggle switches between a street map view and a satellite/aerial photograph view of the the current map region.
Display current zoom level
Displays the current numerical zoom level of the map in the bottom right hand corner.
Display current viewport bounds
When toggled, displays four latitude/longitude coordinates describing the map region currently being viewed; top left corner, top right corner, bottom left corner, and bottom right corner.
Enable popup info windows
Toggles whether or not popup info windows are able to display (but seems to have issues with preventing their appearance at the present time!)
Display current lat/long coordinates
Displays the lat/long coordinates at the center point of the map region currently being viewed in a message area at the bottom left corner of the map.
Clear all tracks and markers
Clears all current waypoints and map movement tracks from the entire map (not just the region in view). No granularity here currently, but future versions will make it possible to excise overlay elements in a selective fashion...
Display map movement track
When toggled, this option causes a line to be drawn over points you traverse whilst wandering about the map. Untoggling the option prevents the line from being drawn, but doesn't erase previously drawn tracks.
Display map movement track: Track color
Determines the color of the map movement track. Color is specified by providing a standard hexadecimal HTML color string.
Display map movement track: Track width
Width of the map movement track in pixels. Changing this value (as with track color) will only affect track segments drawn subsequently.
Display map movement track: Track opacity
Opacity of the map movement track, specified as a floating point value from 0 to 1.0.
Display distance travelled
Displays distance traversed on the map in miles and kilometers in a message area below the map display.
Display distance travelled: Reset distance travelled
Clicking this link resets the distance travelled odometer to 0.
Go to lat/long coordinate
Centers the map on the latitude and longitude coordinate provided in the latitude/longitude text entry fields below this item when the 'Go to location' link is pressed.

Right column options

Go to street address
Typing a street address in this text entry field causes the address to be associated with its lat/long coordinate, the map to be centered over the location, and a marker to be created with an associated information window containing the physical address and associated lat/long coordinates returned by the geocoder.
Set marker at lat/long coordinate
Sets a marker at the lat/long coordinate specified in the latitude and longitude text entry areas below this option. Clicking 'Set marker' causes the marker to be created. Currently, this option does not pan to the location in which the marker was created, although this will be added as an option in the near future.
Set marker at current location
Places a marker at the centerpoint of the map region currently being viewed.
Load and mark waypoints in XML file
Given a set of waypoints in an XML file in the form:
```
  
    
    ...
  
```
Where the lat attribute of the marker tag contains latitude, and the lng attribute of the marker tag contains longitude, place markers on the map in the locations specified.