| Making Maps in Excel |
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| •Making Maps with Excel • Creating Simple Maps with Microsoft Excel |
If you have a spreadsheet such as a Microsoft Excel file containing address or x,y coordinates and you want to make a quick map, BatchGeo is a free and easy online application that will convert your location data and geocode it onto Google Maps. The steps are pretty simple. Since the application uses the first row as the column names, make sure your spreadsheet logically names your columns. It will make assigning the geocodeable columns easier if your addresses are in a column named “address”, your city is in a column named “city”, etc. Simply copy and paste the cells into the section called “Step 1: Source Data”. Hit the validate button to make sure the columns are recognized properly. Under Step 2, you can verify that the geocoding application has properly recognized your columns for geocoding. You can also set the columns to be used for the title and descriptions for each marker. Click the “Run Geocoder” and once the records have been processed, the completed geocoded map will show on the same page. You then have the option of sharing the map with others or exporting a KML file. The geocoded database with lat/long coordinates is also displayed which can then be copied and pasted in a spreadsheet or database.
BatchGeo has a couple of other useful and free tools such as the reverse Geocoder which will take coordinates and assign addresses to them and the Address Map Coordinate which will return a lat/long coordinate for an address you enter.
