Tutorial Contents
Create a project and add places Show
Add rich information to your places
Add lines and shapes to your project
Add slides to your project Share your project
More with Earth creation tools
Discussion and Feedback What's Next Prerequisites
Let's Get Started!The new creation tools in Google Earth allow you to easily create and share maps and stories about our world as an Earth project. You can create a project on any subject of your choosing, drawing placemarks, lines and shapes, adding rich contextual information to your places (text, links, images, videos, 3D views and Street View), and organizing your project into a narrative flow. You can share your project and collaborate with others. In presentation mode, viewers will fly from one place to the next following the narrative of your project, immersing them in the journey through Google Earth’s imagery and the custom content you provide. This tutorial will introduce you to the new creation tools, and walk you through the process of creating and sharing your own Earth project. In order to complete this tutorial, you will need some text, photo and video content to add to your project. You can use your own content or you can use the sample content provided by our friends at the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI). Download the zip file below for the JGI images and extract the contents to a folder on your desktop. JGI_sample_content.zip (249k Zip file) If you choose to follow along with our Jane Goodall example, you may want to preview the finished sample Jane Goodall story before you start the tutorial. Create a project and add places
Adding a place from Street View
Preview your finished project
Add rich information to your placesAdding photos, videos and text
Previewing changesClick the Preview presentation button to see your changes in presentation mode. Click the back button to go back to the Property Editor panel and continue editing.Styling placemarks
Adding 3D viewsNow that we know Jane grew up in Bournemouth, let’s make the view in Earth of Jane’s childhood more specific and immersive.
Changing the Info boxYou can change the style of the Info box that displays your content (text, photos, videos, etc).
Add information to your second placemarkNow let’s add information to the other placemarks in your project.
Adding videos
Add lines and shapes to your projectDraw a line
Tip: If you open the Property Editor panel for your line, you will be able to drag and move your line points to reshape your line, but you can’t delete or add segments. Draw a shape
Tip: You can reshape your polygon by clicking and dragging points, but you can’t delete segments. You can not click and drag your entire shape to a new location. Add slides to your project
Tip: You can add slides to introduce your project, create chapters or sections, to add an ending message or credits and more. Tip: If you choose to use an image as your slide background, your title and description will appear at the bottom lefthand of your slide. If you choose to use color as your slide background, your title and description will appear centered on your slide. You have many options when you want to share your Earth project with others. All projects are private by default — only you as the creator of the project can view or edit it. Below you’ll learn how to share the project, as well as how to collaborate on your project with others.
Tip: By default, people with the link will only be able to view your project. If you’d like, you can change the permissions so that anyone with the link can edit your project.
Viewing your projects on web and mobileYou can find maps and stories you own and that have been shared with you by clicking on Projects in the navigation and looking through the list in the Projects panel. In the list, you’ll see maps and stories organized by the categories Pinned to Earth, KML files and Recent. You can also use the New project button to open projects and KML files that do not automatically appear in your Projects list. You can also open an Earth project directly from Google Drive, or from a shared link. You can view your projects on a mobile device by opening the Google Earth app, clicking the menu in the upper lefthand corner and selecting Projects. You can not edit your projects on mobile at this time. Pinning ProjectsIn order to ensure that a project always appears in your list of projects (even if you haven’t recently opened it), hover over the project in the Projects panel and click the pin icon. The project will now appear in the Pinned to Earth section on your device., Tip: Pinned projects are always visible on the globe (unless you toggle off visibility using the Hide project button), even when you’re exploring a different project in presentation mode. You can use this feature to “mash up” several different projects and/or KML files together. Importing your KML filesIf you’ve already created a map using another mapping tool such as Google My Maps, Tour Builder or Earth Pro and saved it as a KML or KMZ file, you can import the KML or KMZ to view and edit in Google Earth (with some limitations): Currently, you are able to import your KMLs only as local files. Local files are projects stored in your local browser storage on your computer. Local files are not stored in the Google Cloud. Local files cannot be shared with others and cannot be shared across devices. Local files are stored only in the local browser storage on the computer used to import the file. Before you can import your KML files, you must turn on KML import in your Google Earth settings.
Now you can import a KML file.
Tip: You may experience some issues importing more complex KML files. For example, some advanced KML features currently don't work well or at all in the new Google Earth for web and mobile, including 3D models, tours, tracks, time-based KML, and photo overlays. Also, very large KML files or complex features (eg: polygons with many vertices) may not import or render well. Tip: If you create or import KML files, you will not be able to convert them to Earth projects (stored in the Cloud), so you will not be able to share your KML files with others. Exporting KMLTo export a KML of your project, go to the Project Details panel and click the overflow menu , then select Export as KML file.Discussion and FeedbackHave questions about this tutorial? Want to give us some feedback? Visit the Google Earth Help Community to discuss it with others. What's Next
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