Source: Looking for Lincoln

Back in July I posted a tutorial on how to create a Google map from a spreadsheet without messing with code. You can now create a map with tabbed map windows — still without messing with code. Click on the markers in this map of places President Abraham Lincoln lived and traveled in Illinois to see the tabbed windows. Here’s how to make your own.

1. CREATE A SPREADSHEET
Go to Google Docs and create a new spreadsheet, or import an existing spreadsheet. The spreadsheet must have at least four columns: Title, address, information for the first tab and information for the second tab. The names on those last two columns are important: They should be one word and will appear on the map. A column to rank the information is optional.

If you have several cells of information that you want displayed in one tab, concatenate them. For example, if you want to combine cells C2 and D2 (with a comma separating them) enter this formula into a new column: =concatenate(C2, ", ", D2). Your concatenated cells can include HTML tags, such as bold, italics or line breaks.

Publish the spreadsheet. (If your spreadsheet includes private information, do not publish it. Either delete the private information, or find another way to create a map.)
• In the top right corner of the spreadsheet, click the “Share” button, then “Publish as web page.”
• Click “Publish now”
• Check the “automatically republish” box, and select “more publishing options”
• A new window will open. Change the file format to ATOM, select the sheet you are working on (most likely Sheet 1) and click the “Generate URL” button.
• Copy the URL and close the published formats window.

Example: Abraham Lincoln spreadsheet

2. GEOCODE THE ADDRESSES.
To plot points on a map, you need latitude-longitude coordinates. (If you already have those coordinates, you can skip this step.) You don’t have to look up each one individually: there’s a geocode wizard that will find them all at once.

Open the geocode wizard in a new window. The URL you copied from your spreadsheet will include a key and worksheet ID. The URL for the Lincoln spreadsheet is http://spreadsheets.google.com/feeds/list/pdFrt4IUcQBreGku49enQOA/od6/public/basic. The key is pdFrt4IUcQBreGku49enQOA and the worksheet ID is od6.

Enter your key and ID as directed and the geocode wizard will return the latitude and longitude for each address. It will warn you if an address cannot be found. Create two new columns in your spreadsheet, and paste the latitude and longitude. (You should be able to copy and paste both columns at once.)

Example: Abraham Lincoln spreadsheet with latitude/longitude

3. MAKE A MAP!
Open the tabbed map wizard. Copy your key and worksheet ID into the new wizard, and identify the fields you used. Adjust the size of your map and the color for the markers (both can be changed later). If you use a rank, those numbers will show up in the map points; otherwise, they’ll be blank. The title of your map points will appear in the sidebar. If you do not use a sidebar, or you also want the title to appear in the tabbed window, include that information in the appropriate column. Preview your map and make any changes.

Below the map is the JSON code. If you do not already have one, sign up for a Google Map API key — that is what lets you embed the map on your Web site.

If your map will be on a stand-alone web page, mark the box above the code and HTML header/footer information will be added. Copy the code, add your API key and save it in a blank Wordpad, TextEdit or other plain text editor document as an HTML page.

If you want to embed your map on a blog, like I have done here, do not mark that box.
• Copy the code from //< ! [CDATA[ to //]]>. Save that as a JavaScript file -- mine is called lincoln.js. FTP that file to your server. Make sure you know where you save it.
• Add your API key to the header of your blog -- in WordPress, go to Design > Theme Editor > Header. In Blogger, go to Layout > Edit HTML. Other blog platforms will be similar. Once you've added the key to your blog, you will not have to sign up for another key. After you add the API key, look for the < body > tag and change it to < body onLoad="load()" onUnload="GUnload()" >. Remove the extra space after < and before >. This is needed for your map to load, and once it is changed you won't have to mess with it again.
• Before the tag, add your API key. When you sign up for the key, copy the format that looks like this:
  < script src="http://maps.google.com/maps?file=api&v=2&key=YOUR KEY HERE" type="text/javascript" > < /script >
• Create a new post and switch to HTML format. Add line at the top of your post:
  < script src="LINK TO YOUR JS FILE" type="text/javascript"> < /script>
  (I have added extra spaces after < to make the script show up here. Take those out)
• Go back to the map wizard, and copy the code at the top from < div style to < /div>. Paste that where you want the map to appear in your post.

You can make changes to the spreadsheet and the map will automatically update. Each address must be geocoded before the points will appear on the final map, though -- just repeat the geocode wizard.

There are several notes in the JSON code (comments are marked by // and /* if you want to take a peek, figure out how it works and make changes. (But save a copy of the original -- just in case.)

In Quotes finds and compares, uh, quotes from stories linked to from Google News. Want to know what presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain said about Iraq? Oil? The bailout? Design? Bananas? (They haven’t said anything about bananas. Yet.)

Cycle through quotes, or hit “spin” to compare randomly selected quotes on a single topic. There are 20 people to choose from (only five are women; more Democrats than Republicans) for the U.S. edition; Canada, India and the United Kingdom editions are also available. The 20 most popular searches are show, but you can search for any keyword(s) you want. (Hence the banana search!)

So go ahead: See what McCain and Obama have to say about dogs and lipstick.

(HT MeHeatherD)

(For some reason, the walking directions on Google’s site let you walk under or beside the Arch. The embedded version wants you to see more of the sights.)

Walking directions are still in beta so Google (wisely) warns to use caution when walking in unfamiliar areas, and that there may not always be sidewalks.

(Via)

You can make this map without knowing any code. Really. Here’s how:

1. CREATE A SPREADSHEET.
Go to Google Docs and create a new spreadsheet, or import an existing spreadsheet. You can have a lot or just a little information in the spreadsheet, but you will must have at least three columns: A title for the map points, a description and an address. A column to rank the information is optional.

If you have several cells of information that you want displayed in the map, concatenate them. For example, if you want to combine cells C2 and D2 (with a comma separating them), enter this formula in a new column: =concatenate(C2, ", ", D2) Your concatenated cells can include HTML tags, such as bold, italic or line breaks.

Publish the spreadsheet. (If your spreadsheet includes private information, do not publish it.) After hitting “Publish now,” mark the “automatically republish” box, select “More publishing options,” change the file format to ATOM, select Sheet 1 and copy the URL.

Example: Brewery spreadsheet

2. GEOCODE THE ADDRESSES.
To plot points on a map, you need latitude-longitude coordinates. (If you already have those coordinates, you can skip this step.) You don’t have to look up each one individually: the geocode wizard will find them all at once.

The URL you copied from your spreadsheet will include a key and worksheet ID. Enter them as directed and the geocode wizard will return the latitude and longitude for each address. It will warn you if an address cannot be found. Create two columns in your spreadsheet, and paste the latitude and longitude. (You should be able to copy and paste both columns at once.)

Example: Brewery spreadsheet with lat/lng coordinates

3. MAKE A MAP!
Copy your key and worksheet ID into the map wizard. Identify the fields and adjust the size of your map (you can change it later) and the color for the markers. If you use a rank, those numbers will show up on the map points; otherwise, they’ll be blank. Preview your map and make any changes you want.

Below the map is the JSON code. If you do not already have one, sign up for an API key — that’s what lets you embed the map on your Web site. Copy the code and add your API key.

You can make changes to the spreadsheet, and the map will automatically update. There are several notes in the code (comments are marked by // and /*) if you want to take a peek, figure out how it works and make changes. But save a copy of the original file … just in case.

St. Louis has finally been added to the cities you can see via Google’s Street View. Co-worker Kurt Greenbaum says the most detailed areas are in downtown St. Louis and along Highway 40.

Google added 36 other cities too:
• Huntsville, Ala.
• Bakersfield, Fresno, Sacramento and Stockton, Calif.
• Boca Raton, Cape Coral, Fort Lauderdale, Jacksonville, Sarasota and West Palm Beach, Fla.
• Atlanta
• Topeka, Kan.
• Lexington and Louisville, Ky.
• Springfield, Mass.
• Ann Arbor, Mich.
• Jackson, Miss.
• Lincoln, Neb.
• Reno
• Newark, N.J.
• Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse, N.Y.
• Charlotte and Winston-Salem, N.C.
• Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton and Toledo, Ohio
• Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Okla.
• Columbia and Greenville, S.C.
• Knoxville, Tenn.
• Virginia Beach, Va.

But Google Maps are now Flash compatible! OK, I have to be honest: I guess I didn’t realize Google Maps weren’t Flash compatible, although I should have. (Yahoo Maps is Flash-based while Google is JavaScript-based, and I knew that.) Of course the downside is that the maps are developed in ActionScript 3, which I’d kind of been putting off learning. (Again with the honesty thing though, I haven’t opened Flash in more than a month, so what do I know?)

Speaking of Google Maps, you can track the WFLD helicopter when it’s out and about flying in Chicago (5:30-8:30 a.m. and during breaking news). The map does not auto-update (which would be easy to fix Fox Chicago!), so you’ll have to refresh your browser if you actually want to see the chopper move.

I’m not sure how I hadn’t seen it before, but I love it. It’s very similar to the map I want to do for Missouri’s next election.

Skybus is offering $10 plane tickets I know, I didn’t believe it either until I checked. Not every ticket is that cheap, but I did find some that were. They don’t have many destinations, though; their hub is in Columbus, Ohio, so be prepared to make a stop there.

The Shelby (N.C.) Star is taking lessons from TV journalists to drive its multimedia coverage. This includes blogs, moblogs, video and, soon, the “Star Car.” And they’ve increased online traffic by 84 percent. Eighty-four percent!

More great advice to newspapers: Set up “people pages” on your Web site. (Example: Times Topics)

The best part is once you set up your page to automatically bring in stories based on keywords, it populates itself and will likely bring in viewers with little to no hands-on management necessary.

Adrian Holovaty (famous for chicagocrime.org, Faces of the Fallen, Campaign Tracker) is leaving the Washington Post to start his own company, EveryBlock. I can’t wait to see what he comes up with.

“Work from home and save the planet.” That is what I’ve been waiting for! (By the numbers, the savings may not be that great. Sanity-wise, though … )

OK, so while we’re on traffic stats, let’s look at the media. Because it’s fun. (Just go with it.)
• Print news and media have 1.2 percent of the market share
• Broadcast news and media have 0.63 percent (That surprised me.)
• Weather has 0.42 percent

The top 10 media sites:
1. Yahoo News
2. The Weather Channel
3. CNN
4. MSNBC
5. Google News
6. Yahoo Weather
7. Drudge Report
8. USA Today
9. New York Times
10. Fox News

For Kevin, the top five gossip blogs:
1. TMZ
2. Perez Hilton
3. The Superficial
4. Just Jared
5. Dlisted

A wizard that creates a Google Map from a Google spreadsheet. Yay!

Salary vs. performance for major league baseball. No surprise that the Royals are at the bottom of the list performance-wise; I was kinda surprised by their salary, though. Created from free-ware that seems to operate kinda similar to Flash …

If your company won’t pay for someone to train you, then teach yourself. You’re a journalist, for god’s sake, and there was a time in your career when you wouldn’t take “no” for an answer.

Where to learn online journalism skills

Create a tag cloud from any RSS feed.