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Create Online Map Using Online Map Software

By Ko Fai Godfrey Ko

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 05Nov2010 Word count: 749 Viewed: 230 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

As the world goes digital, business owners tend to use Flash interactive map to define the location of branch offices spread in different countries, shows the sales figures to company's shareholders and investors on a regular basis, and display the flight routes and destinations on airline websites. Personal users can benefit from Flash interactive map too. Since web users have already actively participated in online activities such as sharing ideas in blogs and facebook, it is common to display a map showing the places one have been visited, with pop up information box highlighting the additional details about the nice accomodations, delicious food and beautiful scene on a mouseover. Is it a enticing bait to attract other web users to read your blog?

In the past, Adobe Flash software together with Flash editing and programming knowledge were a must to create a Flash interactive map, while many non technical users refrain from doing so because they were too busy to learn Flash or they thought it was too technically challenging. Therefore, many people just outsource the map development task to the professional map developers and designers which involved a considerable amount of money. Nowadays, everyone can take full advantage of the advanced technology and create a professionally looking Flash map in a matter of minutes using digital map builder. The map builders provide a lot of ready made map templates and an easy-to-use interface for users to pinpoint location, modify colors, add labels and display information box. With digital map builder, you can customize maps with points of interest that appear as beautiful static or animated icons. For example, you can use air route icons to label and locate the airport and flight routes; transportation icons include icons of various transport facilities that can be used in logistics, tourism and transport industry. Those icons in the icons gallery are of high quality and you can even import your own custom icons in JPG, PNG or SWF format as per your requirement.

However, most of the digital map builders available in the market are designed for Windows Application, which means those Mac and Linux users will not be able to enjoy the ease-of-use and simplicity offered by those programs. Apart from that, users need to register a webhosting account prior to upload the Flash interactive map and make it publicly viewable, and embedding the map into some content management systems may not be possible sometimes as those systems will prevent you from adding the embed code.

Comparing to the traditional map program that is solely designed for Windows application, the advanced digital map builder doesnt leave out Mac and Linux users. All the maps are made via the browsers so there is no software to download and install, and the tool is free of any operating system conflicts. The user-friendly map builder is also compatible with different popular browsers such as Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. Besides, everyone entitles to a set of username and password upon registration; user can save the Flash map online directly and reopen the map in any computer with Internet connection. Unlike other map program in which web hosting signup is required to store the map, the digital map builder expedites your web hosting process dramatically. Once the map is published, a link will be shown for users to integrate the map into their website easily, or they can simply forward a directly link of the Flash map generated to others by email. No signup of web hosting service is needed. The most important thing is, you no longer need to worry about the maps will be gone in case your computer crashes. All maps are saved in the map server in which user can access to their saved creations anytime anywhere.

Here are the major features of web based digital map builder: - Allows editing of maps right from your browser, no need to download and install any program - Save your maps online and re-open it on any computer with Internet access - Easily embed the map into your existing HTML page/layout - Compatible with different Operating Systems such as Windows, Mac and Linux - Runs in various platforms - PC / Notebook / Netbook - Select the ready-made map template and simply customize it according to your preference - Map hosting is included - No prior map design skills or software tools required - Interactive map can be displayed on almost all major browsers with Adobe Flash Player plug-in installed

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