{"id":5824,"date":"2022-09-16T11:47:12","date_gmt":"2022-09-16T15:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.tlsrv.net\/?p=5824"},"modified":"2025-01-30T03:09:54","modified_gmt":"2025-01-30T11:09:54","slug":"how-do-you-create-interactive-maps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thinglink.com\/blog\/how-do-you-create-interactive-maps\/","title":{"rendered":"How do you Create Interactive Maps?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\"><em>&#8220;There are those who follow maps, and those who make them.&#8221; <\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">Alberto Villoldo&nbsp;<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How to create interactive maps<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>You don\u2019t need to invest in an expensive map tool to create a super useful and engaging interactive map. Until recently, if you wanted to create your own smart interactive map you needed coding experience and GIS (Geographic Information System) software. Today, anyone who wants to create an engaging interactive map now has access to a range of free and simple to use tools for making any map interactive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What is the benefit of an interactive map?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In short, making your maps, timelines and infographics interactive helps your audience with data visualization. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whilst maps can provide context to distance or place, they can also help to visualize and connect concepts. Interactive maps can help formulate ideas whilst engaging audiences with imagery, bespoke icons and themes.\u00a0Making a map interactive means it can provide an overview which links to further research, locations, points of interest, information or data sets. All in all a more helpful and engaging user experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<section class=\"tl-cta-block\"><h3>Meet a product expert<\/h3><p>If you\u2019d like to learn more about what ThingLink can offer to your organisation, you can schedule an online meeting with one of our product experts below.<\/p><button class=\"tl-button tl-button--white tl-button--small tl-cta-block__button\" data-link=\"https:\/\/enterprise.thinglink.com\/demo-dee\/\">Meet an Expert<\/button><\/section>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Interactive custom maps<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>If you want to make your own custom interactive map, there are free and easy to use tools to help you. One of our favourites is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.canva.com\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"www.canva.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Canva<\/a>. It contains thousands of easy to adapt templates and layouts which you could use as background to your own map, as well as tutorials and guides for beginners. Tip: Their basic plan is free but take a look at their pricing for Canva Pro which gives you access to their gigantic image library and even more great features.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can use Canva to put your own map into the style and colours that align with your own branding or web design<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Embedding information into your interactive map<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The simplicity of the ThingLink editor means anyone can use it as an interactive map creator tool, making your map an interactive experience! You can embed a huge range of content into the tags in your map &#8211; from text and high-resolution images to video, Google sheets or forms, quizzes, games and inline links. You can even embed a Google map within your map! Using the simple text and media tag, information is supplied as a popup when the user opens any tag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Learn more: See six interactive map styles in action below for helpful use cases and examples &#8211; including world maps for the shipping industry, spooky halloween maps, state maps of museums and galleries and more!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thinglink.com\/blog\/six-examples-of-interactive-maps\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thinglink.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Interactive-content-blog-image-1024x576.png\" alt=\"6 examples of interactive maps using thinglink\" class=\"wp-image-5855\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thinglink.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Interactive-content-blog-image-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.thinglink.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Interactive-content-blog-image-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/www.thinglink.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Interactive-content-blog-image-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/www.thinglink.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Interactive-content-blog-image-1536x864.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.thinglink.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Interactive-content-blog-image-576x324.png 576w, https:\/\/www.thinglink.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Interactive-content-blog-image.png 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">6 examples of interactive and dynamic maps using ThingLink<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Once you become an interactive map maker, you can share your map!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>There are a number of ways you can <a href=\"https:\/\/support.thinglink.com\/hc\/en-us\/sections\/360003789974-Publishing-ThingLink-Content\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">share your interactive ThingLink maps<\/a>. Use the generated embed code to insert your map into your web page, LMS, wordpress blog or similar. You can alternatively generate a link to share to social media and your favourite mobile apps, or use the handy QR code generator. Wherever your ThingLink is shared or embedded, it will update in real-time. So if for example you need to update a place name, wanted to change an image, or add or change data points embedded in your map, you can be confident that your content would be instantly updated, everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Where can I get further ideas for my maps?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>For more inspiration, make sure you\u2019re following us on social media. In particular, please do join our&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/ThingLinkEducation\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook Education Group<\/a>&nbsp;and our&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/groups\/9054683\/\" target=\"_blank\">LinkedIn Community.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<section class=\"tl-cta-block\"><h3>Start a ThingLink free trial<\/h3><p>To start creating your own interactive content today, sign up for a free ThingLink trial today!<\/p><button class=\"tl-button tl-button--white tl-button--small tl-cta-block__button\" data-link=\"https:\/\/www.thinglink.com\">start your free trial<\/button><\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;There are those who follow maps, and those who make them.&#8221; Alberto Villoldo&nbsp; How to create interactive maps You don\u2019t need to invest in an expensive&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":5825,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[564,491,566,567,568],"tags":[156,209,542,545,546,161,210,158,216],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thinglink.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5824"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thinglink.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thinglink.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thinglink.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thinglink.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5824"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.thinglink.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10967,"href":"https:\/\/www.thinglink.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5824\/revisions\/10967"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thinglink.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thinglink.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thinglink.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thinglink.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}