what is annotated map

Essential annotation and graphic text concepts

Making a map with annotation, geodatabase annotation, feature-linked geodatabase annotation, map document annotation, graphic text, reference scale, other annotation types.

Annotation is one option in ArcGIS for storing text to place on your maps. With annotation, each piece of text* stores its own position, text string, and display properties. Dynamic labels are the other primary option for storing text. If the exact position of each piece of text is important, then you should store your text as annotation. ArcGIS fully supports two types of annotation: geodatabase and map document. ArcGIS also supports the display and conversion of other annotation types including ArcInfo coverage and computer-aided design (CAD).

Labels are the main alternative to annotation. A label's text and position are generated dynamically according to a set of placement rules.

Learn more about labels

*Although annotation is mainly used to maintain the persistence of pieces of text placed on or around a map; both geodatabase annotation and map document annotation also support the storage of graphic shapes.

Learn more about graphics

The following steps provide a workflow that you can follow to use annotation in your maps.

If you don't have annotation, you can label features in ArcMap and convert the labels to annotation.

Learn more about labeling

If you have coverage, CAD, or other annotation formats and want your annotation to be editable or linked to features, convert them to geodatabase annotation using ArcToolbox.

Learn more about importing annotation

Learn more about editing the appearance of annotation features

Learn more about map document annotation and adding new text to a map

Learn more about the editing tools in ArcMap

Learn more about positioning map document annotation and moving, rotating, and ordering graphics

Learn more about managing annotation feature classes

Geodatabase annotation elements are stored in special types of feature classes inside the geodatabase. If you want editable text that you can use in many maps, you should store your text in geodatabase annotation feature classes. You can create geodatabase annotation feature classes in either ArcMap or ArcCatalog.

Storing annotation in a geodatabase is similar to storing geographic features—lines, points, and polygons—in a geodatabase. You can add annotation stored in a geodatabase to any map, and it appears as an annotation layer in the ArcMap table of contents.

Like other feature classes in a geodatabase, all features in an annotation feature class have a geographic location, extent, and attributes. Annotation feature classes can be inside a feature dataset, or they can be stand-alone feature classes in a geodatabase. However, annotation features differ from simple features in that each annotation feature has its own symbology.

Geodatabase annotation can be standard or feature linked. Standard annotation elements are pieces of geographically placed text that are not formally associated with features in the geodatabase. For example, you might have a piece of standard annotation that represents a mountain range—the annotation simply marks the general area on the map. Feature-linked annotation is a special type of geodatabase annotation that is directly linked to the features that are being annotated by a geodatabase relationship class.

Learn more about geodatabase annotation

• When a new feature is created, new annotation is automatically created. You can turn this off when you create a feature-linked annotation feature class.
• If you move a feature, the annotation for that feature moves with it.
• If you edit a feature, the annotation for that feature will maintain its relationship with the feature. You can turn this off when you create a feature-linked annotation feature class.
• If you change an attribute of the feature on which the annotation text is based, the annotation text changes.
• If you delete the feature, the annotation is deleted.

An annotation class can be linked to only one feature class, but a feature class can have any number of linked annotation feature classes.

There are several ways to create feature-linked annotation. First, if you have defined a feature-linked annotation feature class, then as you create features using the editing tools in ArcMap, annotation is created for these features automatically.

Second, you can also use the Annotate selected features command in ArcMap to add linked annotation to existing features.

Finally, you can convert labels to feature-linked annotation in ArcMap or use the ArcToolbox annotation conversion tools to create feature-linked annotation from coverage or CAD annotation.

Learn more about feature-linked annotation

Map document annotation is stored inside the map document (.mxd). If you have a relatively small amount of editable text, and that text will only be used in a single map, you should store your text as map document annotation. Map document annotation is best organized using annotation groups. You can create annotation groups in ArcMap by using the Draw toolbar.

• Learn about organizing annotation into groups
• Learn about the differences between annotation groups and geodatabase annotation

Graphic text is useful for adding information on and around your map that exists in page space—as opposed to annotation, which is stored in geographic space. Dynamic text is a type of graphic text that, when placed on a map layout, will change dynamically based on the current properties of the map document, data frame, or Data Driven Page. If you want to place text information on your map page that does not move as you zoom and pan on your map, you should use graphic text. Graphic text can only be added to ArcMap in layout view.

All annotation stored in geodatabase annotation classes and most annotation stored in map annotation groups have a reference scale. Regardless of the map scale, text with a reference scale always takes up the same amount of geographic space on the map. The reference scale is a mechanism that allows you to specify a text size in page units (for example, points). The reference scale is simply the scale at which annotation text will appear on the page or screen at its symbol size.

For example, if you have an annotation group with a reference scale of 1:100,000 and it contains several pieces of 12-point text, when that text is displayed on a map of the same scale, the text on the page or screen will be exactly 12 points. At scales smaller than 1:100,000, the text will be smaller than 12 points on the page or screen, and at scales larger than 1:100,000, the text will be larger than 12 points.

Zero is a special value for an annotation group reference scale. Text with a reference scale of zero always appears at the same page size, regardless of the map scale. Therefore, if you have 12-point text stored in an annotation group with a reference scale of zero, the text will appear on your map at 12 points, regardless of the scale of the map.

• Setting a zero reference scale for an annotation group makes the annotation scale like dynamic labels (constant page size). This is useful when making interactive maps.
• Set the scale of the data frame to the scale you want to use as the reference scale.
• Right-click the data frame in the table of contents and click Reference Scale > Set Reference Scale .
• You cannot specify a zero reference scale for geodatabase annotation classes.

ArcGIS also supports the display and conversion of several annotation formats including ArcInfo Workstation coverage, Vector Product Format (VPF), CAD, PC ARC/INFO, and SDE 3.x annotation. You can add these types of annotation directly to ArcMap and change most annotation layer symbology properties. For these formats, however, you cannot change the symbology for individual pieces of annotation, and you cannot edit the annotation positions or text strings. If you need these properties, convert your annotation to geodatabase annotation or map document annotation using the ArcToolbox annotation conversion tools. You can also use these tools to create coverage annotation from geodatabase annotation.

• Learn more about importing coverage or CAD annotation into geodatabase annotation
• Learn more about importing SDE 3, VPF, or PC ARC/INFO coverage annotation

Earth Outreach

Annotating google earth desktop, tutorial contents, prerequisites, let's get started, add placemarks, add polygons, organize your places with folders, embed images in your balloons, embed youtube videos in your balloons, save your project and share with others, discussion and feedback, what's next.

Absolutely no programming skills needed!

In April 2017, Google Earth on Web was released, which puts Earth on the browser. However, for this tutorial, you will need Earth for Desktop installed on your computer. Download the latest version here .

Open Google Earth Pro on your computer. You can download the latest version here .

Google Earth will fly you to the White Mountains region.

Click on the “X” below the Search Panel to clear the map of all the results:

Find the toolbar above the 3D viewer:

Each button on the toolbar has a purpose. Find the tools for create a placemark, path, and polygon:

Let's add data!

Move your placemark's location by clicking and dragging its icon, or by typing a latitude and longitude into the New Placemark dialog box.

In the New Placemark dialog box, type in a name for the placemark in the Name field. In this example, we typed “Bristlecone Pine Tree”.

Type in a description for the placemark in the Description field, which will be displayed when a user clicks on the placemark. In this example, we typed “This is one of the world's oldest living trees.”

Click on the icon button in the top-right corner of the window, and choose an icon for your placemark and press OK . In this example, we chose a tree icon.

Click on the Style, Color tab, and choose a color, scale (or size), and opacity for the placemark icon and label text. In this example, we choose to change our label color to green.

When you are finished creating your placemark, click OK and your placemark will appear in the Places panel. When you click on your placemark's icon or hyperlinked name in Google Earth, a pop-up balloon will appear with your placemark's name and description.

To edit a placemark's location, name, or description, right-click on the placemark in the 3D viewer or in the Places panel, and choose Properties (on a PC) or Get Info (on a Mac). Click-and-drag the icon to change the location, or edit the name and description and click OK .

Click on a series of places on the map to form a path. Each time you click, a new node is added to your path. You can also click-and-drag to create frequent nodes, which makes a smoother path. In this example, we will create a path marking the tree line.

In the New Path dialog box, type in a name for the path in the Name field. In this example, we typed “Tree Line”.

Click on the Style, Color tab, and choose a color, width, and opacity for the path. In this example, we choose a dark green color, a width of 5.0, and an opacity of 75%.

To edit a path's location, name, or description, right-click on the path in the 3D viewer or in the Places panel, and choose Properties (on a PC) or Get Info (on a Mac). Then you can edit the title and description and click OK . Right-click your mouse to delete recently-created nodes. You can also click-and-drag any nodes to reshape the path.

Click on a series of places on the map to form a polygon. Each time you click, a new node is added to your polygon. You can also click-and-drag to create frequent nodes, which makes a smoother boundary to your polygon. In this example, we will create a polygon around the White Mountains (you may have to zoom out to see the entire mountain range).

In the New Polygon dialog box, type in a name for the polygon in the Name field. In this example, we typed “White Mountains”.

Type in a description for the polygon in the Description field, which will be displayed in the polygon's pop-up balloon. In this example, we typed “The White Mountains are home to Bristlecone Pine Trees.”

Click on the Style, Color tab, and choose a color, width, and opacity for the boundary lines. Choose a color and opacity for your polygon area, and determine if you want the polygon filled and outlined, only filled, or only outlined. In this example, we chose green colors, a line width of “10.0”, and medium opacities.

Click on the Altitude tab, and change the altitude mode to “Relative to ground” (for more information on altitude modes, see the KML Reference guide ). Then move the slider to increase altitude, or height, of the polygon if desired. Check the box to extend the sides, or walls of the polygon, to the ground.

To edit a polygon's location, name, or description, right-click on the path in the 3D viewer or in the Places panel, and choose Properties (on a PC) or Get Info (on a Mac). Then you can edit the title and description and click OK . Right-click your mouse to delete recently-created nodes. You can also click-and-drag any nodes to reshape the polygon.

Polygons can be used as 3D bar graphs in Google Earth. One example is The USHMM's Crisis in Darfur layer , which uses polygons to represent number of refugees and displaced people.

To add a folder, go to the Add menu and select Folder

In the New Folder dialog box, type in a name for the folder in the Name field. In this example, we typed “My Google Earth Project”.

Click OK. Your new folder is added to the Places panel.

Click-and-drag each place (your placemarks, paths, and polygons) into the folder to organize your project.

To play a tour of all the items in the folder by the order in which they are listed, click the Play Folder button:

To edit a folder's name or description, right-click on the folder in the Places panel, and choose Properties (on a PC) or Get Info (on a Mac).

Google Earth balloons can be customized using HTML. You can add font sizes, styles, and colors, links, tables, and images into your balloons by including it as HTML in the Description .

Choose a placemark you've already created, such as the placemark created earlier in this tutorial.

To edit the placemark, right-click on the placemark in the 3D viewer or in the Places panel, and choose Properties (on a PC) or Get Info (on a Mac).

Click on the “Add web image...” button, and copy and paste the following image URL (which references an online photo of a bristlecone pine tree) into the Image URL box. Then click OK .

http://earth.google.com/outreach/images/stories_adelia3.jpg

You will see the HTML code for the image automatically entered into the Description field.

On a new line add the text “<p>For more information about Bristlecone Pine trees, see the White Mountain Research Station.”

Select the text “White Mountain Research Station” and click on the “Add link...” button. Copy and paste the following URL (which reference the URL of the research station) into the Link URL box. Then click OK .

'http://www.wmrc.edu/'

You will now see the HTML code for the link automatically entered around the text you highlighted in the Description field.

Click OK to finish editing the placemark.

Click on the placemark in the 3D viewer, and you will see the image, text, and link in the placemark's balloon!

To add an image saved on your computer click on the “Add local image” button in the Description section of your placemark. You can then select photos from your photo library as well as images from your folders to add to your placemark’s balloon.

You can use a program like Adobe Dreamweaver or freeware NVU to preview the balloon design as you edit the HTML code.

The Spreadsheet Mapper tool based allows you to easily apply an HTML design template to the balloons of up to 400 placemarks. You can choose from six designs, and easily set the colors, style, images, and logos. See the Spreadsheet Mapper tutorial to learn how to do this!

You can easily embed a YouTube video into a placemark balloon in Google Earth.

Upload your video to YouTube or choose a video that's already uploaded.

On the YouTube video's webpage, find the Share button and click it to see more options. Find the Embed button and click it to see more options. Look for the checklist of options below the html code and select the option for “Use old embed code”. Now copy the HTML code. The code looks similar to this:

In the Description field, paste the YouTube HTML code which you copied in Step 2.

Now when you click on the placemark, its balloon has the YouTube video!

Google Earth allows you to save your project to your computer in the .kmz file format.

Right-click on your project folder, and select Save Place As... or click on the folder and then go to the File menu, and select Save Place As...

Enter a name for your .kmz file, and click Save to save it to your computer. You will now find your KMZ file on your computer.

You can share the map you created by emailing the .kmz file to your friends and co-workers, or posting it on your website with a link to download it.

A Google Earth project file is a KML file, with a filetype extension of .kml or .kmz. KMZ files are compressed files that are smaller than KML files. If you used any custom images or photos from your computer, Google Earth will include them in compressed KMZ files so that others can see them too. We recommend saving your Google Earth projects as .kmz for a smaller file.

When you save your Google Earth KML project file to your computer, it is private. If you upload the file to a web server, or e-mail it your friend or colleague, then it is no longer private. This is similar to putting any file, such as a PDF file, up on the web or e-mailing it to someone.

Have questions about this tutorial? Want to give us some feedback? Visit the Google Earth Help Community to discuss it with others.

See all tutorials .

What are some common mistakes to avoid when annotating a map and how?

Map annotation errors can result in misleading information, compromised route planning, incorrect object recognition, and ultimately affect the reliability and performance of the models. You need to understand and avoid these errors to produce high-quality training data. Annotating maps is a crucial function in the training of AI/ML models for applications that rely on geospatial data.

It can be for autonomous driving, urban planning, logistics, environmental monitoring, geospatial analysis, and empowering location-based services. And therefore, any mistake can lead to inaccurate predictions or legal and ethical consequences. In this article, we will explore some of the most common mistakes to avoid when annotating a map and provide practical solutions to overcome them.

Common mistakes in map annotation

Errors can seep into map annotation through various means; it could be due to human error, technical limitations, lack of guidelines, inadequate training, quality control measures, and much more. Here are some of the common mistakes and how you can avoid them.

Inconsistent labeling — Inconsistent map annotation can significantly impact the performance and reliability of machine learning (ML) models. It leads to reduced accuracy, increased bias, rework, and resource wastage. It happens when the annotators are not on the same page due to using different criteria or interpretations.

For example, different annotators may be using different sizes, shapes, or placement of annotations for similar objects or regions.

• Enforce consistency in labeling practices by establishing clear naming conventions and standardized terminology.
• Provide clear and detailed annotation guidelines and standardize the annotation style.
• Conduct regular training sessions and encourage annotators to refer to the guidelines frequently.
• Implement quality control measures to check for consistency and provide feedback to annotators when inconsistencies are identified.

Failure to address ambiguity — Ambiguities can arise in map annotation due to various factors like unclear boundaries between road segments where annotators often get confused in deciding where one segment ends and the next starts. Also differentiating between similar map features like bike lanes, sidewalks, and footpaths gets tricky.

Other ambiguities could be subjective classification where often the annotators are unable to decide whether an area should be classified as residential or commercial. Even interpreting complex intersections poses a challenge.

• Develop guidelines that address common ambiguous cases encountered during map annotation
• Continuously train annotators and provide them with access to domain experts who can offer guidance on ambiguous cases
• Encourage annotators to provide feedback on ambiguous cases they encounter
• Provide guidelines for seeking clarification or additional information when needed
• Encourage collaboration and communication among annotators to resolve any ambiguities collectively

Neglecting contextual information — Additional information and context enhance the usefulness of annotated maps. Map users look for contextual information like the historical significance of a particular location, tourists may need information on museums, public transport, weather conditions, and so on.

Contextual information enables users to leverage map data to its fullest. Not including such information in map annotation can lead to confusion, reduced usability, and lower trust in the map.

• Emphasize the importance of considering contextual information when annotating maps
• Provide additional information or reference sources to help annotators understand the broader context and make informed annotation decisions
• Understand the purpose of the map and the intended audience to determine the relevant contextual information needed
• Focus on important points of interest and add descriptions that would help map users
• Be careful not to overstuff the map with annotations, as this can make it challenging for users to read and understand the data

Insufficient training and quality control — Annotators not well trained in map annotation can lower the accuracy and usability of annotated maps. They may find it difficult to identify labeling map features and end up presenting incorrect information. There could be missed annotations, as a lack of training can lead to missing out on critical features or contextual information from the map.

Inadequate quality control might cause errors in the annotation process to go undetected, endangering the map’s data integrity. Users may stop believing that the information on the map is accurate. They may look for different maps or sources that provide more accurate information.

• Provide thorough training to annotators, covering the annotation guidelines, tools, and best practices .
• Train annotators in a way that they have clarity on the need for accurate map annotation.
• Determine any training gaps where annotators could want more assistance. Fill in these gaps by providing specialized training or coaching.
• Conduct workshops and seminars to train the annotators
• Implement quality control measures, such as regular audits, double-checking, and feedback loops, to ensure accuracy and reliability.

Not updating annotations — Information about geographical locations may alter over time as a result of new construction, infrastructure improvements, or climatic changes. Annotations may not accurately reflect the current situation in the area if they are not updated, which could result in errors on the map.

Also, they may contain information that is no longer useful misleads users and impairs their capacity to use the information to make wise judgments. Not updating annotations can also pose safety hazards for people who rely on maps for navigation as there could be road closures or construction projects.

• To limit the consequences of not updating annotations, a strategy for regular map maintenance and data updates must be established.
• Implementing a method for timely annotation review and validation ensures that the map remains accurate, up-to-date, and dependable for users.
• Monitoring changes in the geographic area regularly and swiftly updating annotations as needed is critical to preserving the map’s quality and usability.
• Automate the process of adding the latest information and updates to the map annotations, if at all feasible. APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) or data feeds from reliable sources can be used to do this.
• Establish contact with local governments or relevant organizations to receive timely updates on developments in the area, such as new infrastructure projects or road closures.
• Encourage annotators to stay updated with changes in the map data and make necessary revisions to the annotations.

Lack of review and feedback — It is possible for annotators to miss their errors or to be unaware of best practices. In the absence of a review procedure, errors in the annotations may go undetected, spreading inaccuracy. Without diligent verification of the completeness of annotations, map annotators may omit vital information. This could lead to incomplete data on the map and users losing trust. Further, map annotations may contain sensitive or private information in some instances. If annotations are not reviewed, it might lead to potential privacy violations.

• Establish evaluation criteria based on the goals, regulations, and standards of the map
• Find qualified reviewers with knowledge in geography, cartography, or the particular field related to the map
• Reviewers need to be well-versed in the project goals and annotation requirements
• Implement a review process where annotations are double-checked by experienced annotators or supervisors
• Provide constructive feedback to annotators to help them improve their skills and avoid recurring mistakes
• Collect comments from users or other stakeholders who use the annotated maps
• Take into account their feedback to spot any inconsistencies or areas for development and modify the annotation process as necessary
• Based on the regularity of map updates and local changes, establish a schedule for periodic reviews

Insufficient data coverage — Lack of data coverage could cause important features or locations to be missed or unlabeled on the map. This may result in an incomplete portrayal of the region and the omission of significant landmarks. Also, annotators may rely on incomplete or out-of-date information, which could lead to inaccurate or deceptive map content. Inadequate data may result in a lack of contextual information for annotations where users may fail to understand the purpose or relevance of labeled characteristics. Such maps are not effective as navigation or information tools and also restrict the analytical capabilities of the map.

• Ensure that annotators cover a variety of geographic regions, environmental conditions, and object types
• Consider stratified sampling techniques to guarantee adequate data coverage
• Locate trustworthy and authentic data sources relevant to the geographic area being mapped
• Government agencies, satellite imagery providers, geographic databases, and community-contributed data may be among these sources
• Create a data collection plan in line with the objectives and intended use of the map
• Create systems for integrating data from several sources into the map annotation process
• It may be necessary to use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) tools to integrate information and ensure data consistency
• Consider incorporating open data initiatives and crowdsourcing into existing datasets
• Open data platforms can provide valuable data for annotation, and crowdsourcing enables users to contribute their local expertise and updates

Overlooking metadata annotation — Metadata assists in attributing data to its source, which is essential for recognizing data providers and adhering to usage terms. Ignoring metadata annotation may result in data abuse or a violation of data usage rights. Metadata also identifies the date of data collection or last update, ensuring that users are aware of the relevancy of the data.

It also provides context-specific information about the data, its limitations, and the data collection methodologies. Ignoring metadata annotation can result in misinterpretation and improper application of the data. By properly annotating metadata, mapmakers can improve the transparency, dependability, and efficacy of their maps, ensuring that users have access to credible data.

• Encourage data providers to provide comprehensive metadata, and establish a process for validating and documenting metadata
• Define and communicate the metadata requirements clearly to annotators
• Include guidelines for annotating metadata alongside object or region annotations.
• Create a metadata template that captures all the data for each map dataset. This template will let annotators record metadata.

Ignoring scale and resolution — Ignoring scale can lead to inaccurate map annotations. Certain characteristics may be exaggerated or ignored, resulting in an inaccurate portrayal of the geographic area. Annotators who fail to consider the map’s scale and resolution may add excessive detail or label small features that become illegible or cluttered at smaller scales. This reduces the readability and interpretability of the map.

Users may be unable to comprehend the spatial relationships between various features, impairing their ability to navigate or interpret the map. This can also result in poor cartographic design, with annotations that do not complement the layout and purpose of the map as a whole.

• Remind annotators to consider the scale and resolution of the map when annotating features
• Differentiate between features that may vary in size or visibility at different scales, ensuring accurate representation across different zoom levels
• To assure legibility, adjust the size of annotations based on the map’s scale. At lesser scales, it may be necessary to use larger fonts and symbols to maintain readability
• Ensure that annotations are readily readable by users by evaluating their legibility at various scales. Consider the limitations of human vision and make any necessary modifications
• Be wary of annotating the map excessively, particularly at smaller scales. Maintain sufficient white space to preserve the map’s clarity and aesthetic value
• Regularly examine the annotations at different scales and test the map with a variety of users to collect feedback on its legibility and clarity

Overgeneralization and oversimplification — When you oversimplify or overgeneralize, you can lose sight of important features on the map. Important details, locations, or characteristics may be left out or shown in a way that leaves out important information. Too much generalization can distort the way geographic traits are shown, leading to mistakes. This can confuse people who use maps and make them a less trustworthy source of information.

Some simplification may be needed to keep the map from being too busy, but too much simplification can make the map less useful and less helpful. Maps with labels that are too general or too simple may not be good for specific uses, like urban planning or emergency response, where specific information is very important.

• Encourage annotators to pay attention to details and avoid oversimplifying complex map features
• Provide guidelines for capturing different levels of detail, depending on the application requirements
• Make it clear what the map is for and how it will be used. Different applications may need annotations with different amounts of detail and complexity
• Aim for a balance between supplying sufficient information without cluttering the map
• Identify and prioritize essential features or landmarks for the map
• Focus on accurately representing these critical elements without unnecessary simplification

Best practices for map annotation

• Consider map purpose and audience — Determine the level of depth, scale, and complexity needed for the annotations by learning about the map’s intended use and audience
• Use hierarchical annotation — Hierarchical annotations decrease clutter and prioritize crucial information. Prioritize primary information above secondary details
• Adapt annotations to scale — Adapt annotations to various map scales to preserve readability and relevance. Provide more specific annotations for larger-scale maps and more general ones for smaller-scale maps
• Maintain consistency — Use identical symbols, colours, and fonts for map features. Consistency aids in map readability and comprehension
• Include metadata — Add metadata for the data used in the map, such as data source, collection date, and data accuracy. This gives users essential context information
• Validate annotations — Compare annotations to authoritative data sources or on-site observations to confirm their accuracy
• Use clear labels — Ensure that labels for features are legible, well-placed, and clear to avoid confusion and misinterpretation
• Avoid overcrowding — Be careful not to jam too many annotations into the map. Maintain enough white space to keep the map looking neat and uncluttered
• Collaborate with experts — Involve subject matter experts in annotation to accurately portray specialized features or data
• Test with users — Get user feedback on annotation usability and efficacy. User testing improves the map and matches user needs
• Avoid misleading representations — Make sure symbols and images appropriately reflect feature attributes and spatial relationships
• Use colour wisely — Highlight essential information and distinguish features or data categories with colour

Also read: 8 Ways Parcel Mapping is Changing the Game for Real Estate

Effective map annotation is crucial for providing users with accurate, clear, and informative representations of geographic data. However, certain common mistakes can undermine the map’s usability and credibility. To avoid these pitfalls, mapmakers must prioritize data quality, validation, and contextual information. Striking a balance between overgeneralization and oversimplification ensures that annotations cater to the map’s purpose and target audience.

Employing progressive disclosure techniques and adhering to cartographic design principles help maintain clarity and readability across different scales.

Collaboration with subject matter experts and user testing provides valuable insights for improving annotation accuracy and relevance. By embracing these best practices, mapmakers can create compelling maps that effectively communicate vital information, support informed decision-making, and enhance the overall user experience. Ultimately, avoiding common mistakes leads to maps that stand as reliable, informative, and invaluable tools for navigating the world’s diverse landscapes.

Written by Hitech BPO

Official Medium Account of Hitech BPO. Sharing news, updates & information about data solutions. https://www.hitechbpo.com

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HOW-TO: Make your own annotated multimedia Google map

One of the great things about Google maps is it has its roots in XML. To translate for the non-web developers out there, it basically means Google maps are user hackable. This how-to will show you how to make your own annotated Google map from your own GPS data. Plus, you'll be able to tie in images and video to create an interactive multimedia map. We'll walk you through the steps we took to generate an annotated map of a walk we took recently through our hometown, now that it's actually starting to get warm enough to want to walk about!

I saw this post by Jon Udell, in which he does a screencast of an annotated walking tour through Keene, NH. Screencast goodness aside, I wanted to figure out how he made the map and how to simplify the process so that the non-web geek could attempt it without too much trouble. The geekiest bit will be where we edit our XML file, but you can essentially think of it just like editing a plain old text file — it looks like garbledy-gook, but it's not actually rocket science. If you're new to web development or new to XML, don't worry — we'll walk you through it as best we can. Ready? Let's dive in!

GPS device. Though, technically, you can even do without this if you don't have one — unless you're travelling off the beaten path, you can use Geocode.com to convert the nearest street address to latitude and longitude data.

Digital camera, if you wish to capture media for your map.

Computer of any flavor that will run Firefox .

A place to store your files online; we'll talk more about this later. If you have access to a web server, you're all set. Otherwise, we'll give some suggestions about free hosting options.

The Firefox browser.

The Greasemonkey Firefox plug-in

The Google maps user annotation script .

Text editor to edit your XML file; plenty of free options across operating systems. We use the free TextWrangler on our Mac, and jEdit on our Windows PC.

Getting started

Before we get in to how it's done, let's look at the results. Fire up Firefox and install the Greasemonkey Firefox plug-in that allows you to inject some dynamic behavior into viewed web pages; you'll have to restart Firefox for it to take effect. Relaunch Firefox, and install the Google maps user annotation script by simply clicking right-clicking on the link (CTRL-click for one-button mouse Mac users) in this sentence and choosing "Install user scripts..." Then, load up the URL of our annotated Ithaca map in a new tab so you can switch back to this how-to easily. Click on the "Display Points" link, and you'll zoom in to our annotated Ithaca walk.

This map works like any other Google map, except for the fact that we've created it ourselves and added media to it. You can click on a waypoint to get more information, or generate driving directions to and from points as usual. When you click on one of our points, you'll notice it will have either a picture or a movie link associated with it:

The best way to follow the map tour is to right-click (CTRL-click Mac) and open the media file in a separate browser tab, because following a link and clicking the back button will break the script and revert the map back to its default state, from which you'll have to click the "Display Points" link and start all over again. If you right-click the "movie" link in the above example, you'll see a 30 second 360-degree video we took from the center of the Ithaca Commons. If you right-click on the "1 more" link it will open a tab with a Google query ("Ithaca Commons") we've also linked to — you can add links to any URL on the web, not just your media files. Load up a waypoint with a "picture" link, right-click on it and you'll see an image we shot at that location.

Now that we've seen what we're about to create, let's get started.

We'll leave the finer details of collecting your media files and waypoints up to you — that's the easy part. Just gather your GPS and camera and have at it, or take your images and geolocate them later using Geocode.com if you prefer that method. Similarly, we'll let you handle the editing and preparation of your images and video files, and start in at the nitty-gritty stage.

You'll need a place to host your media files and the XML file we're going to create that specifies your map data. If you already have a Flickr account, you can host images there, and if you don't have one, we highly recommend it as a value-added image hosting service. You can host up to 100 images for free, and link to them from elsewhere.

To host video, and to host our XML file, you'll need access to a web server that allows you to FTP upload files. If you already have a web site or a blog that allows you to upload files, you're set - you can upload all media and your XML there. Otherwise, there are still free web hosting services out there you can use in a pinch for making a few of these maps. Ye olde Angelfire is still kickin' it as a free service with 20MB of space. Yes, you have to navigate a minefield of opt-out checkboxes to get there but it takes all of about five minutes to set up a free account and upload your XML file, which you can safely link to from Google maps without incurring the evil spector of the sponsored ads (we tested this to be sure!). You could host some images and video there, as well, if you're only making one or a few maps. Or, ask around and get recommendations of other free web hosts — most are evil, but if you don't give them any real metadata about yourself you should be able to emerge unscathed.

Now, you've made and uploaded your media files to wherever they may roam. You'll need to know the fully-qualified URL of any media file you wish to link to, as well as your (coming next) XML file. That's as good a sequeway as any — let's dive in to the meat of this project: creating our XML file.

If you've seen HTML, XML looks pretty much the same: parameters surrounded by opening and closing tags. We'll show you an example of how to make two different waypoints, one with an associated image and one with associated video, and show you the minimal rest of the document structure. You can download the following example waypoints file by right-clicking and saving it to disk, then modifying it to make your own map. It includes one waypoint with an associated image and one with an associated video, matching the first two stops on our Ithaca map.

Here's what the entire XML file looks like with only one waypoint — all the stuff between the tags defines the waypoint. The stuff before and after is just the "shell" of the entire document.

You'll want to download the sample file and replace the following parameters to match your own map settings:

Enter a title for your map here

Just duplicate the title here

defines the GPS coordinates the map will center in on when you click the "Display Points" link - just choose a central waypoint for the area your map covers.

Next, let's zero in on what one waypoint looks like, and what changes you'll need to make for each of your points:

Here's what you'll need to edit for each waypoint:

— For ordering and differentiating your waypoints, change id="A" to correspond alphabetically to the order in which you wish to place your waypoints. The third point would be id="C" and so on. Note that you can include any number of waypoints on your map, but Google only provides 10 default marker images: A through J.

— Replace this with the latitude and longitude data generated from your GPS. Note that for small projects like this it is simpler to track and add these points manually, but if you're handy with Perl you can auto-generate a lot of this XML from a list of coordinates. More info here .

— As with the first bullet point, replace "markerA.png" with the approproate letter to correspond with your waypoint's order in the map: markerB.png, markerC.png, and so on — up to J, past which you'll have to make your own markers to link to.

Tompkins County Public Library — Replace with your own title for this waypoint.

— This defines the address displayed underneath the title in the popup balloon that results from clicking your waypoint. It is also the basis for getting driving directions to or from this point, so you can use the nearest real street address if you want to have this functionality in your map.

http;//media.weblogsinc.com/common/videos/barb/googlemaps/1library.jpg — this defines the URL of the image or video file you wish to link to, or any other URL you wish to link to from this waypoint. (note: replaced : with ; to prevent url autolink in this example)

picture — this will be the text that gets linked in the popup balloon; picture, movie, or link will be common terms here.

http;//www.google.com/search?q=tompkins+county+public+library+ithaca — You can add more than one URL reference to each waypoint. This second URL is the one that gets linked from the "1 more" link in the popup balloon. Change it to whatever additional link or file you wish to link to.

parked here! — This defines the "sub-head" descriptive text you see under the waypoint title in the right-hand pane of the map.

To add another waypoint to the map, just cut and paste everything starting from the opening tag until after the end of the closing tag from your first waypoint, then modify the same bits of data as detailed in the list above for this new waypoint. The entire collection of waypoints lives sandwiched in between the opening bit of code:

And the closing tiny bit of code:

Still with me? That is the bulk of the magic behind the annotation. When you've finished stringing together all your waypoints and have nestled them between the opening and closing bits, save the resulting final file as your_map.xml or similar. Then, upload that XML file to whatever web host you've chosen. After this, you should be able to load up the following URL in your Greasemonkey-enabled Firefox browser:

http://maps.google.com/?loc=http://yourhost.com/path/to/your/files/yourmap.xml

Your URL is similar to ours (http://maps.google.com/?loc= http://media.weblogsinc.com/common/videos/barb/googlemaps/ithaca_walk.xml) but replacing the URL after the "?loc=" with your own XML file. It is the combination of Greasemonkey and the Google maps user annotation script that add this function to Firefox to feed an external XML file to Google maps — although there are other methods of achieving the same goal, this way is very simple.

Click the "Display Points" link and Google maps should zoom in to whatever you listed as your center point, as described above. Then, follow along on your own annotated map tour courtesy of Google maps.

Going further

This is just the tip of the iceberg of what can be done with hacking Google maps. Work up a script to import and convert your GPS data automagically from the output of your GPS. If you're handy with javascript, you can add all sorts of dynamic actions such as panning and following into your maps. Or, include your custom Google map on your own web page . You can get your custom maps working in other browsers besides Firefox, as well — we just chose the Greasemonkey method as being easy enough to do even if you've no experience with XML. For other ideas, try hunting around in the GoogleMapsHacking wiki .

And of course, don't forget to post a link to your hacked Google map!

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The learning network | skills and strategies | annotating to engage, analyze, connect and create.

Skills and Strategies | Annotating to Engage, Analyze, Connect and Create

Academic Skills

Teaching Ideas Based on New York Times Content.

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What do your students think annotation looks like? For many, it probably begins and ends with the image of an assigned novel bristling with yellow Post-its.

But to annotate simply means to add a note to a text — whether marginalia in a book, or a comment on Facebook or YouTube. Even if they don’t realize they’re doing it, young people are annotating constantly as a natural way of engaging with the world.

In this post we hope to both expand their definition of what annotation can be and inspire them to experiment with new ways of doing it — in class and out.

What Does It Mean to Annotate? Expanding the Definition

An annotation is a note added to a book, drawing or any other kind of text as a comment or explanation. It is an age-old learning practice, older than books themselves, one used by medieval scribes in the very process of transcription.

For many, it is a natural extension of reading. As Sam Anderson puts it in a 2011 essay for The Times Magazine, his college habit of making notes in the margins of books “quickly began to feel, for me, like something more intense: a way to not just passively read but to fully enter a text, to collaborate with it, to mingle with an author on some kind of primary textual plane.”

For teachers, it can be a technique to slow readers down, deepen their engagement and aid in comprehension and analysis, skills few need to be convinced matter in the era of the Common Core. For students, though, that exercise can sometimes feel artificial .

Yet annotation is something we all do all the time and can include everything from footnotes to criticism, graffiti to fan fiction. What is social media but spaces where people annotate texts and images, the digital margins of our daily lives?

Sam Anderson writes:

We are living increasingly in a culture of response. Twitter is basically electronic marginalia on everything in the world: jokes, sports, revolutions. The best parallel in critical writing might be online episode recaps of TV shows: a viewer rolling around in a work of art, noticing it deeply, not just (as critics too often do) resorting to distant acts of intellection. Marginalia is literature’s TV recap, although even more satisfying: real-time commentary happening in the core of the thing being commented upon.

On NYTimes.com and on The Learning Network, thousands of comments, or annotations, are posted by readers daily on issues from free speech on college campuses to drone racing . All comments are moderated, and the system allows both readers and Times journalists to reply to and “recommend” them.

Annotation in academic settings is typically considered a means to an end, a basis for class discussion or points made in a final paper. But annotation can also be a kind of end in itself, or at least more than a rest stop on the way to intellectual discovery. This becomes especially true when annotation is brought into the public and collaborative space of social reading online, and students can see their classmates’ comments alongside their own.

And with recent innovations in web annotation like the ability to add multimedia marginalia like that in the image at the top of this post (done by Jeremy Dean’s students at St. Stephen’s Episcopal School in Austin, Tex.), the process of annotation can feel more fun and engaging than dutiful.

Several years ago, the website Genius (formerly Rap Genius) was established to annotate music lyrics hosted on its platform. It’s proven to be something young people happily do on their own, discussing the word choices and poetic devices used by their favorite musicians in the same way their teachers ask them to discuss great works of literature in class.

For example, hundreds of users recently contributed annotations to Kendrick Lamar’s lyrics for the song “The Blacker the Berry,” and over a million and a half people have viewed that annotated text. In all likelihood, most of these readers and annotators were young people of high school and college age, though it’s true that the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon also added an annotation to the final couplet of the track.

Genius is now adding a growing list of nonmusical texts to its website — including many classic literary texts like the Langston Hughes poem at the top of this post — and has also developed a plugin for users to use in annotating other websites.

Ask your students how many kinds of annotation they can find — around the Web and out in the world. Then create a kind of “annotation gallery” of possibilities to inspire their own work.

For instance, here are just a few from The Times:

— The series Anatomy of a Scene invites film directors to comment on their own work. Here, Ava DuVernay narrates a sequence from “Selma”:

Anatomy of a Scene | ‘Selma’

Ava DuVernay narrates a sequence from “Selma,” featuring David Oyelowo and Carmen Ejogo.

— Crowdsourced graphics like this 2014 series of maps, “ Your Biking Wisdom in Ten Words, ” take user annotations to create something both useful and well designed. This article explains .

— On the Learning Network, our most popular form of annotation is our weekly What’s Going On in This Picture? discussion , in which hundreds of students discuss what they see in a captionless photo. A moderator from Visual Thinking Strategies engages with them live, and the “backstory” about the photo is posted several days later.

Here, for instance, is a screenshot from a recent discussion :

Why Digital Annotation, and How Do I Do It?

Digital annotation is close reading 2.0. Through the visualization of the process of highlighting and noting words, phrases and sentences, students are forced to keep their thinking and writing “close” to the text and its evidence. And, when done with others, students can create what feels like a social network for close reading — a way of working many find much more engaging than individual analog annotation.

There are a variety of tools out there that allow you to annotate digital texts collaboratively. Most of us have probably done this in Word or Google Docs. There are far fewer tools that allow you to annotate the actual web, where annotations are linked to specific text at specific web addresses like “learning.blogs.nytimes.com/”.

Genius’s Web Annotator is one of them. By installing Genius’s browser extension, you and your students can annotate any page on the Internet, though all annotations must be public.

Diigo is another tool for annotating the web, but with a decidedly more educational focus, including the ability to annotate in private groups. Diigo has number of other tools in addition to annotation that might be attractive to students and teachers, such as an outlining tool. While student and teacher accounts at Diigo are free, their features are limited and the service is ultimately based on a subscription model.

A third option is the free web annotation tool developed by the nonprofit Hypothesis . It shares much of the same functionality as Genius and Diigo — it’s predominantly a browser extension, and it too offers private groups — but unlike the other two, it is both open source and, like the web itself, based on open standards. It also has an education department focused on supporting teachers and students using the service.

#ANNOTATE the entire Internet with @Genius . Our new @Genius billboard is on Canal & Centre St. in NYC #BABYCORE pic.twitter.com/HxWqfIBse9 — Rap Genius (@RapGenius) February 9, 2015

Eight Ways to Experiment With Annotation Using The New York Times

Each of the ideas below can be done individually or collaboratively; on paper or digitally; and on their own or with other annotation strategies.

Though all of them allow an instructor to weigh in and pose questions, the teacher’s role here is as co-learner in the reading process, observing and coaching student thinking on the side.

Annotation to Wrestle With and React to a Text

This is the broadest and probably most familiar form of annotation for students — the kind of conversation with a text that readers have been having as long as books have existed.

It’s the marginalia Sam Anderson writes about in his essay and exhibits in “ A View From the Margins ,” his series of audio recordings on 12 months of reading, and annotating, everything from “1Q84″ by Haruki Murakami to “Bleak House” by Charles Dickens (the latter of which, he says, inspired “my most explosive LOL in my entire year of reading”).

The Learning Network has an entire lesson plan devoted to doing it the old-fashioned, analog way — but if you’d like to experiment with doing it digitally, you might look at what Sarah Gross, a high school teacher and contributor to our blog , did recently using Hypothesis with her senior class as they read the Opinion piece “What Really Keeps Women Out of Tech.”

Click on the highlighted words and sentences to see how she and her students posed questions and responded to them, added personal reactions, made connections and replied to one another. You can see that it feels very much like sitting in on a class discussion. This is one of the primary benefits of collaborative annotation in the classroom: Students engage texts and one another before meeting face to face, making that meeting all the more energetic and productive.

For another example, check out how Grant Schubert, a composition teacher at Rock Valley College , prompts his students to comment on The Times’s recent piece, “ The Lonely Death of George Bell .” As he writes, “Act like you are scribbling in the margins of your favorite book, but this time your whole class and a weirdly energetic teacher gets to read your notes.”

In both examples, you’ll see that an annotation need not be, and often is not, an answer. A simple question mark can flag a word or passage for discussion, for instance. Directing students to annotate in this way creates a sort of heat map for the instructor that can be used to zero in on troubling sections and subjects or initiate class discussion. And while the teacher can respond to such student annotations, a possible follow-up exercise could involve students responding to one another instead.

Here are some things students can do as they annotate — many of which we take on in greater depth in the other exercises below:

• Circle unfamiliar words or references.
• Mark passages with symbols like question or exclamation marks.
• Highlight important lines or sections.
• Connect parts of the text to other parts with arrows.
• Note emotional reactions.
• Post questions.
• Make connections to other texts or to their own lives.
• Summarize difficult concepts.
• Add related images.
• Add links to related information.
• Note how the piece is structured, or how the author uses language in interesting ways.
• React to the content over all.
• Note patterns, themes and motifs.

Annotating Current Events to Add Context and Enrich Background Knowledge

To read a daily newspaper and understand reporting about continuing stories — whether the Islamic State , the 2016 presidential race , the migration crisis in Europe or racial tensions on college campuses — often requires background knowledge students don’t have.

Though The Times and other news sources are increasingly publishing “explainers” that offer a bigger picture (like this one, on the Islamic State ), showing students how to do this kind of glossing for themselves and one another teaches them a skill they can use for the rest of their lives. There is something very powerful about seeing students begin to imagine themselves as scholars, responsible for guiding a real audience through a text, whether their own peers or a broader intellectual community.

A 2012 Learning Network lesson plan, Easy Access: Creating Annotated Versions of News Articles , details ideas for having students try this, whether alone or in collaboration with others — although collaboratively is perhaps the better choice since they can share the burden of research.

Throughout, students can also be encouraged to practice skills like rephrasing research material appropriately and citing sources using different formatting styles.

For an example before they try it themselves, students might look at The Times’s annotation of Pope Francis’ September address to Congress, in which reporters with expertise in different areas explain the context of many of the pope’s statements.

When they’re ready, here are some of the kinds of annotations they might add:

• Definitions for terms.
• Dates for events or documents.
• Maps or geographic references for events or locations.
• Historical and other background information for events mentioned.
• Statistics or demographics relevant to locations or groups.
• Biographical information for key players.
• Brief histories of groups or organizations mentioned.
• Explainers and informative graphics.
• Video clips, slide shows, photographs, charts and graphs.
• Related news articles and footage.

Annotating With Multimedia

One of the most powerful aspects of writing online is the ability to include images and other multimedia elements in one’s compositions. The screenshot at the very top of this post shows a powerful example from Genius.com of students composing analysis using both image and texts.

And, of course, as the front page of any day’s New York Times illustrates, newspapers rely on images just as much as they do on text to draw readers in.

Ask students to read an article and add images — photos, maps, illustrations, GIFs, graphics, videos — to help bring the story to life. This is also an opportunity to teach students about rules governing use of images, and editorial tasks like captioning and attribution.

These images can simply be representative (a reference to Lincoln annotated with a photo of the 16th president, for example), but more advanced students might also think about how images themselves make arguments and serve other rhetorical purposes.

For help with this, you might try our lesson plan Making Arguments Through Art , which looks closely at the “Op-Art” found in The Times , such as this recent drawing illustrating the Op-Ed columnist Frank Bruni’s October take on the Republican presidential field:

Jeb Bush is in big trouble. Ted Cruz lurks. What a chaotic, incendiary political season //t.co/M1yNZY2DN4 pic.twitter.com/DP5V4M8RyX — NYT Opinion (@nytopinion) October 11, 2015

Students can also use their imaginations to annotate texts with their own drawings, photographs or videos in line with the relevant sources of textual inspiration. Whether completed individually or collaboratively, this exercise can result in some wonderful illustrated editions of course texts. For inspiration, have a look at Nathan Blom’s Annotated Literature Projects at LaGuardia High School for the Arts.

Annotation as Argument

Trump Reads The Times at a Rally

Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, reacted to an article about himself in The New York Times on Thursday at a campaign rally in Greenville, S.C.

Students are already very familiar with this kind of annotation, even if they don’t realize it. They see it every day as they click around the web. It’s what Donald Trump is doing in the video above , and it’s what they do when they post a review of something on Yelp or Rotten Tomatoes, comment on an opinion someone expresses on Facebook or tweet a reaction to a news or sports event or TV show.

One place students can go to see a great deal of thoughtful argument: reader comments on Times articles. Often, in fact, the comments are as interesting as the article itself.

Have them choose a topic that interests them or about which they have strong opinions, then scroll through what other commenters have appended. For instance, here one reader pushes back on ideas in a piece by the comedian and actor Aziz Ansari about acting, race and Hollywood :

Or, have students examine the Learning Network’s Student Opinion feature . We post a question every school day and invite students to comment on it — and have even rounded up 301 questions that invite argument writing .

For example, we recently asked, Should High Schools Drop Football Because Too Many Players Are Getting Injured? and Quinn B. answered. As you can see, five of his fellow commenters recommended what he had to say:

Next, you might invite students to move to more formal analysis of rhetorical strategies and fallacies by having them read and annotate Times Op-Ed pieces. Framing their opinions as annotations of specific statements or facts can remind them that our arguments should be grounded in actual evidence. And allowing students to express their opinions in the margins of the web, and helping them become responsible and thoughtful as they do it, is a huge part of what it means to be literate both on online and in democratic society generally.

Students could be asked simply to respond to the reading with their thoughts, as in a dialectical reading journal, or to employ specific cultural or persuasive strategies in their rhetorical intervention. For instance, they might annotate to identify the use of logos, ethos and pathos .

Annotation can also serve as a kind of “rehearsal space” for formal writing. As your students practice “talking back” to Opinion pieces in The Times, they might consider it preparation for their own argumentative essays, perhaps to submit to our annual contest , which we’ll feature again in Feb., 2016.

As with all the ideas in this post, this can be done independently or collaboratively. Done independently, students can compare their articles and discuss how different authors establish their authority or commit common fallacies. Focused on a suite of articles relating to a specific topic, students might be asked to note patterns of expression.

Another idea: Ask students to fact-check a claim made in an article. This can be especially powerful in the case of political speeches or Op-Ed pieces. Annotations should be based on related research and should evaluate the truthfulness of the original claim using predetermined criteria. Here is an example of how professional political reporters have done this at PolitiFact using the Genius annotation tool. Climatologists have also done this using Hypothesis to comment on popular news coverage of climate change .

Annotating to Make Connections

In her essay “ Reading Antarctica ,” Kamila Shamsie writes about reading “Moby Dick” while on a boat to Antarctica — and finding herself annotating as she went:

I never annotate novels; it seems odd to think anything I might write in the margins could add to rather than detract from what is printed on the page. But from the start, the echoes between what I was reading and what I was seeing around me seemed to ask for me to take note, quite literally.

While your students might not have at hand as dramatic a parallel between their own experience and a text, annotating explicitly to make connections between what they’re reading and the rest of the world can help them see why particular texts matter and are still relevant today.

We try to foster this kind of thinking on the blog in many ways — through our Text to Text series and via this activity , for example. We love when readers do it naturally, the way Sarah Gross’s students connect the article on women in tech to other articles around the web, to the movie “The Imitation Game” and, as a student named Jesse Doppelt did, to their own work — a project on sexism and the TV show “The Big Bang Theory.”

Here are some ways students might annotate for making these kinds of connections, via posting comments, links, images or anything else that makes each connection clear:

• Parts of the text that remind you of your own life and experiences, or those of someone you know.
• Parts of the text that are not at all like your own life and experiences, and why.
• What you have read, seen or listened to that in some way reminds you of this topic or aspects of it.
• Ways in which this same topic is explored elsewhere, or in other formats.
• Events, issues, people, places or things elsewhere in the world connected to this topic or aspects of it.
• Events, issues, people, places or things in history that seem connected to this topic.

Annotation as Research Skill

This exercise offers a slightly different take on what it means to annotate. Instead of having students note specific words and passages, they are, instead, simply tagging a series of texts on a particular topic in order to collect, categorize and organize them.

Direct students to find articles relating to a topic they will be researching. Some web annotation tools like Hypothesis include a tagging or bookmarking feature that can be used to organize research. For instance, a class at Washington State University Vancouver is currently collaboratively researching the topic of education policy and has tagged its work ‘EduPol’ .

If your students are researching, say, Shakespeare for a paper on “Hamlet,” they could collect information on literary elements via tags like “setting,” “tone” or on themes like “uncertainty,” as shown ikn this example used in the Hypothesis guide for students .

To create a digital version of a traditional annotated bibliography from here, page-level annotations can be used to summarize the sources, and in-line annotation can further break down and begin analyzing arguments. Using tagging and annotation in this way, teachers can follow along and engage students in their research processes.

Annotating History

Invite students to annotate archival news reports about a major historical event you are studying. You might use our On This Day feature to find interesting front-page news, from the moon landing to the sinking of the Titanic , or use Times Machine to page through copies of The Times from 1851 to 1980 as they originally appeared.

Here, for example, is how students in Mark Sample’s Davidson College edX course on “Electronic Literature” revisited Robert Coover’s 1992 essay on hypertext in The New York Times Review of Books, using Hypothesis.

Some questions students might consider as they annotate:

• How is this report, written at the time of the event, different from the historical perspective about the event as explained in textbooks, encyclopedias and elsewhere?
• How is the contemporary coverage of the event different from how we understand this event today in general?
• What is interesting about the style, language or structure of this report? What does it tell you about its time and place?

For more ideas about bringing the past and present together through newspaper archives, visit our lesson plans for the 100th anniversaries of the sinking of the Titanic and the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire , or see our 2014-15 series Throwback Thursday .

Free Annotation

After students have practiced digital annotation of various kinds alone and in groups and become comfortable with the way a particular platform like Hypothesis works, set them free to annotate whatever they like.

For instance, you can assign them to roam through The New York Times, or any other newspaper, as part of an inquiry project, adding comments on the things that interest them. And you can follow their work as they go. If you are using Hypothesis, each user’s annotations are streamed on their public “My Annotations” page, and teachers can monitor student work like a portfolio rather than on individual texts if so desired. (You can click on a user name attached to an annotation or search the Hypothesis stream for a user name to locate this page. Here, for instance, is Jeremy Dean’s , and you can see he’s been annotating everything from a Times article on the new Quentin Tarantino movie to a recent Supreme Court decision.)

Many of the exercises above presume that students are annotating together on a shared course text. But the nature of web annotation is that we can see the notes of others even if we are not reading the same text. In this way, we can attend to annotations as texts themselves. Like scrolling through a friend’s Facebook page or Twitter feed, seeing someone else navigate the world through annotation can be compelling and edifying.

How do your students annotate? What experiments have you tried? Annotate this piece yourself by posting a comment.

Jeremy Dean has taught English at both the college and high school levels. He started the education initiative at Genius and is the current director of education at Hypothesis.

The authors of this post will be part of a panel presenting on “ Annotating the World: Digital Tools for Close-Reading Nonfiction ” at the N.C.T.E. convention on Nov. 20.

Update: Here are the slides from our presentation , with work from The Learning Network, Genius, Hypothesis, Vocabulary.com, and Sarah Gross, one of the teachers whose work is featured in this post.

This resource may be used to address the academic standards listed below.

Common Core E.L.A. Anchor Standards

1   Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.

2   Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.

3   Analyze how and why individuals, events, or ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.

4   Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.

5   Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole.

6   Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text.

7   Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.

8   Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, including the validity of the reasoning as well as the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence.

9   Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take.

10   Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.

3   Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening.

4   Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases by using context clues, analyzing meaningful word parts, and consulting general and specialized reference materials, as appropriate.

5   Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.

6   Acquire and use accurately a range of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level; demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when encountering an unknown term important to comprehension or expression.

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Making Maps: DIY Cartography

Resources and ideas for making maps, posts tagged ‘annotated maps’, map design annotated: 13 voyager maps from making maps 2nd edition.

Posted in 01 What's A Map? , 02 Why Are You Making Your Map? , 06 Map Layout , 07 Hierarchies , 08 Generalization & Classification , 09 Map Symbolization , 10 Type on Maps , Making Maps Book News , Maps Made , tagged Annotated Maps , Map Design , Maps - Annotated , Maps - Design on October 17, 2011| 1 Comment »

To understand map design, and how maps work, it is useful to see how map design concepts play out on a real map.

One of the significant updates to the 2nd edition of Making Maps was the inclusion of a map of the 1986 trans-global flight of the experimental aircraft called Voyager . This map, originally designed and created by David DiBiase and I back in 1987 for David Woodward’s map design course (and in the University of Wisconsin Cartographic Lab), is repeated thirteen times in seven of the chapters, annotated to show how the concepts and ideas in these chapters play out on the map.

The repeatedly annotated Voyager map serves as an example of map design in practice, but also a guide to “reading” a map from the perspective of map design.

Martin Dodge suggested the annotated maps be available together, for instructional purposes. A good idea! So here they are. Each individual map on this page is a 800k PNG file (click for full size).

A PDF file (8.8mb) with all thirteen higher resolution TIFF images is available here.

The Voyager map project was quite a bit of fun to create back in the day. It won a map design award, was published in the book about the Voyager flight, and printed on paper as part of a promotion for the Waukesha County, Wisconsin Airport. I cannot imagine anything much more exciting than that.

The second map in the series prefaces the initial chapter in Making Maps 2nd edition , and poses a series of questions that will be addressed in future chapters (and annotated Voyager maps):

Chapter 2, What’s Your Map For? , sets the context of the map (and of its re-creation for the book) and how such context shapes the design of the map:

Chapter 6, The Big Picture of Map Design, repeats the Voyager map five times, focusing on the key map design concepts covered in the chapter. This is where the map flips orientation south up (a controversial design choice, according to some reviewers: good! Think about why such a choice is controversial, and if it should be [or ask your students to do so]):

South is now up (so the story reads from left to right):

Annotations about  map pieces  including title , scale , explanatory text , legend , directional indicator , border , sources , credits , and insets & locator maps:

Annotations about visual arrangement including path , visual center , balance , symmetry , sight-lines , and grids :

Annotations about graphical excellence , based on Edward Tufte’s ideas, including complexity , detail , design variation & data variation , context , revision , non-data ink , data-ink ratio , explanatory text , editing , chartjunk & map crap , redundancy , and multivariate data :

Chapter 7, The Inner Workings of Map Design, reveals the Voyager map with no visual differences (a confusing mess of lines and type):

The map with visual differences is then annotated, with regard to key methods for establishing visual differences, including detail , edges , texture , layering , shape , size , closure , proximity , simplicity , direction , familiarity , and color :

Chapter 8, Map Generalization and Classification,  annotates the Voyager map in terms of the generalization concepts of selection , dimension change , simplification , smoothing , displacement , and enhancement :

Chapter 9, Map Symbolization, annotates the map in terms of the visual variables : shape , size , color hue , color value , color intensity , and texture :

Chapter 10, Words on Maps, annotates the Voyager map with regards to typographic variables including  typeface , type form , type weight , and type size :

I have a few ideas for additional annotated Voyager maps (such as a full color map) which I hope to cobble together in the future. If you have any other ideas for variations that might be useful or interesting, let me know.

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GIS Dictionary

Browse dictionary

map annotation

• [Esri software] Text or graphics stored within the map data frame in an annotation group. Map annotation may be manually entered or generated from labels and can be individually selected, positioned, and modified.

Related Terms

Annotated Maps

Annotated maps are a type of Map that contains notes and writings from former survivors that illustrate more of the lore of the Knox Event from a more personal perspective. Nearly all annotated maps lead to some sort of loot stash or Safehouse , and may also point to interesting POIs. However, not all symbols mean anything significant (if they indicate something at all).

A special Annotated Map item can be found as loot on corpses as well as in magazine stands and in glove boxes of vehicles . Annotated maps are similar to the standard maps, except for the fact that they have annotations including notes and symbols already written on them. These annotations can be as minor as a point of interest, up to detailed notes and symbols describing what you will find at that location. Most annotated maps will lead to a loot cache of some kind.

Not all, but many of these maps will cause additional loot to spawn at the location [1] . Be it a hidden stash , duffle bag, or additional items in the existing kitchen and bathroom containers [2] . The items that spawn in the kitchens/bathrooms are dependent on the map and its annotations. If the map leads to a building without a bathroom or kitchen, often there are no additional spawns: unless a duffle bag spawns.

For those locations of which do not cause additional loot to spawn, they instead have the loot there by default, though this may only occur when the annotated maps begin to spawn (default: 30 days). Some locations, such as the Knox Military Apartments, seem to spawn with all their loot day one.

Interestingly, because the stash spawner is unable to spawn corpses nor vehicles, stories that promise some sort of vehicle or that indicate the location of a notable deceased individual will actually not spawn those at all.

Currently, it is not possible to determine which location an annotated map belongs to before reading it.

It is possible to spawn these maps by using the Stash Debug UI window from the Stash debuggers button in the Dev section of the DEBUG MENU in the debug mode .

List of annotated maps

Each of the maps feature certain loot in predefined locations, below is the list of these maps.

• LouisvilleStashMap1
• LouisvilleStashMap2
• LouisvilleStashMap3
• LouisvilleStashMap4
• LouisvilleStashMap5
• LouisvilleStashMap6
• LouisvilleStashMap7
• LouisvilleStashMap8
• LouisvilleStashMap9
• LouisvilleStashMap10
• LouisvilleStashMap11
• LouisvilleStashMap12
• LouisvilleStashMap13
• LouisvilleStashMap14
• LouisvilleStashMap15
• LouisvilleStashMap16

March Ridge

• MarchRidgeStashMap1
• MarchRidgeStashMap2
• MarchRidgeStashMap3
• MarchRidgeStashMap4
• MarchRidgeStashMap5
• MarchRidgeStashMap6
• MarchRidgeStashMap7
• MarchRidgeStashMap8
• MarchRidgeStashMap9
• MarchRidgeStashMap10
• MulStashMap1
• MulStashMap2
• MulStashMap3
• MulStashMap4
• MulStashMap5
• MulStashMap6
• MulStashMap7
• MulStashMap8
• MulStashMap9
• MulStashMap10
• MulStashMap11
• MulStashMap12
• MulStashMap13
• MulStashMap14
• MulStashMap15
• MulStashMap16
• MulStashMap17
• MulStashMap18
• RiversideStashMap1
• RiversideStashMap2
• RiversideStashMap3
• RiversideStashMap4
• RiversideStashMap5
• RiversideStashMap6
• RiversideStashMap7
• RiversideStashMap8
• RiversideStashMap9
• RiversideStashMap10
• Abundant Weapons Stash (RosewoodStashMap1)
• Small Weapons Stash (RosewoodStashMap2)
• Tools Stash (RosewoodStashMap3)
• Forest Escape (RosewoodStashMap4)
• Pizza Whirled (RosewoodStashMap5)
• WpStashMap1
• WpStashMap2
• WpStashMap3
• WpStashMap4
• WpStashMap5
• WpStashMap6
• WpStashMap7
• WpStashMap8
• WpStashMap9
• WpStashMap10
• WpStashMap11
• WpStashMap12
• WpStashMap13
• WpStashMap14
• WpStashMap15
• WpStashMap16

• Each Louisville is called the same, currently it's not possible to know what section it belongs to before reading it.
• ↑ How to create Annotated Stash Maps (41.6+)
• ↑ Every Annotated Map in March Ridge - What's in each and what to keep an eye out for!

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Pro Map Text II: Annotation

This tutorial is the second post in a four-part series about map text in ArcGIS Pro. You can find all tutorials here:

• Part 1: Labels
• Part 2: Annotation
• Part 3: Knockouts and Map Notes
• Part 4: Layout Text

Today we’ll take on annotation. You can follow along with Darwin.ppkx (using “Labelled Map”). If you didn’t do the labeling tutorial first, that’s okay; you can start here if you want.

This tutorial was tested and updated on October 3, 2022 with  ArcGIS Pro 3.0 .

What is annotation ? It’s basically labels that you have full control over. They act like features—because they are features! They’re stored in an annotation feature class. They even have attribute tables.

And most importantly, you can edit each individual annotation feature so it is positioned, sized, and styled exactly how you like.

Annotation is how you go from something like this:

To something like this:

Let’s dive in.

Open Darwin.ppkx and open Labelled Map .

You’re about to convert the labels on this map into annotation, but only those labels that are in your current map extent will be included, so if you can’t see the entire map right now, right-click the pink MapExtent layer in the Contents pane and choose Zoom to Layer .

On the ribbon, on the Map tab, click Convert and choose  Convert Labels To Annotation .

In the Geoprocessing pane, for Output Geodatabase , choose darwin.gdb and click Run .

A new group layer, named GroupAnno , is added to your Contents pane.

Your map looks no different because labeling has been turned off for all of the layers and replaced with the new annotation layers—ready for editing.

On the ribbon, on the Edit tab, click the Move button.

Click a piece of text and drag it into a better position. Click Finish on the toolbar when you’re happy with the placement.

I think that Point Farewell could also be improved with some center alignment.

If necessary, select the Point Farewell label on the map (in the south-east corner of Van Diemen Gulf). On the ribbon, click Attributes .

In the Attributes pane, under Annotation , click Center  and click  Apply (or check Auto Apply ).

Next, let’s fix a river label. Zoom to the West Alligator River in Kakadu National Park.

Your text may look different than in these images. That’s okay.

On the ribbon, click the Annotation tool.

Click the West Alligator River text.

This piece of annotation happens to be multipart text. You can move each word individually. However, your goal is to create a river label with a simple curve. As with all other things cartographic, simple is almost always better.

Right-click the text and choose Convert to Single Part .

The text is now all in one curve, but it has too many vertices to be considered simple. Right-click the text again, point to Curvature , and choose Horizontal .

Right-click again, point to Curvature again, and this time choose Curved .

On the ribbon, click the Edit Vertices tool.

Now you have a nice, simple, two-point curve. Move those points around to create an elegant spline that hugs the river.

Click the Finish button and save your edits.

Next, let’s label Kakadu National Park.

Select the KAKADU N.P. text and open the Attributes pane.

This park is much bigger than the others, so you can get away with larger text. Change the font size to 12 . In the text box, replace N.P. with NATIONAL PARK and stack the words.

Click Symbol to access more text properties.

Under Formatting , change Letter spacing to 200% .

Click Apply twice.

Now your label is much larger without the font itself being too large. But it still doesn’t convey the expanse of the park very well.

With the Annotation tool selected, right-click the text and choose Convert to Multiple Parts .

Now you can drag each word around until they are spread across the park.

Don’t be too precious with the placement of these words just yet. By the time you’ve rearranged all the other labels in the park, they’ll need to be moved again.

Save your edits and save your map.

All right. It’s time to work on Darwin.

Every map is going to have a place that looks like this. It just might be the biggest difference between maps of fantasy worlds and maps of the real world. The real world likes to put all of the important things in the same place.

What you need to do is eliminate many labels. If you’re going to do that properly, you need to research the area to find out which labels are important and which are not. You can look at other maps in atlases or on the internet to guide you. I have already done this work for you on the place-names. (And my apologies to the people of Darwin if I chose poorly!) But there are still plenty of river and road labels for you to delete.

But what if the thought of deleting features makes you uncomfortable? You can remove annotation from your map without deleting.

Select a piece of text that you don’t want to show on the map and open the Attributes pane.

In the lower half of the pane, click the Attributes tab. Update the Status attribute to Unplaced  and click  Apply .

The text will disappear from the map. If you want to review the annotation you removed in this manner, open the Symbology pane for the annotation layer and check Draw unplaced annotation .

Tip: This is also where you’ll find missing text if you didn’t choose the Never remove option when you were setting up labeling properties.

Even with heavily thinned labels, many compromises will have to be made. For example, the ideal place to put a point label is to the upper right.

But not if it interferes with other labels. The next best place is to the upper left.

Of course, the overlapping road label could also be moved. But the Batchelor label would still be crossing over multiple roads and a river, which is not ideal. So we’ll try position number 3: the lower right.

It’s still crossing too many lines. The fourth-best option is the lower left. And I think this one is slightly better than the last.

In the example above, you can also see how matching label color to feature color really helps in crowded label scenarios. Here it is clear that the white label goes with the white point and not with the green park.

Once you’ve resolved all of the conflicts and compromises (don’t expect it go quickly), you can turn off the pink dots and admire your lovely annotated map.

You can refer to the Annotated Map in the same project for examples.

In my next post , I’ll show you how to make knockouts for labels that cross over roads or other lines. You can find all four parts of this series here: Map text in ArcGIS Pro .

About the author

Heather Smith

Heather is a cartographer and artist. She creates resources for the tutorial gallery.

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Annotating maps

Annotations offer a way to highlight specific areas on the map and provide additional information about them. They remain fixed on the map so that they move appropriately when the user zooms, pans, or scrolls.

Types of annotations

Social Explorer offers different kinds of annotations to enhance your map. These include: 

• Image 

Creating annotations

To add an annotation to your map, follow these steps:

• Select Annotate map .
• Select the annotation type that works best for you.

Different annotation types are added in slightly different ways. For example, to add an arrow ,  freehand,  shape , or a hotspot , you need to draw the annotation on the map by clicking and dragging. To add a  marker, text label , or an image , simply click anywhere on the map. To add a line or a polygon , click on the map to add each point, and double click to finish drawing.

Customizing annotations

Let’s go through all the annotation types and look at their customization options.

Once you draw an arrow, you will get the arrow annotation menu. You can enter the name of the arrow, as well as tweak its width. There are two ways to tweak the width of the arrow: Enter the starting width in the Start field, and the ending width in the End field. If you use different values for these fields, the width of the arrow will gradually change from the bottom of the arrow towards the tip. You can also set the width of the arrow tip in the Tip field. 

Or, use the sliders for each of the options, Start, End, and Tip, to tweak the width of the arrow and the arrow tip.

After setting the width, you can play around with the fill. By default, arrows in Social Explorer are filled in with black, but you can either disable the fill by unchecking the box or click on the circle to use a different color.

Another element of the arrow you can play around with is the stroke. This is a line around your annotation, and you can set it anywhere from none to extra thick by entering a value from 1 to 5 in the Width field or by using the slider. Click on the circle next to Border to change the color of the stroke.

And lastly, you can tweak the arrow’s opacity. The lower the opacity, the more see-through the arrow is.

Freehand line

After drawing the freehand line, you can edit it by dragging one of the dots on the line.  You can enter its name and set its weight, as well as color. You can also tweak the opacity. Just like with the arrow, the lower the opacity, the more see-through the arrow is.

Shape drawing

Just like with the rest of the annotation types, you can set the title of the shape, enable or disable the fill, and set the fill color. Setting the stroke will affect the line around the shape, and you can play around with its weight, color, and opacity.

Hotspot is used to mark an area of interest on your map. It allows you to set its title, play around with the weight and color of the frame, and set its opacity.

Social Explorer allows you to embed an image as an annotation. After you select the location for the image, you can set its title, upload the file, and tweak rotation and opacity. If you want to resize the image, you can drag one of the corners to resize the image maintaining the original aspect ratio.

Place marker

You can drop the pin and mark any place on the map. Once you place it, you can set its title, and even make the title visible on the map by enabling Show title as label. Furthermore, you can tweak the position, size, and color of the title. We have included a number of different icons for the marker, and you can play around with its size, color, and opacity as well. To edit the icon, click on the icon next to the title.

After you finish drawing the line, you can set its title, weight, color, as well as opacity.

Polygon offers a few more options than the line annotation. You can set its title, enable the fill, choose the fill color, and tweak the weight and color of the stroke. As with the other annotations, you can also play around with the opacity. 

Text annotations allow you to edit the label text, as well as the size and color of the text. You can also add a halo – an option similar to stroke for other annotation types. If you enable halo, a color outline will appear around the letters, and you can set its color, width, and blur level. Also, you can play around with text rotation and opacity.

Managing annotations (edit, delete, copy/paste)

To delete multiple annotations click the Edit list button above the annotations list, select as many as you like and click on the Delete button. You can also copy/paste multiple annotations in this manner. Click on the More icon to duplicate your selections.

Customizing annotation legend

If you want to include a map legend, simply enable the Show in legend option for each individual annotation. All annotations will have a default title, so you will want to set the proper title for each.

• Click Legend at the bottom of the annotations list.
• Enter the title in the text field and click Done.

If you want to hide a certain annotation from the legend, uncheck its box. Bear in mind that the annotation will still be visible on the map unless you delete it.

Exporting annotations

Save search results as annotations

You can now directly save search results as annotations on Social Explorer maps. This new feature is especially useful for annotating border lines which may be too difficult to draw by hand. Here’s how to do it:

• Type in your location of interest into the search box in the upper left corner of the screen.
• Select an entry.
• Click Save as annotation for your search result.
• Clicking the Save as annotation option automatically adds the border for your selected geography with a default line annotation style (a thin light blue outline).

Click View list in the search box to quickly access the Annotations menu and further style your annotations.

Before selecting an entry from the search box, be sure to observe the entry’s geographical category listed in the light gray box next to the entry name. For any of the search results, see the gray box next to the entry name to be sure that you’ve picked the right entry.

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Annotate map

Find a location and annotate the map image with text, shapes or icons. Draw on the map or add markers and save your map as an image.

Find location

Create and annotate your map by first entering a location in the search bar below.

What is a Annotated map?

Is is a map made up of pictures. Simple as that!

An annotated map is a map that has been enhanced or enriched with additional information, such as labels, descriptions, notes, or symbols to provide more context about the features represented on the map. This additional information helps viewers better understand the map and the location it represents.

Add your answer:

What type of weather map show isobars on a weather map?

An isobar map is a type of weather map that shows lines connecting points of equal atmospheric pressure. Isobars are used to depict areas of high and low pressure on the map, which helps meteorologists analyze and predict weather patterns.

What do you call the location in the center of the map?

The location in the center of a map is often referred to as the &quot;map center&quot; or the &quot;center point.&quot; It is where the horizontal and vertical axes intersect, indicating the point of balance within the map.

What has cities with no houses rivers without water and forests without trees?

A Map.Another possible answer isa road mapIts a mapA map.On a mapa map

Describe how to measure distance using topographic map?

To measure distance using a topographic map, you can use the map's scale. First, determine the scale of the map, such as 1:24,000. Then, use a ruler to measure the distance on the map between two points that you want to calculate the actual distance for. Convert the measured distance on the map to the actual distance using the map scale.

How many buildings are shown on the map?

There are 12 buildings shown on the map.

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What's Project 2025? Unpacking the Pro-Trump Plan to Overhaul US Government

For several months, we received a flood of reader inquiries asking if project 2025 was a real effort to “reshape america.” here’s the answer., nur ibrahim, aleksandra wrona, published july 3, 2024.

• Project 2025 is a conservative coalition's plan for a future Republican U.S. presidential administration. If voters elect the party's presumed nominee, Donald Trump, over Democrat Joe Biden in November 2024, the coalition hopes the new president will implement the plan immediately.
• The sweeping effort centers on a roughly 1,000-page document  that gives the executive branch more power, reverses Biden-era policies and specifies numerous department-level changes.
• People across the political spectrum fear such actions are precursors to authoritarianism and have voiced concerns over the proposal's recommendations to reverse protections for LGBTQ+ people, limit abortion access, stop federal efforts to mitigate climate change — and more.
• The Heritage Foundation — a conservative think tank operated by many of Trump's current and former political allies — is leading the initiative. President Kevin Roberts once said  the project's main goals are "institutionalizing Trumpism" and getting rid of unelected bureaucrats who he believes wield too much political influence.
• The Trump campaign's goals and proposals within Project 2025 overlap. However, the former president has attempted to distance himself from the initiative. In a July 5, 2024, post on Truth Social , he wrote: " I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things they're saying and some of the things they're saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them."
• In other words, it's unknown if, or to what extent, Trump's campaign is talking to leaders of the initiative. Many political analysts and the Biden administration believe Project 2025 is a good indication of Trump's vision for a second term.

Here at Snopes, the internet's premiere fact-checking site, we believe in unbiased, fact-driven reporting to help guide people's everyday lives. And when it comes to voting in elections, we hold that responsibility high. We call out candidates' mistruths, contextualize campaign claims and pull back the curtain on efforts shaping political parties' agendas. Our hope is to give voters the knowledge they need to mark ballots without any distorted sense of reality. Below is an example of that work — a months-long analysis of an all-encompassing effort to reshape the American bureacracy following the 2024 U.S. presidential election. If you'd like to support this type of journalism,  we'd love your help .   —  Jessica Lee ,  senior assignments editor,  snopes.com

As the U.S. 2024 presidential election nears, U.S. President Joe Biden's reelection campaign has been sending foreboding emails to supporters, invoking "Trump's Project 2025" to tap into anxieties over another four years with Donald Trump in the White House and to raise campaign money.

According to some of the emails, "Project 2025" calls for proposals that would separate "mothers away from their children," a reference to border policies during Trump's administration, or result in "higher housing costs and rampant discrimination."

The Biden campaign is not alone in its concern over the policy initiative. Critics including legal experts and former government employees have described Project 2025 as a precursor to authoritarianism — albeit a difficult one to implement — and a wave of social media  posts  are expressing  fear over the initiative, calling it a " fascist " and " extremist " plan for Trump to " reshape America." Numerous reports have also called this conservative effort to reshape the government unprecedented in its scale. 

But what exactly is Project 2025? Are the messages from critics rooted in fact or fear-mongering? What should people know about the alleged policy plan? Over the past year, Snopes has received a flood of inquiries from readers asking if Project 2025 was real and what it entails, and if American politicians plan to implement it.

Under the leadership of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, Project 2025 is indeed a real, all-encompassing initiative to transform the American bureaucracy if, or when, a conservative president takes over the White House. Project leaders are hoping to put it into motion as early as November 2024 if voters elect former President Donald Trump. 

Politico once described the policy initiative as an effort to make a "MAGA" conservative government by reshaping how federal employees work, and the  creators themselves have framed it as a push to institutionalize " Trumpism " —  that is,  Trump's political agenda — at every level of federal government. On Truth Social, a Trump-owned social media platform, users have described it as a return to "constitutional" values.

In June 2024, House Democrats launched a task force to make plans for a potential future in which Project 2025's recommendations could become reality.

The growing interest in Project 2025 coincided with the progression of Trump's presidential campaign. A  June 2024  NPR/PBS News/Marist poll found the presidential race to be extremely tight, with Biden and Trump almost tied, echoing a months-long trend of national surveys. ( Historically , polls at this stage of campaigns are not indicative of actual election outcomes.)

Leaders and supporters of the initiative declined to be interviewed for this story or did not respond to Snopes' inquiries.

What is Project 2025?

Project 2025 has four parts, according to its website : 

• A roughly 1,000-page document titled " Mandate for Leadership 2025: The Conservative Promise ."  That report details supporters' proposals for federal departments, as well as their overall agenda for a conservative government.
• A purported transition plan for federal departments. Project 2025 leaders say they have a 180-day transition plan for each federal agency to quickly adapt to a Trump presidency should he win in November. As of this writing, the contents of that plan were unknown.
• A new database that aims to fill federal jobs with conservative voices. Spencer Chretien, associate director of Project 2025, once called the online system to screen potential new hires the " conservative LinkedIn ." It's currently active on the Project's website.
• A new system to train potential political appointees . Called the " Presidential Administration Academy ," the system aims to teach skills for "advancing conservative ideas" as soon as new hires join the administration. The lessons touch on everything from budget-making to media relations and currently consist of 30- to 90-minute online sessions. Project 2025 leaders say they will host in-person sessions as the election nears. 

There's reportedly another facet to Project 2025 that's not detailed on its website: an effort to draft executive orders for the new president. According to a November 2023 report by The Washington Post that cites anonymous sources, Jeffrey Clark (a former Trump official who sought to use the Justice Department to help Trump's efforts to overturn 2020 election results) is leading that work, and the alleged draft executive orders involve the Insurrection Act — a law last updated in 1871 that allows the president to deploy the military for domestic law enforcement. Speaking to the Post, a Heritage spokesperson denied that accusation. (We were unable to independently corroborate The Washington Post's reporting due to its anonymous sourcing and our unsuccessful attempts to interview members of The Heritage Foundation.)

While many of Project 2025's proposals simply need the president's executive order to become reality, others would need Congressional approval, even as the Project seeks to expand presidential authority. In other words, lawmakers would need to write and approve legislation that details the changes to the government's existing structure, or establishes new systems. Come November, voters will choose who will fill  435 seats in the Republican-led House and 34 positions  in the Senate.

Key Points of The Roughly 1,000-Page Document

Speaking to Politico , Russell Vought, who served as the director of the Office of Management and Budget under Trump and is now a leading adviser for Project 2025, once described the effort as "more systematic than it is just about Trump," adding, "We have to be thinking mechanically about how to take these institutions over" in reference to federal departments.

Project 2025's document lays out in great detail how supporters want to do that. As of early June 2024, about 855,000 people had downloaded the document, The New York Times reported . 

Among its numerous recommendations, it calls for the following (in no particular order):

• Changing how the FBI operates. According to the plan, the agency is "completely out of control," and the next conservative administration should restore its reputation by stopping investigations that are supposedly "unlawful or contrary to the national interest." Also, the document calls for legislation that would eliminate term limits for the FBI's director and require that person to answer to the president. 
• Eliminating the Department of Education. The plan explicitly proposes, "Federal education policy should be limited and, ultimately, the federal Department of Education should be eliminated." The report also calls for bans on so-called " critical race theory" (CRT) and "gender ideology" lessons in public schools, asking for legislation that would require educators who share such material to register as sex offenders and be imprisoned. 
• Defunding the Department of Justice. Additionally, the document proposes prosecuting federal election-related charges as criminal, not civil, cases. Otherwise, the document says, "[Voter] registration fraud and unlawful ballot correction will remain federal election offenses that are never appropriately investigated and prosecuted." 
• Reversing Biden-era policies attempting to reduce climate change. The document's authors call for increasing the country's reliance on fossil fuels and withdrawing from efforts to address the climate crisis — such as "offices, programs, and directives designed to advance the Paris Climate Agreement ." 
• Stopping cybersecurity efforts to combat mis- and disinformation. The document recommends the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to stop its efforts to curtail online propaganda campaigns, arguing the federal government should not make judgment calls on what's true and what isn't.
• Changing immigration policies. Authors want the federal government to deprioritize DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), the program that temporarily delays the deportation of immigrants without documentation who came to the U.S. as children; phase out temporary work-visa programs that allow seasonal employers to hire foreign workers; impose financial punishments on so-called "sanctuary cities" that do not follow federal immigration laws, and divert tax dollars toward security at America's border with Mexico. (While the Biden campaign claims Project 2025 calls for "ripping mothers away from their children" at the border, there's no explicit mention of separating families. Rather, it calls for stronger enforcement of laws governing the detainment of immigrants with criminal records and restricting an existing program that tracks people in deportation proceedings instead of incarcerating them. In some cases, those changes could possibly play a role in border control agents detaining a parent while their child continues with immigration proceedings.)
• Restricting access to abortion. The plan wants the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to stop promoting abortion as health care. Additionally, Project 2025 recommends the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) to stop promoting, and approving, requests for manufacturing abortion pills. "Alternative options to abortion, especially adoption, should receive federal and state support," the document states.
• Removing LGBTQ+ protections. The plan calls for abolishing the Gender Policy Council , a Biden-created department within the White House that aims to "advance equity in government policy for those who face discrimination." Also, the proposal wants the federal government to remove terms such as "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" from records and policies, as well as rescind policies that prohibit discrimination on the basis of "sexual orientation, gender identity, transgender status, and sex characteristics."
• Cutting ties completely with China. For instance, the document advocates for restricting people's access to TikTok because of its China-based parent company; prohibiting Confucius Institutes, cultural institutions at colleges and universities funded by the Chinese government, and blocking other Chinese entities from partnering with U.S. companies. 
• Reversing protections against discrimination in housing. The Biden campaign emails reference a portion of the document that calls for repealing a decades-old policy—strengthened under Biden—that attempts to prevent discrimination and reduce racial disparities in housing. Project 2025 also recommends making it easier to sell off homes used for public housing — a benefit to real estate developers — but result in fewer cheap housing options for poor and low-income families. 

Here's a PDF of the full report :

(www.project2025.org)

Changing Federal Job Classifications 

To execute the above-listed objectives, the roughly 1,000-page document calls for a federal government operated by political appointees equipped to "carry out the President's desires." 

Put another way, Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, said in a July 2023 interview with The New York Times that Project 2025 leaders want to dismantle independent federal agencies that do not answer to the president. Then, they want to fill positions with people who subscribe to conservative politics — including jobs that are currently merit-based hires, not politically appointed.

Under the current system, the federal government's administrative sector is made up of two employee groups: political appointees and career civil servants. When a new administration takes over the Oval Office, it selects similarly minded people to fill high-ranking positions (political appointees), and those people leave the jobs when a new president takes over. According to the Brookings Institution , a public policy think tank, around 4,000 political appointees run the executive branch.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of positions that run day-to-day operations are hired through a merit-based system — that is, a hiring process that is designed to prioritize applicants' specialized expertise or experience , not their personal beliefs or affiliations. Those people are career civil servants. 

Project 2025 proposes turning up to 50,000 career civil servant jobs into politically appointed positions. 

To do that, Project 2025 wants the president to reissue Schedule F, a Trump-era executive order that Biden rescinded when he became president. Generally speaking, the order would recategorize career civil servants into at-will employees, giving higher-level workers the ability to terminate employment for any reason without warning and fill those jobs with new people.

Additionally, Project 2025 recommends revamping the existing appeals process for employee dismissals, arguing the current system prevents managers from firing or hiring the right employees. 

The plan also proposes a freeze on hiring top-career civil service positions at the beginning of the administration. By doing so, the plan argues, the new administration will prevent today's administration's leaders (later on "outgoing" political appointees) from "burrowing-in"— that is, hiring left-leaning career bureaucrats across federal agencies for the purpose of undermining the next president. 

Keeping Track of Potential Employees' Opinions

In addition to expanding government leaders' abilities to hire and fire at will, Project 2025 calls for a new federal database to gather information on potential new hires. The database contains people's answers to questions on social issues , such as abortion and immigration, allowing for department leaders to easily fill job vacancies with applicants who lean conservative.

"Our current executive branch was conceived of by liberals for the purpose of promulgating liberal policies," John  McEntee , who is leading Project 2025's personnel database project, told The New York Times in mid-2023, citing then-U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's (who was a Democrat) 1930s New Deal as the last major reorientation of the government. "There is no way to make the existing structure function in a conservative manner. It's not enough to get the personnel right. What's necessary is a complete system overhaul." 

By submitting resumes and answering questionnaires , applicants sign up to be vetted by Project 2025 leaders. According to the questionnaire , participants answer whether they "agree" or "disagree" with statements such as, "Life has a right to legal protection from conception to natural death," and "The U.S. should increase legal immigration."

If the participants pass that screening, Project 2025 intends to recommend them to department leaders for hiring. (We are unable to determine what would happen with applicants' data if Trump does not win the 2024 election, or if his potential administration does not want to use it.)

Project 2025 leaders partnered with technology company Oracle to set up the system, according to The New York Times . Several thousand potential recruits had applied, as of April 2023. 

Former presidents have established similar systems, including Barack Obama, according to Kevin Kosar, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a center-right public policy think tank. "They [The Obama administration] created a massive online jobs bank , where you could apply."

Also, during Obama's first term (January 2009 - January 2017), his administration required extensive vetting of applicants for high-ranking, politically appointed positions. Like Project 2025's program, that process included a questionnaire. That form asked participants to elaborate on past public statements, social media posts and potential conflicts of interests, as well as share things about their personal lives , like whether they own guns. (We found no evidence of the Obama administration circulating a similar questionnaire during his second term.)

Asked about that Obama-era questionnaire, a Biden aide said it was not comparable to Project 2025's system. The latter was a "loyalty test" to Trump, the aide said, while Obama's survey was more of a background check.

Trump Hasn't Publicly Endorsed Project 2025

Many former Trump administration members and current allies are working on the initiative. 

For example, the Center for Renewing America (CRA) — a think tank that formed in 2021 with ties to Trump through its founder, Russell Vought — is a "coalition partner." Vought was the director of the Office of Management and Budget when Trump was president. Should Project 2025 be a part of the next presidential administration, Vought will be in charge of implementing  its proposals, according to Politico. (In November 2023, The Washington Post reported he was in regular contact with Trump and could be a candidate for a high-ranking position in his potential future administration.) Also, Vought is policy director for the 2024 Republican National Convention's Platform Committee.

Reportedly , some people affiliated with Project 2025 are assisting Trump's reelection campaign behind the scenes.

(The groups that conceptualized, or are currently pushing, Project 2025 include a number of former Trump administration members and current allies.)

However, in terms of public-facing actions, Trump hasn't officially connected himself to the initiative. In speeches at campaign rallies and interviews, he hasn't mentioned Project 2025, and, on July 5, 2024 , he attempted to publicly distance himself by posting on Truth Social (his social media site):

I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things they're saying and some of the things they're saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.

Trump's campaign is at the very least aware of the initiative. Campaign officials once told Politico Project 2025's goals to restructure government, which are outlined in a publicly available document , indeed align with Trump's campaign promises.

But in a November 2023 statement, the Trump campaign said: "The efforts by various non-profit groups are certainly appreciated and can be enormously helpful. However, none of these groups or individuals speak for President Trump or his campaign." Without naming Project 2025, they said all policy statements from "external allies" are just "recommendations."

Concurrently, in an interview with the conservative outlet The Daily Wire , a Project 2025 representative said the Trump campaign and Project are separate "for now."  McEntee , a former Trump staffer and leader of Project 2025's personnel database project, said : 

I think the candidate and the campaign need to keep their eye on the ball. They need to be totally focused on winning. We're totally focused on what happens after [...] Obviously, there will need to be coordination and the president and his team will announce an official transition this summer, and we're gonna integrate a lot of our work with them. 

That said, given overlap between Project 2025's proposals and the Trump campaign's agenda , political analysts and the Biden campaign believe the coalition's effort is a good indication of Trump's vision for a second term. Among the similarities are proposals to change how the administration fills tens of thousands of government jobs and overhaul  the DOJ. According to The Heritage Foundation's own reporting, Trump adopted and seriously considered about two-thirds of the organization's policy prescriptions in 2018, for example.

In an interview with Snopes, James Singer, a Biden campaign spokesperson, said:

Project 2025 is the extreme policy and personnel playbook for Trump's second term that should scare the hell out of any American voter. The Trump team's pathetic denials fall flat when Project 2025 staff and leadership are saying they are connected to the Trump team, leading the RNC policy platform and part of Trump's debate prep, campaign, and inner circle.

But the extent to which Project 2025 leaders and Trump campaign officials are communicating is unclear. According to Kosar, at the American Enterprise Institute, no one outside of the two circles knows how closely they're working together. "[What] is the level of coordination? We have no idea." 

From the view of Cecilia Esterline, an immigration research analyst at the Niskanen Center, a think tank  with libertarian-right roots, Project 2025 is a good indicator of Trump's plans for a potential second term. "Given the people involved putting their names on this and the author portions of this report, and the success of [past] implementation, it's a good indicator of where Trump is at."

The Forces Behind Project 2025

Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts launched Project 2025 in April 2022, a few months before Trump officially announced his reelection campaign.

Since then, the number of groups backing the initiative has grown. As of now, Project 2025's advisory board and so-called "coalition partners" include: the Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI), a nonprofit that aims to connect conservative applicants to congressional jobs and is led by Trump's former chief of staff, Mark Meadows; Turning Point USA, a far-right student advocacy group that is led by Charlie Kirk; America First Legal , a legal advocacy group that supports conservative-backed lawsuits and is led by Trump stalwart Stephen Miller. (According to a June 2024 Politico report, Miller was part of private meetings with Trump to help him prepare for upcoming televised debates against Biden.) 

Furthermore, in May 2024, Reuters interviewed what the news outlet described as unnamed Trump allies working on a plan to restructure the Department of Justice (DOJ) and fill currently nonpartisan jobs there with people who identify as conservatives. While the allies group wasn't named, Reuters reported it was tied to Project 2025. 

Lastly, many authors of the roughly 1,000-page document outlining Project 2025's policy proposals have connections to Trump. They include Ben Carson , William Perry Pendley , Jonathan Berry , Diana Furchtgott-Roth , Rick Dearborn , Adam Candeub , Ken Cuccinelli , Mandy Gunasekara , Dennis Dean Kirk , Gene Hamilton , Christopher Miller , Bernard L. McNamee , Mora Namdar , Peter Navarro , Roger Severino , Paul Dans , Kevin Roberts , among others. 

These Types of Pre-Election Efforts Aren't Uncommon

In the months or years before U.S. presidential elections, it's routine for nonprofit research groups to prepare plans for a potential presidential transition, according to Landon Storrs, a political history professor at the University of Iowa. 

And, according to Kosar, numerous think tanks want Trump's ear as he plans his potential return to the White House. "Whenever there is a new executive coming into the White House, [many] groups are trying to get in there."

According to the Heritage Foundation's website , the organization mostly operates on individual donations and does not take money from the government. However, how exactly it divvies up its money for Project 2025 was unclear. The New York Times reported Project 2025 was a $22 million operation.

Project 2025 authors built their proposals on an idea popular during former President Ronald Reagan's time: the "unitary executive theory." That's the belief that Article II of the U.S. Constitution gives the president complete power over the federal bureaucracy and all levels of government report to him. 

In 1980, the Heritage Foundation developed similar policy prescriptions for Reagan, who was a presidential candidate at the time. Some of the organization's recommendations aligned with Reagan's campaign promises , and, when he later assumed office, he put the ideas to action. Heritage once described its effort as putting "the conservative movement and Reagan on the same page."

However, according to Politico , the present-day initiative by the Heritage Foundation was more "ambitious" than any other such proposal. The New York Times  said Project 2025 was operating at "a scale never attempted before in conservative politics." Its efforts are a contrast to the 1930s Democrat-led New Deal under then-U.S. President Roosevelt, which gave the federal government an unprecedented role in social and economic affairs on the belief that it would get the country out of the Great Depression.

Critics' Logistical Concerns, Worries

If some of Project 2025's ideas turn into formal policy recommendations or laws, experts in government and history have concerns over how they could be implemented. Such drastic changes would come with big logistical hurdles and have a ripple effect on agencies overseeing day-to-day governance, several such experts said. 

For example, Project 2025's proposal to reclassify tens of thousands of federal workers' positions — that is, change career bureaucrats into jobs that can be politically appointed — would have widespread effects, according to Storrs, of the University of Iowa. She said:

When [Project 2025's] intention is to install officials based on their loyalty to the president rather than on their qualifications, [the result] is even more damaging to effective administration. [...] The President already has authority over who heads the agencies. But below them, people are simply trying to collect taxes, get social security checks out — there is a lot that shouldn't be disrupted.

Kosar, of the American Enterprise Institute, expressed concern over skills required for jobs that aren't currently appointed. "These positions have a serious degree of expertise attached. You can't just plug in a private sector businessman into the department of transportation. It's going to be a challenge to match the people and the competencies and the expertise." 

Esterline, the Niskanen Center analyst, said with presidential administrations changing every four to eight years, government agencies rely on the expertise of continually employed civil servants — employees with institutional knowledge — to make the transitions as smooth as possible. "[If] we suddenly disrupt that balance of political appointees to civil servants, it will be a much rougher transition." 

Among other aspects of Project 2025, Esterline is attempting to raise the alarm on its prescriptions for specific regulatory changes. "[Project 2025] is a meticulous outline of how they will crumple the system simultaneously through minute changes."

Meanwhile, some former government officials are particularly concerned about the initiative's plans for the DOJ and FBI. For instance, in an interview for The Guardian , Michael Bromwich, a former DOJ inspector general, said the proposals to turn the departments into "instruments" to fulfill Trump's political agenda "should send shivers down the spine of anyone who cares about the rule of law."

Overall, critics including legal experts and former government employees have zeroed in on Project 2025's goal to give the executive branch more power, describing it as a precursor to authoritarianism.

However, the initiative's push to increase executive power may be part of a deeper trend in American politics, Peter Strauss, a professor at Columbia Law School, said in a  lecture  on Faculti, a research video platform. He said momentum to increase executive authority has been steadily increasing over many presidential administrations: 

We have seen in the United States a steadily expanding presidential claim of authority to control not only tenure but also ordinary acts of government. This has been happening at least since the presidency of Ronald Reagan and it reached a peak with President Trump and his first term, and he's promised that he's going back there. 

Our Reporting

For this report, we repeatedly tried to interview representatives of the Heritage Foundation — the conservative think tank that conceptualized Project 2025 — as well as the Trump campaign and other supporters of the effort. All either declined to be interviewed or did not respond to our inquiries. 

For example, we reached out to dozens of groups on Project 2025's advisory board — a collection of groups under the Heritage Foundation's oversight that have co-signed the effort, given feedback on its proposals or promoted it to government officials. The groups include Center for Renewing America , Turning Point USA , The American Conservative , and  American Cornerstone Institute . We asked the organizations about the nature of their involvement in the initiative, proposals they support, and more. As of this writing, none has responded.

After we initially reached out to the Heritage Foundation for this story, a spokesperson responded asking for more specifics on our reporting. We responded with key points, including requests to comment on project leaders' communication with former U.S. President Donald Trump, concerns from legal experts about the initiative's proposed changes and general criticism. The Heritage Foundation did not respond to that message. Later, after informing the organization of our writing deadline, a spokesperson said no one was available.

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July 5, 2024: This post was updated to include Trump's July 5, 2024, post on Truth Social.

By Nur Ibrahim

Nur Nasreen Ibrahim is a reporter with experience working in television, international news coverage, fact checking, and creative writing.

By Aleksandra Wrona

Aleksandra Wrona is a reporting fellow for Snopes, based in the Warsaw area.

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