Guides

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Make and publish your first map in about five minutes.

squidmaps is in beta. Features, the map spec and these docs may change without notice, and things may occasionally break. Export a copy of any map that matters to you, and tell us when something isn't right: use Beta feedback, or email [email protected].

On this page

Create a map
Draw your first places
Drop a point
Trace a line or area
Give each place a story
Set up the map
A morning on the Upper East Side
Publish
Next steps

Create a map

Choose New map at the top of any page. The map opens in the editor at its own address, like squidmaps.io/your-name/untitled-map: the features list on the left, the map in the middle, and settings on the right. Changes save as you go.

The editor: your features on the left, settings on the right, and the drawing tools below the map.

Tip: Your account starts with a map called Hello, World!: a tour of the editor, drawn on the map. Click anything on it to see how it’s made, then change it or delete it.

Draw your first places

Pick a tool from the toolbar at the bottom of the editor, or press its number. The full list of tools is in Drawing features.

The toolbar, with the point tool chosen. Each tool's key is under it.

Drop a point

Choose the point tool (2) and click the map. The new point is selected, so you can name it right away at the top of the right panel.

Trace a line or area

Choose the line tool (3) or the polygon tool (4), then click to add each vertex. Double-click or press Enter to finish a line. Finish an area by clicking its first vertex, double-clicking, or pressing Enter.

Give each place a story

Select a feature to edit it in the right panel: its name, a Markdown description, photos, and how it looks. Visitors see the name in a tooltip as they hover and the whole story in a card or a panel when they click.

Tip: Points get a Directions button in their popup on the published map.

Set up the map

Name your map and describe it at the top of the left panel, and choose its basemap at the bottom. With nothing selected, the right panel has the map’s legend and how far visitors can zoom and pan.

On the published map, its name and description are over the top left, and its legend is in the bottom right.

Map settingsTitle, description, basemap, zoom range and bounds.

Publish

Choose Preview to see the map as visitors will, on a desktop or a phone, then Publish. Your map goes live at its link, to share, or to embed in your own site. Edits you make afterwards stay unpublished until you publish again.

Your map's status, beside its name in the editor and on your dashboard.

Next steps

Drawing featuresPoints, lines, areas and text, and how to edit them.Styling dataColors, symbols, dashes, fills and labels that read at a glance.Importing dataBring in GeoJSON, CSV, KML, shapefiles and more.