Virtual Earth - Features in Live maps
Measure distance with a ruler: For answering questions such as, “How far the place is from Hudson river at Holland tunnel”. You can make use of line draw tool that is on Scratch pad. This useful feature was built to make collections of points, polygons and lines but it can also be used as an adhoc multipoint ruler. Go to the collections menu and select the option 'Open'. Choose the line draw tool at the bottom of scratch pad and start to click on the map.
Move a pushpin: The pushpin that you had created on scratchpad can be moved. This feature is very useful. For instance, you see an address and find that the geocode is a little off. You can then hover over your pushpin and select the ' move option and place it on a new location. This is very convenient if you wish to send a route or a location to anyone and you wish to refine that location.
Business phone research: It is often called reverse phone look up. All you have to do is type a phone number in business search box and then hit 'enter'. Live maps will then look for appropriate business listing.
Right click for doing all kinds of stuff: If you are not inclined to explore then probably you have not found this. Context menus contained in web apps are becoming more common. However, with the advent of maps use of these menus have become less common. Right clicking on a particular object on the map is an innovative way for interacting with the map. Suppose, on the live maps of Virtual Earth, you are seeing a 3D building and you require directions to reach that building. There is absolutely no need to enter the address of the building. Even without entering the address, you can find its directions. All you have to do is right click on the building and select the option 'drive to' or simply add a pushpin to that location.
Mouse and Keyboard locations: Unless you poke around frequently at your keyboard, you will not know about any mouse and keyboard shortcuts. So give your 'fine manual’ of virtual Earth a careful reading to learn about mouse and keystrokes tricks that you were not knowing. Shift D can be used for seeing the details of a particular place. Shift B is used for viewing buildings. In 3D mode both these short cut keys operate as toggles.
Changing style of objects that you have drawn: When you have drawn a shape or a line on the map then you could return to it after some time for altering its line style or color. You can continue to edit objects by simply splitting the line segments and then adding nodes. When you are in edit mode, you can easily change the shape by simply dragging the nodes around. You can also make use of shape and color pickers that are on the scratchpad for updating its style. Right clicking on a line segment will allow you to access options such as splitting it.tags]Microsoft, Virtual earth, live maps, using virtual earth features, [/tags]
Tags: Microsoft Virtual Earth
