Shape2Earth Tools for PowerPoint - Alpha Testing

Shape2Earth Tools for PowerPoint are intended to make your presentations better.  They consist of tools that allow you to:

1. Export slides as Google Earth Screen Overlays.
2. Export slides as images in Google Earth Balloons
3. Export slides as Google Earth Ground Overlays
4. Embed Google Earth in PowerPoint Slides

If anyone is interested in testing the Alpha version of Shape2Earth for PowerPoint, please send me a request at info@shape2earth.com.

Create Google Earth Balloons with PowerPoint

Balloons in Google Earth are a great way to provide information about a place.  Balloons are pretty easy to make.  You just write text or html into the Description of a placemark using Google Earth.

Making your balloon really nice takes some more work.  You can add really nice html, but this takes time and an understanding of html and css.

Shape2Earth for PowerPoints simplifies things by letting you create the balloon in PowerPoint, and then plot a point on the map with a graphic of the PowerPoint inside that points balloon.

First, select the slide you want to put in the balloon in PowerPoint, and then select the 'Balloon' button from the 'Shape2Earth' menu in PowerPoint (requires that Shape2Earth for PowerPoint has been installed).  This will open up the Google Earth design globe in PowerPoint.  Zoom to the area where you want to place the slide, and then click the 'Balloon' button on the toolbar in the design globe.  Then, simply click on the globe to map that slide.

You can add as many slides and points as you would like.  If you make a mistake, you can right-click on the placemark in Google Earth, and select 'delete' from the context menu.  You can also click on the point to see what the balloon looks like (see below).

When you are done mapping slides, click the Export to Google Earth button to export to Google Earth

All the mapped slides will be bundled into a KMZ that can be easily redistributed.

Create PowerPoint Slides in Google Earth

Interested in Testing Shape2Earth Tools for PowerPoint?

Shape2Earth for PowerPoint let's anyone easily embed and control Google Earth in PowerPoint 2010.  You can add as many Google Earth Slides as you would like, and you can control where Google Earth zooms to on each slide, and on each movement of text animation.

See Google Earth in PowerPoint and Control Google Earth with PowerPoint Animation on how this works.

While Shape2Earth makes it easy to create Google Earth PowerPoint slides, a lot of people have grown accustomed to creating presentations in Google Earth itself.  The KML PowerPoint Import button lets you build your presentation in Google Earth using very simple KML structure that can be brought into PowerPoint for presentation.

Shape2Earth uses KML Folders to represent slides in PowerPoint.  The first step is to add a KML Folder that will represent the Presentation.  There are a couple of ways to add folders in Google Earth.  One method is represented below.  Right Click on the 'Temporary Places' in the Google Earth 'Places' view, and then select 'Add --> Folder.

This will open up a 'New Folder' dialog.  Enter a name for your presentation in the 'Name' text box.  The Google Earth view for each slide can be added by selecting the 'View' tab in the dialog, and clicking the 'Snapshot current view' button.

Select 'OK' so save your information and close the dialog.

Add your first actual slide by selecting the Presentation Folder you just added, and adding a Folder to it.  Each Folder that you add to your Presentation Folder will be a slide in your presentation. The text you add to the 'Name' text box in the New Folder dialog will be the title of your slide. The snapshot view of that Folder will be where Google Earth zooms to when that slide is loaded in PowerPoint.

If you forgot to add a Snapshot View when the Add Folder dialog was open (or need to change the view), you can either reopen the dialog by right clicking on the Folder and selecting 'Properties', or you can right click on the Folder and select 'Snapshot View' from the menu.

If you add any text to the 'Description' text box in the Folder properties dialog, your PowerPoint slide will present this data as text next to Google Earth.  If you do not add any text, PowerPoint will only show Google Earth in the slide.

In the example below, we have zoomed into the Washington Monument, added a Folder, Snapshot the View, and then copied data from a Google Search (returning data from Wikipedia) and pasted it into the 'Description' tab.

Once you are finished with your KML, you can save the KML from Google Earth on your hard drive, and then open PowerPoint, and select the design you would like for your slide.

In PowerPoint, select 'Import KML to Slides' from the 'Shape2Earth menu, and select the KML file you saved..

Shape2Earth will take this KML file and convert it to Google Earth slide templates, with each Folder being a slide.  It will also open Google Earth in the PowerPoint design view so you can make any edits you would like to the text an Google Earth views.

Running your presentation will show Google Earth in each Google Earth slide, and zoom to the location that you defined in KML.

If you added any text to the Description, that that will be shown next to Google Earth (see below).

Being able to create Google Earth slide shows using KML offers an enormous amount of power for presenting spatial data.  Besides creating KML in Google Earth, any person or system can write out this KML that can be brought into PowerPoint.  These presentations can be saved and sent out to anyone with PowerPoint 2010 and Shape2Earth.

Control Google Earth with PowerPoint Animation

 An earlier post showed how Shape2Earth for PowerPoint makes it easy to add Google Earth slides to your PowerPoint presentations.  In that example, each slide held a single Google Earth view, and zoomed to the location on each slide that was selected in PowerPoint during design time.

This post will demonstrate how to create multiple Google Earth views in a single slide by using the simple animation tools that are built into PowerPoint.

Starting with a title page below, we will select a Google Earth slide template from the Shape2Earth menu in PowerPoint.

The selected template puts a new slide with a Google Earth placeholder next to text in the slide.  It also opens up Google Earth in the Task Window that will be used to set the Google Earth views for this slide.

The first thing to do is to add information to the slide.  We can also set the view for the slide by clicking on the Set View button in the Google Earth window.

 Next, we will apply an animation to the text.  Animation settings are available from the Animation menu in PowerPoint.  In this example, we have selected for the text to fly in.

After the animation has been applied, you will see Animation fly to information added to the Google Earth placeholder in the slide.  This will help us keep track of what Google Earth views are associated with each Animation set on our text.

In the example below, I have clicked on the "Cadet Chapel" text on the slide.  This turns the Animation View in the placeholder red.  I can then move Google Earth to the view I want to set, and click the Set View button.  This will change the information in the placeholder so that I know this Animation View has been set.

Repeat this process for each Animation.

When the slide show is run, this slide will initially zoom to the view selected for that slide.

Each time the slide is advanced, the animation on the text will be run.  As soon as that happens, Google Earth will zoom to the view set for that animation.

You an add as many slides and animations as you would like.

This is just a small example of what can be done with Shape2Earth for PowerPoint.  My next entry will show how to make your presentation in Google Earth, and then import it into PowerPoint.

Google Earth in PowerPoint

Interested in testing Shape2Earth Tools for PowerPoint?

Chances are, you've used Microsoft PowerPoint to present information to people.  There is also a very good chance that you have used Google Earth as a briefing tool to describe a location to people.

Many people have wanted to merge these two tools together into a single briefing platform.  Some people export their slides into images that they can turn into Screen Overlays or Ground Overlays using KML to see them in Google Earth.  Others try to get Google Earth into PowerPoint using various methods, such as copying Google Earth screen captures into a slide.  Some people use hyperlinks in PowerPoint to open KML files that launch Google Earth.

And still others have tried to put Google Earth itself into PowerPoint.

I am one of those people.  I wanted to be able to have Google Earth not only in my PowerPoint slides, but also wanted it to be a seamless part of the presentation.  Whenever I transitioned to a new slide, I want Google Earth to zoom to the area that was being presented.

This turned into a new Shape2Earth product that lets people put Google Earth into their PowerPoint presentations.  Anyone who is able to add a new slide in PowerPoint will be able to make Google Earth slides.

The Shape2Earth toolbar for PowerPoint has a menu of available Google Earth slide templates, very similar to the way in which regular slides are added.  The image below shows the selection of a full slide Google Earth template.

Once the template has been selected, a new slide is added, and Google Earth opens in the right hand task window.  Google Earth is not presented in the slide at design time, but a graphic displays where Google Earth will be when the slide show is run.  Text on top of the image will tell you that this template is using the default view for Google Earth.

The tool bar on top of the Google Earth task window lets you set the view for that slide.  Another button lets you zoom back to the location that has been set.  This is very useful for other slide templates that have a Google Earth view based on each item in a bullet list (the topic of a future blog entry).

As you can see below, you can add as many Google Earth slides as you would like, and set the view for each of them.

The real magic is when you run your slide show and Google Earth glides to the location for that slide.  The two images below show two different slides in our presentation.  Unfortunately, the imaged do not capture the flow of Google Earth from slide to slide, which is the most compelling part of this very simple demonstration

Shape2Earth for PowerPoint will be made available from the Shape2Earth website after finalization and a beta testing period.

Making Shape2Earth Easier

Some recent changes to Shape2Earth for MapWindow has made it even easier to convert shapefiles to KML for viewing in Google Earth. In the past, it was necessary to download MapWindow, and then install Shape2Earth separately as a plugin. The new install package bundles MapWindow Version 4.7.5 with Shape2Earth in a single installation.

Shape2Earth is a very powerful and easy to use system for creating thematic maps for Google Earth using open source GIS.

A new video on YouTube shows you just how easy it is.

Converting KML to Shapefiles

An update to the free and open source KML2Shapefile extension for MapWindow GIS has been posted. There are a number of fixes to and enhancements to make conversion faster and easier.

KML has really taken off as a format for posting geospatial data on the Web. Bringing that data into a GIS offers a lot of analytic options for a great price.

Shape2Earth 2.0

Shape2Earth for MapWindow GIS provides simple tools for converting shapefiles to Keyhole Markup Language (KML) for viewing GIS data in Google Earth. It runs as a plugin to the free and open source MapWindow GIS, which is an excellent .NET based GIS desktop application. The purpose of releasing Shape2Earth as a plugin to MapWindow was to take advantage of all of the shapefile tools that MapWindow makes available.

One drawback to this approach was that using MapWindow required a little bit of knowledge on general GIS workflows. Users needed to download MapWindow, then download Shape2Earth into a specific directory so that MapWindow could see it as a plugin, activate Shape2Earth in MapWindow, load a shapefile, and then know how to adjust the symbology of the shapefile using MapWindow, and then export the shapefile to KML using MapWindow.

Shape2Earth 2.0 works on top of the new Shape2EarthEngine, and greatly simplifies the process. Users can run Shape2Earth 2.0 without having to launch any additional programs. Shape2EarthEngine provides its own shapefile reader and symbol rendering engine. It does not require the use of MapWindow GIS, or any of its components.

While Shape2EarthEngine has been decoupled from MapWindow GIS, it can still run as a plugin to MapWindow, just like the original Shape2Earth. This lets users take advantage of all that MapWindow has to offer in terms of managing shapefiles and cartographically defining the symbology for export as a KML file.

Besides being able to run stand-alone, or with MapWindow, Shape2Earth 2.0 offers many new and improved options for letting people create compelling Google Earth maps using shapefiles.

Shape2Earth 2.0 and Shape2EarthEngine are still under development. I hope to have it available for beta testing by current Shape2Earth customers in the coming months.

Google Earth Portable Server

Google is now offering a Google Earth Portable Server as part of their enterprise offerings. This architecture lets users select their area of interest from a web page with the Google Earth Plugin embedded in it. This are is extracted and downloaded on to their computer, and is served to the Google Earth Enterprise client, or to a web page with the Google Earth Plugin.

This configuration offers a lot of flexibility for use, and can run completely disconnected from the network. This is a big deal for government and DoD customers.

Similar solutions in the past made use of Linux virtual machines running a Google Earth Server connected to a Windows machine. The new configuration is much more elegant and manageable.

This architecture will make a lot of sense for military use. Soldiers could select there are of interest from an NGA server, and then download their imager, vector data, and applications as a deployable bundle that can operate disconnected, or in conjunction with other services.

Kml2Shapefile for MapWindow GIS

Kml2Shapefile has been released as an open source KML/KMZ to shapefile converter. It is a plugin for the free MapWindow GIS. It needs a bit more testing. There are a lot of KML files out there.

I was going to provide the option to reproject the data, but decided the the user can do that easy enough in MapWindow after the shapefile has been created.

Kml2Shapefile will split the geometries out of KML into separate shapefiles (points, lines, polygons) and supports Z values and multipoints.

Currently, you can save the following as attributes:

1. Placemark name
2. Placemark snippet
3. Placemark description
4. Description HTML tables (needs more testing)
5. Lat/Long of point data
6. Elevation of point data

The ability to save custom schema's will come later. I thought it was best to get this our for testing.

Shapefiles for Web Mapping

KML is becoming a standard way to display geospatial data on the internet. With all of the really good web mapping platforms available today, you can take your pick on how you would like to show off your GIS data to a large audience.

Shape2Earth can get your GIS data on the web quickly by converting your shapefiles to KML for display in Google Earth, Google Maps, or Bing Maps.

Here is a quick example of showing off GIS data in Google's App Engine platform with Google Earth. It's important to note that this capability is essentially free. Google will host your spatial application. All you have to do is put it together.

Shapefiles in in Google's App Engine (select the Shape2Earth layers on the right).

Shape2Earth Users Guide

Shape2Earth has a much needed Users Guide on line to help get people going converting shapefiles to KML. Shape2Earth is very easy to use, but there is a lot that can be done with it in conjunction with MapWindow, and this guide should help those without a GIS background.

There is still some work to be done on the Guide, but I thought that getting the current information out there was more important than having 100% of the content filled out.

Shape2Earth 2.0 is also under works. It is mostly a redesigned form that takes into account lessons learned from Shape2Earth 1.0 for MapWindow. Shape2Earth 2.0 will still work with MapWindow to take advantage of its advanced GIS capabilities, but will also be able to run independently. The core management and conversion has been moved into Shape2Earth Engine. This will make it much easier for things such as batch converting of shapefiles, and embedding Shape2Earth into other applications

Shape2Earth for MapWindow GIS 4.7 Released

Shape2Earth for MapWindow 4.7 has been released. Shape2Earth is the quickest, easiest, and cheapest way to convert shapefiles into Keyhole Markup Language (KML) for viewing in Google Earth.

This version of Shape2Earth offers a number of improvements, including:

1. Better handling of complex geometries
2. Ability to add custom balloon styles
3. Exporting of selected data, or data in a specific area
4. Sorting of spatial features into KML Folders based on an attribute
5. Higher accuracy on geo-referenced Google Earth image captures

Shape2Earth has been downloaded over 32,000 times in the last 18 months, and has been found to be exceptionally useful and cost effective by local and federal government agencies, as well as industry leaders in a multitude of professional specialties.

Download Shape2Earth and try it on your own data today.

MapWindow GIS User and Developer Conference

The 1st International MapWindow GIS User and Developer Conference will be held in Orlando, FL, from 31 March to 2 April 2010.

MapWindow is a .NET, open source, easy to use, desktop GIS that can be extended through plugins.

Shape2Earth4GPS Alpha

I have been working on a Google Earth based application that uses their new Plugin in a .NET Form called Shape2Earth4GPS. It is an experiment on being able to edit spatial data (in this case, GPS data) directly on the Globe.

Currently, it works very well for digitizing your waypoints and routes, and then saving them as GPX files to upload into your favorite GPS receiver. You can also load and edit your existing waypoints, routes, and tracks.

If anyone would like to act as a beta tester for Shape2Earth4GPS, please send me a note at sabin21@gmail.com

ArcGIS Explorer - Color Coding Shapefile Data

I’ve been working on an ArcGIS Explorer stand-alone application that needs to let users select buildings inside of a buffer that is created around a user defined point. The attributes of the selected buildings and their colors need to be changed to indicate their status. The user will also be able to click on a building to select it, and then be able to change the status of the building (by changing the color/attribute of the selected building).

Using shapefiles, a file based personal geodatabase, or an ArcSDE geodatabase won’t work, because it does not look like you can have an attribute based coloring scheme. There also does not appear to by any way to extrude the shapefiles, and the building need to be 3D.
I can use KML to extrude buildings and change the color of individual features, but I cannot run any of the spatial operations on a KML file.

I am getting around this by using both shapefiles and KML. I’m using the ArcGIS Explorer API to generate KML form the shapefiles on the fly. Each KML Placemark has an ID that is equal to the shapefile FeatureID. I’m using the API to select features from the shapefile based on a point (for selecting an individual building) or by area (to select t group of buildings from a buffer). I can then open the XML/KML file, get the associated Placemarks by matching their Id to the FID, change their style to reflect the change in attribution, and then reload to view the change.

This seems to be a nice way to get around some of the limitations in ArcGIS Explorer to make it quite a bit more useful for my application requirements. This method also seems to work with file based personal geodatabases and ArcSDE.

Create and Edit GPX In Google Earth

The Google Earth plugin is offering many new opportunities for writing custom web-based and desktop applications. iEarth is an experiment that uses Google Earth as the map for interacting with GPS and GIS data.

The Google Earth plugin is intended for use in a web page, but can also be embedded in a desktop application in a web control or referenced as an ActiveX control.

A common method for embedding the Google Earth plugin in a desktop application can be viewed online as a part of the Google Earth code samples.

Part of what makes the Google Earth plugin so much more flexible than its desktop counterpart is the programmatic control that is given to developers through its API.

Not only can spatial data be loaded as KML, but the source data can be directly manipulated through the Google Earth interface.

An example of this is the GPX editor seen below.

GPX is an XML based exchange format for GPS data such as waypoints, routes, and tracks. The GPX editor in iEarth can load existing GPX data for viewing or editing, and also lets users digitize and edit data from scratch. The data is translated into KML for viewing in Google Earth, but is kept in internally in the GPX format for saving.

This same method can be used with Shapefiles. The next release of Shape2Earth will embed a link to the shapefile so that editing spatial or attribute data in iEarth will also edit the shapefile.

Google Earth Plugin in iEarth

Digitize a GPX Waypoint and enter data


View the GPX attributes in the Google Earth Balloon

Digitize Routes in Google Earth and save as GPX for use in GPS Receivers

Right click on existing data to edit the attribute data

ESRI Online Services + Microsoft Virtual Earth

An announcement from ESRI and Microsoft.

Users of ESRI’s ArcGIS will now be able to directly load base map data from the Microsoft Virtual Earth platform into the ArcGIS 9.3 Desktop and Explorer. Data layers will include the high resolution street maps, imagery, and hybrid that we have become accustom to seeing in Microsoft’s Virtual Earth.

Access to this data requires a subscription to ArcGIS Online Service.

Imagery can be previewed at http://resources.esri.com/arcgisonlineservices.

Virtual Earth ASP.NET Control

Using the Virtual Earth map in your web page is nothing new. What is new about this control is that you can drop it into your ASP.NET project in Visual Studio and get it running without the need for any client side JavaScript. All of the parameters can be set in Visual Studio and all of the code to manipulate and interact with the map and map data and can be written in server side .net code.

The Windows Live Dev Blog points out that the map can be made even more interactive through the use of ASP.NET AJAX.

This control is one of several that Microsoft is offering as part of their Live Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio.

Shapefile to GeoRSS for Google Maps

The most recent version of Shape2Earth includes a functional prototype for converting shapefiles to a GeoRSS format. It currently works with simple lines and points. Attribute data can be selected to be embedded in the GeoRSS feed.

Select the attributes you wish to export to GeoRSS

Attributes can be embedded in the xml, listed as a table, or both

GeoRSS is a very popular format, and is particularly useful for serving data to web mapping applications such as Google Maps.

View the Google Map/GeoRSS sample to see how point GIS data can be viewed.