randymajors.org

Bring your maps to life with Dynamic Maps!

March 19, 2023 by Randy Majors

A much-requested map feature is now available — Dynamic Maps. By “Dynamic Maps” we mean maps that show you the answer you’re looking for simply by hovering your mouse over the map! Of course, you can still click the map as before and it will drop a blue dot at the location you clicked and display the full information about the location in the blue bar above the map. Pro Tips This feature is very useful if you’re using the Selection Tools or Drawing Tools to select ZIP Codes, counties, etc as it will show you what you’re about to … Read more

By Popular Demand: Improved Map Printing and Screenshots!

July 7, 2022 by Randy Majors

The ability to print your maps is one of the most requested features we’ve been asked about over the years. For various boring yet tedious technical reasons, printing was not possible or highly inconsistent up until now. Now there is a new “Print” button available to take the pain out of printing your map and taking screenshots. Just click the “Print” button located in the upper right corner of the map on your desktop browser: You will then be presented with a Print preview window where you can print to your connected printer or save to a PDF file: Note … Read more

Update: Historical Counties and Drawing Tools

June 14, 2022 by Randy Majors

Screenshot showing both historical county labels and civil township labels

First, the popular Historical U.S. Counties Auto-Checker chrome extension has been updated to work with the latest version of Ancestry’s website. Also, now when you use the Historical U.S. Counties map tool, you can explore the historical counties for any historical date in the context of civil townships. As you likely know, civil townships are often used in a lot of historical records from census to land ownership and more. Now, when you turn on labels for historical counties by checking the “Show historical county labels” box in the lower left corner of the map, if you also check the … Read more

Quick Tip: Hide the blue dot

June 14, 2022 by Randy Majors

This one is easy now. Just click the blue dot, and it will disappear from the map: Click the map again and it will re-appear at the spot you clicked (or the address or place you searched for): So why is the blue dot there to begin with? It lets you know the location that the light blue bar above the map is reporting the information for. In the above example, that’s Merrimack County, New Hampshire. So if you want to get rid of the blue dot before, say, taking a screenshot, now you know how! Sometimes you feel like … Read more

Now you can combine 5-digit and 3-digit ZIP Codes to create your custom territories

June 14, 2022 by Randy Majors

3-digit and 5-digit Map ZIP Code expansion

Using mapBuilder, found below most map tools on randymajors.org, you can create custom territory/area maps using a spreadsheet containing ZIP Codes. Here is an example using 3-digit ZIP Codes (which are simply the first 3-digits of a 5-digit ZIP Code) to define some territories in the New York City metro area: Now, let’s say you want to expand Territory D to cover Rockaway, NJ in the upper left corner of the above map. Clicking the map, you see that the ZIP Codes you want are 07834 and 07866, so the three digit ZIP Code is 078. Adding 078 to your … Read more

Most Requested Capability Now Available: Draw & measure on the map

June 14, 2022 by Randy Majors

Study Area Map draw on the map example - cropped

Based on the survey last month completed by over 100 users, the most requested capability was to be able to draw on the map and save those drawings to your account. Well, now you can! In fact, you can draw points, lines and shapes on the map, save the drawings, and add multiple drawings onto the same map. And, as a bonus, length and area is automatically measured and displayed as you draw! Once you add drawings to your map, plus any other map layers you want to show, you can save the finished map to your account, and share … Read more

New powerful ways to select features on the map tools!

June 14, 2022 by Randy Majors

Now you can use the Selection Tools button to select map features on any map tool! You can select the map features using any points, lines or shapes that you draw, or select map features by specifying a radius around any shape you draw. The map features that get selected depend on which tool you are using: counties, city limits, civil townships, ZIP Codes, Section Township Range, historical U.S. counties, time zones, area codes or the custom map tools. Here’s how it works: Using the County Lines map tool as an example, click the Selection Tools button on the left … Read more

Action Required if you use the Custom Map tools on randymajors.org

August 13, 2021 by Randy Majors

This message is for anyone that uses any of the following custom map tools on randymajors.org: mapBuilder: Color-Code ZIP Codes from a spreadsheet mapBuilder: Color-Code Counties from a spreadsheet mapBuilder: Add points from a spreadsheet If you do NOT use Google Sheets to create maps on this website, you can safely ignore this message. What has changed? The way in which Google Sheets spreadsheets are published to the web has changed. This website and many others used a prior version of Google’s API that is imminently being discontinued. What do I need to do? Fortunately, the action you need to … Read more

Custom Map tools now make it easier to know if an address is located within your custom area

August 31, 2021 by Randy Majors

Now when you build a custom map using the mapBuilder on the Custom Area Maps or Custom Color-Coded Map tools, you will easily be able to tell if an address is located within your custom area. For example, if you create this link to a map of a Home Care Service Area, you will see a map like the following, with the blue message at the top indicating whether or not that location is within your custom area: A message is also displayed just below the map: The information is reported based on the location of the blue pin. The … Read more

On the move? Map tools now let you update your location automatically

April 13, 2022 by Randy Majors

As before, to show your current location while using any of the map tools on this website, you can click the ◉ button in the upper right corner of the map. But now you can keep clicking the ◉ button to set it to automatically update your location on the map in 1, 5 and 10 minute intervals. Bonus: Monthly Contributors also get an option to update every 0.2 minutes (12 seconds). This might be useful when you are: on the road and need to know what jurisdiction you are in (e.g. city, township, county and state) need to know … Read more