Creating Placemarks in Google Earth Pro Importing GPS Data 1. Log in to the Google Earth Pro database using the directions in the first section of this document. 2. Zoom in on the approximate location of our first water testing site. 3. Hook up the GPS unit to the computer using the data cable. 4. Click on “Tools” menu in the menu bar of the program. 5. Under “Device” check the radio button for Garmin. 6. Check the box for waypoints. Uncheck the boxes for Tracks and Routes, as we did not create any of these. 7. Under options, check options “Adjust altitudes to ground height”. 8. Click “Import”. 9. This will create a placemark for each data point.

Manual Creation of a Placemark

1. Log in to the Google Earth Pro database using the directions in the first section of this document. 2. Zoom in on the approximate location of our first water testing site. 3. Use the latitude and longitude markings at the bottom of the screen to find the exact location. 4. NOTE: You might want to uncheck any layers that are not needed to give you room to see where you will place your placemark. Make sure not to uncheck the “Primary Database” or “Terrain” layers. 5. Click on the yellow push pin in the tool bar. 6. Add a title. Our first placemark was Chattahoocee Watershed Clean Water Project (CWP01).

7. Make sure the coordinates match with those you recorded in your data sheet.

Adding Text to a Placemark 1. Each placemark will work like a Word document. You can type in any information that you choose. 2. In order to standardize our entries use the format shown on the right to type in the information from your data sheet. 3. Click “OK” to save the information. 4. Click on the placemark to view your information. 5. NOTE: Placemarks will also handle XHTML and CSS code, which allows advanced users to create graphically pleasing placemarks.

Editing a Placemark

1. Zoom in on the placemark, if you are not already there. 2. Right click on the icon. This will bring up a menu. 3. Choose “Properties” from the menu. This will open the placemark for editing. 4. Make any necessary changes. 5. Click “OK” to save the information.

Adding Images to a Placemark 1. Right click on the place mark to bring up the menu. 2. Choose properties from the editing menu to open the placemark. 3. Click above the text and hit enter to make room for the code for the picture. 4. NOTE: All pictures must already be loaded on the internet. You can access pictures by searching for images in Google or by using a photosharing site such as Flickr (http://www.flickr.com) or Photobucket (http://www.photobucket.com) to upload your own pictures. 5. Bring up a web browser. 6. Type in the address for Google Search (http://www.google.com) 7. Click on images link in the upper left corner of the screen. 8. Type in Chattahoochee Watershed in the search box. 9. Click on an image of your choice that relates to the project. 10. Click on “See Full-Size Image” at the top of the screen. 11. Right click to bring up the menu and choose properties. This will bring up an “Element Properties” dialog box which contains information on the image.

12. Highlight the location code for the image. It should start with

“http:” and end with a file extension, such as “.jpg”. 13. Click above the first text entry and then hit enter to move the text down. Copy this information into the placemark. I like to put my images above the information in the placemark. 14. Click “OK” to save the information. 15. Click on the placemark to view the information. 16. NOTE: This procedure creates a link to the image. 17. In order to make the image appear in the placemark, right-click on the icon to bring up the menu. 18. Choose properties. 19. Click before the “http:” and add the following information: 20. Click “OK” to save the information. 21. Click on the placemark to view the information.

*Repeat the Above Procedure for each collection site.

Creating a Folder to Collect Placemarks 1. Move your mouse within the Places panel. 2. Right-click in a “white” area to bring up the menu. 3. Click “Add” and then move your mouse to the arrow to open the sub menu. 4. Choose the Folder option. 5. Title the folder. 6. Type in a short description of the project (optional). 7. Click OK. 8. NOTE: You can edit aspects of the folder after creating it by right clicking on it and choosing “Properties” from the menu.

Saving a Layer 1. NOTE: The placemarks you create are stored on your computer and not on Google’s sever. It is there for necessary to save the placemarks into a layer and then into your My Documents folder for safe keeping. 2. Move each placemark into the storage folder you created above. You do this by clicking and dragging each item into the folder. 3. As you drag items into the folder a + sign will appear before the folder. This indicates that there are placemarks in the folder. 4. Expand the folder to make sure that each item is in the folder. 5. Collapse the folder. 6. Check the folder, if it is not already checked. 7. NOTE: A dot in the folder means that not all of the placemarks in the folder are checked. Click on the folder repeatedly until a check appears. This means that all placemarks in the folder are checked. Placesmarks need to be checked in order to be saved. 8. Before starting the save process. Create a folder on the computer to save the document. 9. Click on the “File” menu at the top of the program screen. 10. Choose “Save”, then choose “Save Place As”.

11. NOTE: Because you created a folder and placed all of your placemarks in that folder, you can save it as one item and

therefore should choose “Save Place As”. If you wanted to save only selected placemarks, you would not put them in a folder, check only those you want to save and then choose “Save My Places”. 12. Navigate the folder where you want to save the file. 13. Name the file if you want it named something other than the name you gave the folder. 14. NOTE: Make sure to save the file as a KMZ file. This will include all of the data that you have created. This is the default setting. 15. Click “Save”.

Changing Icons 1. Right click on the icon you want to change to bring up the menu. 2. Choose “Properties”. 3. In the upper right corner, click on the icon symbol. 4. Choose a different icon from the list. 5. Click “OK”.

Adding Custom Icons 1. Bring up a web browser. 2. Type in the address: http://www.iconarchives.com 3. Find an icon that you want to use. 4. NOTE: icons should have a file extension of either .JPG or .GIF 5. Download it and save it to the folder you created to store your files for the project. 6. Minimize your browser and go back to Google Earth Pro. 7. Right click on a placemark and choose properties. 8. Click on the icon symbol in the upper right-hand corner of the dialogue box. 9. Click on “Add Custom Icon”. 10. Browser to the folder you stored your icon. Click on the image file you want to add to the icon archive in Google Earth Pro. 11. Click OK. 12. NOTE: This icon can be used over and over again at this computer only until someone removes the custom icons by clicking on “Clear Custom Icons”. If you go to another computer, you will have to upload the icon again.