The resources in this blog and the information in the Making Maps book are a great way to learn about making maps, but personal consultation and workshops are a great way to learn a lot about making maps in a short amount of time, in the context of your particular project and needs.
I have taught cartography and GIS for years, designed and created hundreds of maps (including most in the Making Maps book), conducted workshops, and consulted on many map design projects. I am available for consultation as well as workshops on cartography and map design, just contact me at jbkrygier@owu.edu
Making Maps: DIY Cartography 
I have made beautiful crime maps using MapInfo for years and now I am charmed by showing buildings and cars on streets that Google provides. But I cannot seem to get my dots on the map without putting each one on individually. Can you kindly give me some guidance. I have google earth plus and of course i have google maps. I have no latitude or longitude data. Police Officers do not know what those mean and have no access to that information when they write a report. I think that MapInfo may provide that information but I am not certain. Thank you very much.
ps. once I know how to do something I can be quite creative but without the initial link, the forest is very dark. Megan
Both Google Maps and Google Earth need latitude/longitude to plot points. The file format both use is KML (or, if compressed KMZ).
If you have your crime locations plotted out in MapInfo, figure out if you can export to KML or KMZ format. I don’t know MapInfo, but other software packages now provide KML export, or there are free or low cost utilities which generate KML files. You can then open them in Google Earth or Maps.
Another route to getting lat/long is to use street addresses, if that information is included in the police reports. I have my students do this using a web site called BatchGeoCode.
Go to the URL below (a class exercise) and scroll down to the “BatchGeoCode.com” section for step by step instructions.
http://go.owu.edu/~jbkrygie/krygier_html/geog_222/geog_222_exer/04_222_exer04.html
I hope one of these two options work!
John K.
Dear John,
I am currently undertaking my doctoral thesis and need to make maps of geographical regions, e.g. North Wales (UK), for the thesis and also for power-point presentations. I’ve looked on the web for help, but the advice is pretty limited, especially for those of us who are pretty limited in our computer abilities!
Do you have any pointers, please?
Best wishes
Edwin
Also: ArcGIS Explorer: http://www.arcgis.com/explorer/
ArcGIS Map Viewer: http://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html
Google “create maps on web” for other options,
hope this helps,
john k.
Hi! This is now pointing to a Donald Trump website http://indiemapper.com I guess the right address is presently http://indiemapper.io
I have read your blog with interest and found it very inspiring.
I have a problem with some maps that I am trying to digitize.
They are from 1966 from the Soviet union, depicting Greenland.
I do not seem to be able to find the right projection for these maps (always better to find the right projecton than to fit them manually). They seem to be a bit more “vertical” or straight than the normal projection (eg. WGS 1984) that I use today. Do you have any suggestions as to the projection used then?
Here are a few places to check for potential soviet projections:
GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES AND MAP PROJECTIONS OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE, THE SOVIET UNION, AND THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
http://tinyurl.com/jvc4zlu
Unpacking Soviet Military Maps: https://devilofhistory.wordpress.com/2015/07/28/unpacking-soviet-military-maps/
USSR (1945-1990) MAPS: http://maps4u.lt/en/maps.php?cat=89
Map Projections–a Working Manual
https://books.google.com/books?id=nPdOAAAAMAAJ&ots=f4xtloXmlQ&dq=soviet%20map%20projections&lr&pg=PR1#v=onepage&q&f=false
Map Projections–A Reference Manual
https://books.google.com/books?id=vTLAqGTAc8cC&lpg=PR9&ots=tJE_0zy49u&dq=soviet%20map%20projections&lr&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false
Coordinate Systems and Map Projections
https://books.google.com/books?id=tcL-BAAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&ots=YnSjw1eUHh&dq=soviet%20map%20projections&lr&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false
Flattening the Earth: Two Thousand Years of Map Projections
https://books.google.com/books?id=0UzjTJ4w9yEC&lpg=PA339&ots=ZbhQNvAzv0&dq=history%20soviet%20union%20map%20projections&pg=PA339#v=onepage&q&f=false
Bibliography of Map Projections
https://books.google.com/books?id=nEJSAQAAMAAJ&lpg=PA6&ots=mSzvG0clXR&dq=history%20soviet%20union%20map%20projections&pg=PR11#v=onepage&q&f=false
That was fast! Thank you very much. I will look into these projections. I must admit that it is an area that I have never considered before, post war Soviet projections :-)