Mapping with Google Fusion Tables

You will learn how to transform location information stored in an Excel spreadsheet to a format that can

be mapped directly with the Google Fusion Tables.

Format of Data within the Excel Spreadsheet

Open the Excel spreadsheet found within the tutorial package, and see how the information is stored. It is very important to follow the proper format when imputing cell data for each heading so that the Fusion Tables can read it. For this tutorial, we will use the headings of Name, Address, WiFi and DriveThru. The address must include the street number, street name, city, province, and country – in that order. The image below displays the correct format of data within the cells. Once all the data is correctly imputed, it will be imported into the Google Fusion Tables. Lastly you will learn how to map the locations and share them with others.

Import an Excel table into Google Fusion Tables

1. Open the home page of Google Fusion Tables

[http://www.google.com/fusiontables/Home/] and log in.

You will need to click ‘See my tables’ to log into Google Fusion Tables with your Google Account.

If you don’t have the account, you will need to create one first.

Google Fusion Tables now is part of Google Drive. When logged in, the webpage will look like one below.

2. Create a Google Fusion Table.

is the symbol representing a fusion table in Google Drive.

You will create a Google Fusion table by importing the sample Excel spreadsheet. In Google

Drive, click ‘Create’ and click ‘Table (beta)’.

3. Browse to E:\Google Fusion Tables and find Data Table.xls

In the ‘Import new table’ pop up window, select ‘From this computer’ and browse to find the

updated Excel Spreadsheet. Click ‘Next’ when finished.

4. Assign a name to the table name and click ‘Finish’ to complete the data import.

5. The imported table will look like the image below.

Note that Google Fusion automatically recognizes the address and highlights the locations in

yellow.

6. Create a new table view.

You may change the table view to change the table view, from ‘File’ menu select ‘Create View’.

Here you can select the columns that you want to display and assign a name to the table view

(simple).

Mapping the Tim Hortons Locations

7. Geocode the Tim Hortons locations.

In ‘Visualize’ menu select ‘Map’, you will notice that the address geocoding process will start.

Please wait for a few minutes until it finishes.

8. Obtain additional information for the locations.

You can zoom in and click on one of the icons to acquire additional information for the Tim

Hortons (the information stored in the table columns).

Create a query

9. Display selected locations

You have the choice of querying the data and displaying them in the map. To create a query,

click ‘options’.

10. Set the query criteria

In the option windows, click Filter ‘tab’ then set a condition as ‘WIFI = YES’ and click ‘Apply’.

Immediately you will notice a change in the map - only the small red symbols (Tim Hortons

locations with Wi-Fi) are shown.

11. Change the icon style.

You can make some change on the symbol style for the Tim Hortons locations. For instance, click

‘Configure styles’ and change the point maker icon colors from its original format (‘small_red’)

to ‘small_blue’.

Sharing Your Table and Map

12. Set up the sharing settings

On the top right side of the page, click ‘Share’. In the ‘Share setting’ windows, set ‘Who has

access’ from ‘Private’ to ‘Public on the web’ by clicking ‘Change…’.

13. Share the link with others via e-mail

On the top right side of the page, click ‘Share’ and then copy and paste the link into your e-mail.

14. Export the locations out in KML format

Additionally, you can export the locations out as a KML file. At the top of the page, click

‘Download KML’

Save the file and view it in Google Earth or share it with others.

Katherine Frankovich

Revised on August 8, 2012