The interface

A quick tour of the DropMaps workspace — the side nav, panel, header, tool rail, map controls and menu.

DropMaps is one screen: a map filling the window, a labelled nav down the left with a panel beside it, the map’s name and Share across the top, a tool rail along the bottom and a few controls floating over the map. This page names every part so the rest of the guide makes sense.

1. The side nav — panels, tools, map settings, print and theme.
2. The map header — the map’s name, its settings and cloud sync.
3. The side panel — layers, basemap, legend, bookmarks and analysis.
4. Share — publish the map as a link.
5. The tool rail — Pan, Add, Edit, Select and Measure.
6. The attribute table — your data as rows and columns.
7. Map controls — zoom, location, Home and fullscreen.
8. The menu — maps, the Layer Catalog, account, preferences and help.

You can drag a file onto the map from anywhere — you don’t have to open a dialog first.

The side nav

A column of labelled buttons runs down the left edge. The top group opens the side panel on one of its tabs, or toggles a tool:

• Layers — every layer in the map. See Working with layers.
• Basemap — the background map and your own custom basemaps. See Basemaps & external sources.
• Legend — a live key of what’s drawn.
• Bookmarks — saved views of the map, plus its Home view. See Bookmarks & the Home view.
• Table — opens the attribute table along the bottom.
• Filters — narrow layers by value with sliders and tick lists. See Live filters.
• Tools — a flyout with Charts (Chart Studio), Show chart dashboard, Analysis (spatial analysis) and the SQL console.
• Settings — the map’s own settings: name, description, Home view, thumbnail, globe/terrain, sharing, sync, offline and export. See Maps & cloud sync.

At the bottom of the nav are Print (print / save as PDF), the light/dark Theme toggle and the Menu button (your account picture once you’re signed in). You can hide tabs and tools you don’t use in Preferences.

The map header

Top-left, over the map, is the current map’s name. Click it to open Map settings; its Open another map button takes you to your maps to switch, create, import or organise them into folders. The sync chip beside the name shows whether the map is backed up (or Offline, with how many edits are waiting); click it for sync status and controls. See Maps & cloud sync.

The search button just below it finds an address or place. See Address search.

The side panel

The panel opens beside the nav and shows whichever tab you picked. Click the same nav button again, or the ✕ in the panel’s header, to close it and give the map the full width. The Layers tab has a filter box, a ⋯ menu for the whole list, and Add layer pinned to the bottom.

Settings windows such as Map settings and a layer’s style can dock beside the map instead of floating over it. Use the dock button in their header, so you can watch the map change as you adjust them.

Share

The green Share button (top right) publishes the map as a link anyone can open, and manages who else can see or edit it. See Sharing & the viewer.

The tool rail

A strip along the bottom of the map holds the map tools — Pan, Add, Edit, Select and Measure — with a one-line hint above them for the tool you’re on. Pan is the resting default: drag to move the map, scroll to zoom, and click a feature to see its details. Pick any other tool and its options open just above the strip:

• Add — draw new points, lines, polygons and text into a drawing or data layer. See Drawing & measuring.
• Edit — click any feature to reshape its geometry. See Editing features.
• Select — pick a set of features to act on. See Selecting features.
• Measure — distance, area and coordinates. See Drawing & measuring.

The chevron at the end of the rail tucks the options away. On a computer you can also drag the rail by its grip to float it anywhere over the map, or collapse it to a single button; the tool options ride along with it. From Preferences you can hide the whole rail, or hide individual tools you don’t use while keeping the rest.

The attribute table

The Table button opens the attribute table along the bottom, one tab per layer — view, edit, search and calculate over your data. Drag its top edge to make it taller. See The attribute table.

Map controls

Down the right edge of the map (each can be toggled in Preferences):

• Zoom in and out, with the current zoom level between them.
• My location — centre on your GPS position.
• Home — back to the map’s Home view. Until you set one (in Map settings, or from the Bookmarks panel), Home zooms to fit every layer.
• Fullscreen.

Bottom-left, the coordinate readout shows the pointer’s position; click it to cycle between decimal degrees, degrees-minutes-seconds and degrees-decimal-minutes. Right-click the map to copy a coordinate. The scale bar sits just below it.

The menu

The Menu button at the bottom of the nav is the home for everything that isn’t a map tool. It opens on tabs:

• Maps — every map you have, local and in the cloud. See Maps & cloud sync.
• Layer Catalog — every layer across your maps, to reuse in another map. See Working with layers.
• Account — sign in, your plan, storage and teams. See Account & billing.
• Preferences and Help. See Settings & preferences.

On a phone

On a narrow screen the same pieces rearrange: the nav buttons move into a compact column, panels open as a sheet you can drag up from the bottom, and the tool rail’s buttons get larger touch targets. Everything on this page is still there.

Next steps

• Getting started — make your first map.
• Adding & importing layers — every way to get data in.