Creating Maps On Your Mac To Use In Mail, Pages, Keynote or iMovie

You can use the Maps app on your Mac for more than just finding locations and getting directions. You can create maps to be used in other apps as well. You can export a map into Preview and then annotate it to send in an email or message. You can copy and paste or export a map to use in Pages documents, Keynote presentations and iMovie video projects. You can also export satellite and 3D views.

Video Transcript: Hi this is Gary with MacMost.com. Let me show you some creative ways that you could use the Maps app to create content to send an email or use in apps like Pages, Keynote, or iMovie.
MacMost is brought to you thanks to a great group of more than 500 supporters. Go to MacMost.com/patreon. There you can read more about it, join us, and get exclusive content.
So let's say you want to makeup a map with annotations and maybe send it in an email. You may think the best way to do that is to find the location you want and then Share by email. But it doesn't quite work very well. So, for instance, here I can zoom in on Central Park and maybe I want to rotate the map and then draw on it. So the first thing is I would just go to Share and then Mail. But right away there's a little bit of a problem in that the preview is a little too small. You can see it doesn't even obey the rotation there. It's more of a link to a map location than anything else. 
Instead of doing that or using any Share option here I'm going to Print. Now you could Export as a PDF. Print gives you more options right here up front. I can click the Show Details button here at the bottom. Now one of the things I can do is do Horizontal View which is probably more how I have the window setup in the first place. Instead of exporting as a PDF, which would create a file and then I would have to open that file, I could go and just say Open in Preview. I could also Send in Mail here and then get a more accurate representation of what's going on. But Open in Preview allows me to Edit it and then Share it in various ways. So let's do that. 
So here I am in Preview now and you could see the map. It's not exactly the same as what I see in Maps here. It's a little bit cut off. But you can experiment a little bit by zooming in or out before you use Print to get this preview here. Now the I'm in Preview I can use the Markup Tools here at the top and I really could do anything I want with it. So for instance I can do a circle here and then let's change the border to red. I can drag this into a complete circle by holding the Shift key. It makes it a circle rather than an oval. Position it where I want. I can draw lines, lines with arrows, I can even freehand draw which could be a quick and easy way to do things. So for instance if I wanted to trace a route I could do that pretty easily.
Then I could add other shapes to it. I could add text here. I could add as much text as I want. I could, of course, include emoji in the text as well to create symbols. There's a ton of different mapping symbols. So, for instance, I could go to text there and then I can select it. Do Command Control Space and it brings up the Character Chooser. I can search for just about anything I want. So I could do this little running person emoji here. Really the sky is the limit for what you want to go and create here using the annotation tools. 
When you're done you could simply Save and save this out as a PDF which you can do various things with. You can also directly Share to here using Mail and get this annotated map here in the message without ever having actually saved a file. Now let's zoom back out. You can zoom out for really big views like say the entire United States like this and use that as a map for things. You can use these maps in all sorts of different places. As a matter of fact it can be as easy as copy and paste.
So say you want a map of the 48 continental United States and you want to use it in Pages. So you can run Pages, create a new document, and if I go into Maps here all you do is Copy, Command C or Edit Copy, and I'll switch over to Pages and Command V to paste. It's actually going to paste the exact map I'm looking at here as a graphic. So I can quickly get ClipArt for Pages. If I'm writing about various different locations I can be changing the map location all the time. Quick Copy and Paste and now I've got a map in here. If I double click on it of course in Pages you can do all sorts of things like zooming in or adjusting the crop of a map. Whatever you want and add borders and all sorts of things just like it was a regular image or photograph. 
You can do the same thing in Keynote. So I could do Command C here in Maps. Switch to Keynote and Command V and will paste the map in my slide here in Keynote. I can resize it and use it how I want as part of a slide or the entire slide or anything. Remember here in Maps you don't just have to use the standard map look. You can also go to Satellite View and get a satellite view of things. You could create some really interesting graphics that you could use in your presentations or documents. 
There's also 3D view. So you could go and zoom in usually on a city near the center, switch to 3D and then if you go close enough to downtown usually the buildings are then in 3D like they are here in the map of Denver. Then you can rotate the map and get the view that you want. Now for some reason this doesn't work with Copy and Paste. If I were to copy this you would think I would get exactly what I see here. But if I paste it into Pages or Keynote I get a flat 2D view of the same area.  But I can go and print and then open in Preview and it creates a 3D view there. I can then Copy from Preview, go over into Keynote and paste. I'll get the 3D view there.
Now this also seems to be true of Satellite views or 3D Satellite views like this one. Whenever you try to copy and paste you don't get what you expect. Then go to the Print option. Print to Preview or print and save as PDF and then you should get exactly what you see. 
You can also use these maps in iMovie but unfortunately  you can't copy and paste like you can with Pages and Keynote. So you have to go and then Print and then Open in Preview or Save As PDF after changing some options. So maybe making the orientation horizontal for instance. Once you have a PDF you can bring that into iMovie. So here I've created this PDF here. Let's go into iMovie and I drag and drop it in. Now I've got something I can use. I want to set the cropping either to, you know, Fit or Fill. Maybe make it so I don't get these edges of the PDF here like that. Then I've got a nice little map that I can add in as a graphic element. Of course you can do the same thing using Satellite views whether zoomed all the way in or zoomed far out to make really good content for your videos especially if your video is about a specific location.
There's so much you can do with this. Whether it's document you're writing, a presentation you're giving or a video you're making there's usually a location associated with what you're talking about. So throwing in a map or a 3D satellite view can really enhance your work.

Comments: 10 Responses to “Creating Maps On Your Mac To Use In Mail, Pages, Keynote or iMovie”

Jim Goddard

4 years ago

Great ideas for using maps.
Thanks

James Cowlin

Are there copyright issues if I want to use a map in a publication for sale or use it on a commercial website? Is permission needed from Apple?

Gary Rosenzweig

James: I'd imagine there are copyright issues. But I'm not a lawyer so I don't know for sure. You'd probably be better off using stock maps from a service for things like that.

Brad Simmons

No place to post a thumbs-up on this video! You deserve it.

Douglas Brace

I have not tried it but I think I know why the “Print > Open in Preview” option cuts off the borders of what is displayed in Maps. Could it be related to the printer margin settings?

Douglas: I don't think so. I just think it prints to the size of paper which is a different ratio than the window.

Adam Snyder

Great video Gary, never thought to do anything like this. Great ideas for every example you mentioned. The iMovie portion I know I will be using next time, excellent idea. 👍🏻

John Clark

I have created travel videos to share with family and friends. I often will open Quicktime and activate Screen Recording. Then i will record a large map that then pans and zooms into the geographic area that my travel video is about. In the video editing app, i start with this recording of the map and transition to the photos and videos i took while at the location.

Elaine

I always learn so much from you. Thank you for the excellent videos and information. And on the few occasions I’ve needed to contact you directly, you have been most expedient in responding. I appreciate that. You’re the best!

Gary Barth

Can you do the same on Maps on an ipad using IOS.

Comments Closed.

Creating Maps On Your Mac To Use In Mail, Pages, Keynote or iMovie

Comments: 10 Responses to “Creating Maps On Your Mac To Use In Mail, Pages, Keynote or iMovie”

Welcome to MacMost

Free Weekly Newsletter

MacMost Online Courses

Keyboard Shortcuts PDF

Connect with MacMost

MacMost Sections

Popular Tutorials

Information