Interactive Mapping Tool Help Page

The navigation bars at the top of the window provide links to other pages, as described by their titles. These bars appear at the top of every page of the Web site.

This menu provides you with access to all interactive maps on the Atlas of Canada site. A series of non-interactive reference maps is also available.

Instructions:

1. Position the cursor over the topic you are interested in.
2. A pop-up menu will appear to the right showing the subtopics available.
3. Position the cursor over the subtopic you are interested in and click the name you want.

The toolbar buttons give you access to more information about the map and the selected map location (city, boundary, province, etc). The buttons enable you to navigate within the map, get help and print the map.

Zoom In

This tool lets you view part of the map in greater detail.

Instructions:

1. Click the "Zoom In" button.
2. Position the cursor over the part of the map you would like to see in greater detail.
3. Click the mouse.
4. The map will be redrawn to show more detail.

Zoom Out

This tool lets you view a larger area with less detail.

Instructions:

1. Click the "Zoom Out" button.
2. The map will be redrawn to show a larger area.

View Full Map

This tool lets you zoom out to view the entire map.

Instructions:

1. Click the “View Full Map” button.
2. The map will be redrawn to show all of it.

Zoom to Region

This tool lets you view a specific location. The menu contains a predefined list of provinces, territories and cities you can zoom to.

Instructions:

1. Click the “Zoom to Region” button.
2. Position the cursor over the province you are interested in.
3. A pop-up menu will appear to the right showing the city names.
4. Position the cursor over the city name you are interested in and click.

Map Size

This tool lets you change the size of the map window.

Instructions:

1. Click the one of the three buttons, “S” (small map) or “M” (medium map) or “L” (large map).
2. The map will be redrawn in either a larger or small window size.

Note: This tool has been designed to work best after using the "Zoom In" tool at least once.

Get Info from Map

This tool gets you information about any specific location on the map. The locations can be cities, towns, census divisions or other thematic layers such as drainage basins.

Instructions:

1. Click the "Get Info from Map " button.
2. Position the cursor over the map location you would like information on.
3. Click the mouse.
4. A pop-up window will appear showing the information.

Note: Information is not available for all map locations (for example, rivers, lakes, political boundaries). If nothing is available, a message will indicate that.

Print Preview

This tool lets you print your map. It provides a printer-friendly, letter-size, portrait-format page that includes the current map, locator map, legend and text describing the map's thematic layers.

Instructions:

1. Click the "Print Map" button.
2. The browser window will refresh showing the map, title, locator map, legend and descriptive text.
3. Using the browser's print function, send the page to your printer.

Note: The maps print best using a colour printer.

Help

This tool gives you access to these instructions for using the interactive mapping features.

Instructions:

1. Click the "Help" button.
2. The browser window will refresh showing the help information.

The map window shows the map and thematic layers corresponding to the theme. The Text box in the upper right corner contains a fact relating to the map's theme and a link to additional information about the map.

The locator map shows the full extent of the map you have selected and highlights, with a red box or dot, the location currently showing in the map window.

The legend lists the map's special features and explains its colours, symbols, line patterns, shadings and annotation. The legend shows you the different layers of information the map contains. There are two kinds of layers: thematic layers (highlighted with dark blue), which show information related to the map's theme (e.g., population density, surface geology), and base layers (highlighted with light grey), which show geographic features common to all maps (e.g., roads, rivers, lakes and boundaries). Thematic layers always appear at the top of the layers

Note: A small number of maps have more than one thematic layer. Each thematic layer will have a check box to the left of the layer name. Only the thematic layer with the check mark will be visible. To view the other thematic layers:

1. Click the visible check mark so it disappears.
2. Click the box of the layer you wish to make visible.
3. The map will be redrawn displaying the new thematic layer

The scale bar shows the distance in kilometres.

The pan arrows, eight small triangles around the edges of the map, let you move left, right, up, down and diagonally to see parts of the map that aren't currently visible.

Instructions:

1. Click the arrow that points in the direction you would like to move.
2. The map will be redrawn showing the new parts.

This link goes to a page detailing the sources of information used to make the map.

If you can't find what you're looking for in this Help document, use the "Contact Us" feature in the top navigation bars to send us an e-mail.