Google Earth - if you are trying to organise some GIS work, then why not use the free software available via Google Earth?

Google Earth basics:

1. Folders - developing good habits!

2. Take a tour

3. Add a placemark

4. Add text, photos, videos and sound to a placemark

1. Folders - developing good habits!

When you add your own data to Google Earth, the information is put into Places >My Places>Temporary Places. It is better to highlight the My Places folder and then click on Add and choose the Folder option - this allows you to give your folder a meaningful name and store all placemarks and other data in this folder. Similarly, have a folder on your hard drive where you store all the saved Google Earth kml files.

2. Take a tour

A. Fly to a specific location:

In the search box on the left, type in the name of a city e.g. Sydney and click the Search icon. Google Earth should take you to your destination.

B. Fly to multiple locations:

1. In the Sidebar, Places tab, click on My Places to highlight it. On the top menu, click on Add and choose Folder – rename the folder Multiple Places and click OK .
2. In the search box, type in the name of a city e.g. Sydney and click the Search icon. Google Earth should take you to your destination.
3. Drag the city name from the search box into your Multiple Places folder.
4. Repeat the process by adding two more cities e.g. Mumbai and Stockholm
5. Click on the Play Tour icon to start your tour of the three cities.

C. Fly along a route:

1. In the Sidebar, Places tab, click on My Places to highlight it. Choose the area that you are interested in e.g. the Jurassic Coast , the River Severn and from the top menu choose Add , then Path .
2. Move the pop-up window to one side or make it smaller and then draw a simple path (not too long or it takes ages to fly along!) – you may need to experiment a little. Give the path a name e.g. Jurassic Coast or River Severn and click OK .
3. Make sure the Path name (and nothing else) is ticked and then click on the Play Tour icon.
4. You can change the angle of view and the tour speed by going to Tools, Options, Touring.
5. If you want to share the Path you have created, right-click and choose Save Place As and give the file a name. It saves the Path as a .kmz (compressed) or .kml file. Anyone can then load that file and follow the same path.

3. Add a placemark

You can either click on the Add tab and then choose 'Placemark' or you can click the Placemark icon (yellow pin). A new window will open and from this you can name the placemark e.g. Brighton Pier. Whilst the window is open, you can drag the placemark to the exact position you want. If you want to change the icon or the colour or size of the icon, click on the icon symbol next to the name. A new window opens with lots of options. Click OK when finished.

4. Add text, photos, videos and sound to a placemark

You can either right-click on the placemark icon and choose 'Properties' or you can right-click on the name in the left-hand side panel and choose 'Properties'. You can then add/edit text or you can add a photo. If adding photos, first make sure that you have placed the photos you are going to use in a separate folder. Then add this text to the Description box: <img src="the correct location of my photo" width="300">. In order to find out the correct location of the photo, open Windows Explorer, right-click on the photo file icon, choose Open With and then choose Firefox or Internet Explorer - when the browser opens and loads the image, copy the address from the information bar at the top of the screen (e.g. C:/Documents and Settings/My Documents/brighton.jpg). The width bit is optional and can be omitted if you wish. You can also enter a web URL if you want to put a photo from a website into the placemark. Using the same method, it is possible to add video clips or sounds to a placemark.