In this post, I am going to demonstrate adding a map to your blog. Think how much more interesting your blog will be if you can add a map to it in order to illustrate the place that you are actually blogging about! Your readers will then feel so much more involved in your post, and may even decide to visit the area or place that you are describing!
Recently I was posting to my other blogs on both Live Spaces and LiveJournal about my recent visit to Scotland, and inside those posts I made a lot of use of the INSERT MAP feature to be found in Windows Live Writer as you can plainly see in my other blog here. So in order to illustrate this how-to, I will make use of one of the places that we visited during our stay.
It can help Live Search Maps if you have the full address of the place that you are discussing in you post, but this isn’t always necessary. So lets go ahead and insert a map.
On the right hand side of the compose screen, you will see under the INSERT list, the choice of INSERT MAP, so click on that, and you will then be taken to the Live Search Maps screen which will ‘pop up’ inside Windows Live Writer.
In the FIND A LOCATION box, insert the place that you visited or talked about inside your blog. I will insert ‘Helensburgh,Scotland’ which is the name of one of the places we visited during our stay and where I also took some photographs.
We stood on the pier and watched a submarine from here.
After clicking on the search icon, your location will then be displayed in a road map view. You can then just click on INSERT and the map will be inserted into your blog inside Windows Live Writer. If you click on the map, you will be presented with a menu of choices on the right hand side of the compose screen. Under OPTIONS, you can then choose to change or alter the map as viewed. So lets take a look at those options.
Helensburgh zoomed in
You can ZOOM in closer to the area shown by clicking on the ZOOM slider on the left hand side of your map. When you alter the ZOOM view of the map it will then automatically change inside your post. If you click inside the map and then hold, your cursor will change to a small hand and you will be able to then move the map around to adjust the view, or alternatively you can just click on the blue arrows to the left of the ZOOM slider and move the map using that method. The blue arrows signify North,South, East and West.
Even better, you can switch your map to an aerial view. Just above the blue arrows and ZOOM slider you will see a box which by default shows ROAD. By clicking on the arrow to the right of ROAD, you will then be presented with the choice of AERIAL, and if you click on it, the map will then change to an aerial view inside your blog. You can also choose whether or not your map should also display any labels such as street names by placing a tick inside the SHOW LABELS feature under the ZOOM slider.
And here is the aerial view also showing the labels
You can give your map a CAPTION which will appear directly below it in order to give your blog readers more information about the place shown on the map. I have put in my map, ‘We stood on the pier and watched a submarine from here’ inside my CAPTION of my map,but you can add any information that you think will be interesting for your readers.
You also have a number of choices about its placement inside the post, you can choose whether or not to have it inline,left, right or centre by going to LAYOUT and then under TEXT WRAPPING selecting whereabouts in relation to your text you wish the map to appear. As with your pictures you can also choose to have invisible margins around your map so that the text doesn’t butt right up to the edges of it.
So now try adding a map to your blog if you are including a visit that you have made recently or mentioning somewhere you visited in the past. Perhaps you are blogging about a holiday or a venue where you enjoyed a meal or a recent stay. It all goes towards helping you to illustrate your blog and make it look more attractive and interesting to read!
TG 
Happy blogging and get mapping!
