What’s on the map?

There are four types of content on Humap: 

• Records are the most common type of content on the map. These can be stories, events, images, videos – text – anything, really. Every black pin on the map represents one record, and every white circle with a number in the centre represents the number of records shown in the centre. 
• Collections are made from groups of records with a common theme. They don’t have pins on the map, but the records they are made of do.
• Overlays are either historical maps or data that lies on top of the base map. These are represented on the map by a blue pin with an illustration of a square overlaying another square.
• Trails are walkable series of records that you can explore online or in person. Their pins are green with an illustration of a map pin with a route.

    Items on the map are then tagged with taxonomies and categories. When you search for things using the search menu, you can select any number of these pre-existing terms to find relevant information. 

Navigating the map

You can manually move the map around to change what you can see. This is called zooming and panning. 

• To zoom in, click on the plus icon on the top right-hand corner of the map, and click the minus icon to zoom out again. The results shown in the tray will then change, returning results for the new area. 
• To pan the map around, move your cursor onto a section of map without a pin and left click. You can then drag the map around in any direction and the results tray on the left will change accordingly. 

Click here to watch the video tutorial for finding and searching for content on Humap.

How to browse

The browse function of the map is great for when you want to find content in a particular area, and also for when you just want to explore the map to see what grabs your eye. All types of content can be returned and the results are based on the section of the map that is visible on the right side of your screen.

1. From the map home screen, click the compass icon in the toolbar at the top of the information tray. This will take you to the browsing screen.
2. The information tray will fill up with records, collections, and overlays based on the map.
3. You can scroll through the tray to look at its contents.
4. You can also pan and zoom around the map, changing what results are returned. 

Highlighted content

Humap clients can have a range of curated highlighted categories and quickstarts on the maps home page. 

How to find highlighted content:

1. On the map home screen there are three headings: highlighted categories, highlighted records, and highlighted quickstarts.
2. If you see a topic or record you are interested in, click the box or button the text or image is on to go to its dedicated page. 

Finding and using overlays

How to find overlays:

1. To specifically browse overlays, click on the middle icon that looks like a square overlaying another square. 
2. You can then scroll through the results in the tray. 

How to use overlays:

1. To see an overlay on the map, click on its preview image to go to its page. 
2. You can then click Use this overlay, in a button under the overlay image
3. The map will then appear on top of the base map.
4. Click Hide Pins in the top right corner to make it easier to see
5. To use the overlay tools, click the show overlay tools button at the bottom of the map. 
6. Click the eye icon to make this overlay invisible.
7. Click the target next to it to centre the overlay in the middle of the base map
8. Use the slide to toggle how transparent the overlay is
9. When you’re done, click the use this overlay button again to deselect it. 

Finding and using trails:

How to find trails:

1. To see trails, click on the icon in the toolbar that looks like a map pin with a route. 
2. You can then browse trails, and get a closer look at any that interest you.

How to use trails:

1. Click Start trail to see the records that make up the trail. 
2. Click Next or Prev to cycle through them.
3. Click Quit Trail to quit.

Using search terms and taxonomies

1. To get to the search screen click the magnifying glass in the toolbar.
2. Click the boxes that are relevant to your interests.  For example, if you wanted to find information about Islington and Camden, and Politics & Government, Imagined & Future London, and Health and Welfare, you could click on those options For more detailed categories, click the downwards arrow next to the descriptive text in the buttons. A pop-up menu will appear with more specific tickboxes. 
3. Scroll down to decide which types of content you would like returned. A default search will return records, collections, overlays, and trails. If you do not want a certain type of content returned, click the box next to it to deselect that content type.
4. Do you want results for the whole map, or just the part visible? On a default search, results will be returned for the entire map. Click the button to change that to just the visible parts of the map. 
5. When you have clicked all of the things you are interested in, click on the Search button at the bottom of the information tray.  
6. Your results will be returned in the information tray and you can then scroll to see your results.
7. To return to the search page, click Search Again in the top right-hand corner of the information tray, or click on the magnifying glass in the toolbar. 
8. Click Clear Your Search in the top right hand corner to return all of the boxes to their defaults.

Using text search

You can also use the text bar at the top of the search screen to look for your own search terms – either in tandem with the pre-existing ones, or independently. 

Here’s how it works:

1. To just use the text box, type your query into the box and either press Enter on your keyboard or scroll to the bottom of the tray and press Search.
2. To use the textbox and the categories, type in your query and then all the categories that interest you.
3. Example: if you wanted to know about Religion and Worship in the Edwardian era Croydon and Enfield, you could click “Religion and Worship”, “Croydon”, “Enfield”, and then type “Edwardian era” into the search bar (and press Enter!).
4. For another example, if you wanted to find the Charles Booth poverty map on Layers of London, you could:

• Go to the overlays tab – but there are over 400 maps on Layers, and it would take ages to scroll through them all. 
• Go to the search bar and type in “Booth” – but lots of content on Layers has the word “Booth”, so that would also take ages
• OR, you could type “Booth” in the search box, and then scroll down and deselect “Records”, “Collections”, and “Trails”, so that only overlays with the word “Booth” are returned.