Google Earth Resources for Educators

Basic Placemark HTML

Placemarks are like little mini-web pages.  They can contain HTML code that helps with formatting.  Below are some simple HTML tags that will make your placemarks look much better.

Images:

Online - <img src=“http://www.webpage.com/image.jpg”>

Local -  <img src=“c:\some folder\image.jpg”>

You can share local images only if you save your file as a KMZ file.

Links:

If you put the entire link in the placemark, it will work, but won’t look as clean.  For example, you could copy the following URL in your placemark to link to an article about Shoeless Joe Jackson…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoeless_Joe_Jackson

However, it would be much cleaner to do the following:

<a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoeless_Joe_Jackson”>Shoeless Joe Jackson</a>

What appears in the placemark is Shoeless Joe Jackson.  Users can click on the underlined word and be taken to the article.

Text Formatting:

Paragraphs  - <p> and </p> as follows:

 <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Sed lacinia. Etiam pretium viverra urna. Nam vulputate tellus in lorem. Aenean a ligula. Nunc arcu. Quisque fermentum est ut felis. </p>

Bold - <b> and </b> - example: <b>Bold Text</b>

Italics - <i> and </i> - example:  <i>Italics Text</i>

Underline - <u> and </u> - example:  <u>Underlined Text</u>

You can combine HTML tags, but be careful with placement.  For example the following would be acceptable:

<b><i>Bold Italics</i></b> or <i><b>Bold Italics</b></i>

 However, the following is NOT acceptable

<b><i>Bold Italics</b></i>

You may also use the online Placemark Editor to create the links, then copy and paste the code into your placemark.

Other Placemark Data:

 •         In addition to location and appearance, the current zoom level, bearing, and tilt level can be recorded in a placemark.

•         A “snapshot” can be taken of a current view of a placemark to record these items.

•         Placemarks can either be clamped to the ground, or can appear above ground at a specified altitude.