Organizing Places Data
You can organize your saved data in the 'Places' panel in a way similar to how you would organize files and folders on your computer's hard drive. This section covers the following:
Creating Folders
You can create folders and move other folders, placemarks, or shapes to them. To create a folder:
- Right-click a folder in the Places panel.
- Select Add > Folder from the pop-up menu. The folder you right-clicked on is automatically set as the container for the new folder.
Once the 'New Folder' dialog box appears, you can set the following fields:
- Name
- Description - Enter a description for the folder. For example, you might enter text that gives a general description of all the placemarks in the folder. The first few words of the description appear below the folder in the 'Places' panel. When you double-click the folder, the description appears in a balloon in the 3D viewer. In addition, you can use a number of HTML tags to format your description and include images, including <b></b>, <br>, <img src="...">, and <a href="...">. See Writing Descriptions.
- Style/Color - Once you have other icons within the new folder (or its subfolders) the 'Style/Color' tab is available. You can use this feature to apply label and icon styles universally across all items within the folder. See Editing Places and Folders for more information.
- View - See Setting the View for details. Once you set a view for a folder, double-clicking on the folder repositions the 3D viewer to the position you have chosen. Setting a view for a folder is useful when you want to create a viewing angle to encompass all the items contained by the folder. For example, you might have a collection of placemarks in a specific region of the city, each with an independent viewing angle. You can place them all in a folder and set a viewing angle for the folder in order to display all of the placemarks from a consistent viewing angle, if desired.
Reordering Placemarks or Folders
You can reposition a placemark or folder in three ways:
- Drag it to a new position in a list of items.
- Drag and drop it over a folder.
- Right-click the item and select Cut from the pop-up menu, followed by right-clicking on the new position or folder and selecting Paste from the pop-up menu.
In this way, you can put placemarks inside newly created folders, or you can move an entire folder and its contents into another folder to create groups of folders.
Note: If you move a folder so that it is inside the 'Temporary Places' main folder, you must save that data if you want it to be available the next time you start Google Earth. If you exit Google Earth without saving the folder, a dialog box prompts you to save the information to your 'My Places' folder. See
Saving Places Data for details.
Renaming a Placemark or Folder
To quickly rename an item, right-click it and select Rename from the pop-up menu. You can enter the new name directly in the name field. You can also:
- Choose Rename' from the 'Edit' menu if the item is selected in the list
- (Windows and Linux only) Select the item and press F2 on the keyboard
Removing a Placemark or Folder
To delete an item, right-click the entry and select Delete from the pop-up menu, or select Delete from the 'Edit' menu when the item is selected in the 'Places' panel. A confirmation dialog box asks if you want to delete the placemark or folder. If you delete a folder, you also delete all its contents, including other folders and icons. Click Yes to confirm the deletion.
