Memory Map User Guide Pt. 3

Updated January 2021

The Icon Ribbon

You can find the previous part of this guide here: Part 2 – Getting Started

Part 3 of this parallel user’s guide covers the function of the Icon Toolbar and tries to explain some of the new names and terms that we are going to need to get to grips with when using MM.

Let’s have a look at the various icons we have to play with along the top of the screen. The icon ribbon is broken down into three main groups, the ‘standard‘ icons, the ‘planning‘ icons and the ‘navigation‘ icons.

You can lock and unlock the toolbar icon groups by selecting Mode > Toolbar Layout > Lock Toolbars. This will allow you change their position on the toolbar. You can also hide or display the Planning and Navigation icon sets if you choose.

Standard Icons

Open Map: The first icon allows you to bring up the Map List.

Sync Scrolling: The second icon allows you to have two maps on the screen at once, probably showing different scales or showing aerial data on one and the OS map on the other one. As you move around on one map, the other map scrolls to cover the same area. I’ve never really found a good use for this, so I don’t really use this mode, you’ll have to give it a try and see how it works for you.

Properties: This icon opens the properties window. The Properties window stores information about the routes, tracks and waypoints in memory at the moment. More on this later.

Undo and Redo: There are now multiple levels of Undo provided with MM, so you can step back through previous deletes, moves, renames, etc. The usual Windows keyboard shortcuts of CTRL+Z (for Undo) and CTRL+Y (for Redo) work too.

Zoom in and Out: As you would expect, but as we’ve already discussed, use the mouse, it’s much easier.

Scale + and Scale – : As already mentioned, use the mouse it’s easier.

Back and Forward: Just like your browser’s back button, this takes you back to previous map positions, lots of history here, but only for the current session of MM.

Find: Also activated with the standard Windows keyboard shortcut of CTRL+F which may be easier to use than the menu icon.

Read-out at Cursor: Allows you to switch off the data provided at your mouse cursor. Personally this is always on for me.

Memory Map Help: Opens the Windows Help applet for the product

Planning Icons

Print Options: Opens the Print dialog box. More details about printing later.

3D World: Turns the flat map into a 3D world,  showing the way the world looks. Opens in a new window and is very cool. More details about this later.

Route: Starts a new Route. Click anywhere on the map to drop the first route waypoint. More about working with routes later.

Mark: Allows you to add a new Mark (also called a Waypoint) and drops the Mark where you next click the map.

Track: Starts a new Track. Click anywhere on the map to begin making a Track. More about tracks and how they differ from routes later.

Text: Allows you to add a note directly onto the map. This isn’t something I’ve ever really used, but you can change the font, the text size, and the colour.

Digital Map Shop: Gives you instant access to the DMS. This was covered in some detail in part 1 of this guide.

Navigation Icons

These icons are going to be greyed out unless your PC or laptop has a GPS attached to it. If you don’t want to see these greyed out icons, just remove them from the toolbar, as discussed above.

Lock onto GPS: Only works if you have a GPS attached to your PC or laptop.

Mark Position: Only works if you have a GPS attached to your PC.

As tablet and PC technology converge, these icons may well become useful – MM v6 is currently supported on Windows 7, 8, 10 and 11, so the PC edition may well end up being used on a portable device such as a Microsoft Surface, which has GPS location services built into it.

MM Names and Terms

The different terms used in MM can be confusing to begin with, so let’s have a quick look at the most obvious and common ones.

Route: A route is a walk you create using the mouse pointer on the screen. By default routes are blue lines with blue dots (waypoints) marking all the changes of direction. Arrows between the dots show the direction of the route.

Track: Although you can create a track manually, these are normally recorded by MM when it’s being used on a mobile device, or you’ve imported a track recorded by a GPS device and imported into MM after the fact. They show the path you covered while you were walking. By default these are red, but as with most items in MM, you can change the default appearance using the Properties box and apply this change to all future instances of that item.

A Track (in red) and a Route (in blue) shown in the map pane

Arrows signify the direction of travel, in both a route and a track. In a route there’s an arrow in between each waypoint. In a track there’s an arrow for every 5 minutes of time during the recording, although you can change the time period to one of your choice.

Waypoint: A waypoint is normally part of a route, a route being made up of a series (at least two) waypoints. Each blue dot above is a waypoint. A waypoint is no use on its own. Waypoints are named sequentially, automatically as you add them during route creation. This will normally be “WPxxxx” where xxxx is at least a four digit number starting at 0001 – i.e. WP0001. However, you can rename waypoints manually if you wish and this is often useful.

Mark: This is a point you create on the map and it can represent anything you choose. MM comes with a set of built-in Mark icons so you can create a Mark and then change the icon for it to represent a camp site, car park, B&B, etc, all sorts of things. Some examples are shown below.

Some example Marks on a map

You can choose to show or hide the name associated with a Mark, from the map and you can make them visible and not-visible if you wish (more on Marks in a later section).

The next part of this guide can be found here: Part 4 – Working with Routes, Tracks, Marks & Overlays

11 thoughts on “Memory Map User Guide Pt. 3”

  1. keith thompson

    I’m a long-time user of MM, and have recently upgraded from the OS2004 version to v6.4.3 for the purpose of splitting routes.
    My query is that on v6.4.3 I’ve accidentally created a clutter-free route that is simply displayed as a line on the map with waypoints hidden until the cursor is clicked. At this point the waypoints are displayed in the conventional manner.

    The thing is, I also have a route which displays the waypoints permanently and I can’t work out how to hide the waypoints. Waypoint Properties shows that each waypoint has been assigned an inaccessible, greyed-out ‘visible’ description. How do I remove this?

    1. Hi Keith, the first thing to check would be the number of waypoints in the route. MM will always display waypoints if there are fewer than 50 in a route. If you renumber the route and check the name of the last waypoint, it’ll show you how many there are. Perhaps add a few extras to get the number above 50. By all means come back if this isn’t the answer!

          1. You can’t actually hide the waypoints – but you can make them much less intrusive than those blue blobs.
            Choose a different symbol for the waypoints. I use a + sign (monument) in the drop down list for the waypoint properties. If you tick the box “Make default” then all future routes will use this symbol … … and so will your existing route if you convert it to a track and back to a route again (with Min update distance set to zero). . Dales

  2. On the PC, you turn the arrows off a Route by making its transparency other than Opaque.
    You turn the arrows off a Track by setting the Tick Interval to zero.
    Dales.

  3. Hello Lonewalker,

    This guide (above) looks fairly recently dated, so I’m wondering, as you mention Direction Arrows, how I get these to be visible? I can’t seem to find them anywhere! I’m using MM ver. 1.7.1 with OS 1:25K 2021 – on an iMac.

    Kind Regards, darth.

    1. Hi Darth, I’ve never seen an option to switch direction arrows on (or off), so I’m wondering if this is a quirk of the Mac version of the product? Have you raised a ticket with MM themselves – they’ve been much better recently in responding to support questions!

      1. Hello Lonewalker,

        Have now received a reply from MM. My friend was also told something similar… “The arrows are present on the PC version, but not currently on the Mac version. The next generation of Memory-Map is currently being tested and is geared toward making all platforms the same in look and function.”

        So it looks like we just have to wait a little longer. Between you and me; in the old days, us Apple users often had to wait for developers to bring features to us, but Apple has for many years been the biggest selling computer brand – by far – so really it ought to be the other way around! Apple is the biggest company in the world, with double the revenue of MS! ?

        Regards, darth.

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