Guides
Clear, step-by-step help for getting the most out of Mapvera. Search everything, or jump to a topic.
Getting started
Create your first map
Turn any image — a floor plan, site map, resort, campus or illustration — into a living, zoomable Mapvera map.
Read →Getting startedPublish, unpublish, and drafts
Control whether a map is live to the public or kept private as a draft — and roll back safely, since every publish is saved.
Read →Getting startedFind, duplicate & delete maps
Search, sort, open, duplicate and delete the maps in your dashboard — and create your first one from the empty state.
Read →Team & access
Invite team members & set roles
Add colleagues to your team, choose whether they can just edit maps or also manage the team, and send them a sign-in invite.
Read →Team & accessSecure your account with two-factor
Add a second step to your login with an authenticator app, and know how to reset your password.
Read →Team & accessSwitch between companies
If you belong to more than one company, jump between them from the menu and land straight in that company's maps.
Read →Team Settings
Standard vs Advanced editor
Give your team a simpler, friendlier way to keep map content up to date — or let everyone switch between the simple spreadsheet and the full editor.
Read →Team SettingsBrand your maps: fonts, colours & sizes
Apply your fonts, colours and text sizes across every map at once, so they look unmistakably yours.
Read →Team SettingsChoose what your web address shows
Decide what visitors see at your bare Mapvera address — a chosen map, your own website, or the Mapvera home page.
Read →Team SettingsAdd a browser-tab icon (favicon)
Upload the little icon that shows in the browser tab for all your maps.
Read →Team SettingsChange your company name & web address
Rename your team and change the slug used in your public map links.
Read →Team SettingsEmbed a map on your own website
Drop a live, interactive Mapvera map straight into your own web page — and control which sites are allowed to show it.
Read →Team SettingsSet up Google Analytics
Connect your own GA4 property so your public maps report page views and rich map events — searches, places opened, directions, categories, GPS use and more.
Read →Map basics
Adding a corner minimap image
The optional minimap sits in the corner and shows visitors where they are in the bigger picture. Here's what image to give it, and when a simpler one helps.
Read →Map basicsAspect ratio: how your map fills the screen
Your map's shape decides how it sits in the viewer. Here's how aspect ratio works, and how to frame your artwork so it looks right on phones and desktops.
Read →Map basicsChoosing an image format: SVG, JPG or PNG
Every level needs a map image. Here's what each format is good at, so your map looks crisp, loads fast and behaves the way you expect.
Read →Map basicsDesigning an illustrated map
Not every map is a floor plan. If you're drawing a friendly, stylised map of a park, event, campus or trail, here's how to make it work as an interactive Mapvera map.
Read →Map basicsFrom PDF, CAD or floor plan to a map image
Got your map as a PDF, a CAD file or an architect's floor plan? Here's how to turn it into a clean SVG, JPG or PNG that Mapvera can use.
Read →Map basicsKeeping multi-level maps aligned
When your map has several floors, matching their size and framing makes floors stack perfectly, so switching levels feels seamless and pins land in the right place.
Read →Map basicsKeeping your map fast
A snappy map keeps visitors happy. A handful of choices about image size, format and detail make the difference between instant and sluggish.
Read →Map basicsPreparing artwork that reads well
An interactive map isn't a printed poster. A few choices about labels, contrast and whitespace make your artwork far easier to explore.
Read →Map basicsResolution and file size
How big your map image should be so it looks sharp without being slow — and what Mapvera shrinks for you versus what you should size yourself.
Read →Map basicsSharp maps with SVG (vector) artwork
Why an SVG map stays crisp at every zoom level, when to use one, and how to keep the file small so it loads quickly.
Read →Map basicsTransparency and the map background
PNG and SVG maps can have a see-through background. Here's when that helps, when it can trip you up, and how it works with your map's background colour.
Read →Locations
Add & edit locations
Add landmarks to your map, place their pins, and fill in the title, description, image, marker and other details visitors see.
Read →LocationsChoose a landmark's marker
Pick the pin shape and size drawn on the map for each landmark — from a subtle dot to a large bordered marker, or no pin at all.
Read →LocationsColour a single landmark
Give one landmark its own pin colour and fill style, overriding its group and the map default — or leave it blank to inherit.
Read →LocationsHide a landmark and tidy the list
Keep a landmark off the search list, drop its pin, or fine-tune whether its logo and name show in the desktop sidebar and mobile sheet.
Read →LocationsLandmark IDs and deep-links
What a landmark's ID is for — sharable deep-links, CSV import — and why renaming an ID breaks existing links and references.
Read →LocationsLandmark images and logo
Add a big photo, a small list thumbnail, and a branded logo lockup to a landmark — three separate images that each appear in a different place.
Read →LocationsLinks and click actions
Add a 'More' link to a landmark's card, and choose what tapping the landmark does — open the card, jump to a link, start directions, or do nothing.
Read →LocationsPlace a landmark and set its level
Drop a landmark exactly where it belongs, nudge it by dragging, and put it on the right level of a multi-level map.
Read →LocationsPut a number or icon on a pin
Use the Label / icon field to draw a number, short letter, or an icon directly on a landmark's marker — so a pin reads at a glance without opening it.
Read →LocationsReveal a landmark only when zoomed in
Keep minor landmarks hidden until a visitor zooms in, so the map isn't cluttered at a glance — and control how far the map zooms when a landmark is opened.
Read →LocationsWrite a landmark's card
Add a description to a landmark's popup card, format it with simple HTML, and choose whether the card shows its name and logo.
Read →Categories & directory
Group locations into categories
Create category groups so visitors can filter your map — for example Toilets, Food, Exits — and give each group its own colour and icon.
Read →Categories & directoryAdd a group's About text
Give a category group a short description that some directory layouts show alongside its landmarks.
Read →Categories & directoryGive a group a default fill style
Point a group at a reusable fill style so every landmark in it shares the same base, hover and selected look on the map.
Read →Categories & directoryHide a group from the directory
Keep a group off the filter chip strip while its landmarks stay in the A–Z list and open from the map as usual.
Read →Categories & directoryHow the filter chips work
The row of category chips lets visitors filter a map to one group at a time — here's what each tap does and how to make it spotlight the map.
Read →Categories & directoryStyle a group: colour and icon
Give a category group its own colour and a small icon so its filter chip stands out and its landmarks share a look on the map.
Read →Categories & directoryWhich colour wins: landmark or group
How Mapvera decides a landmark's colour — its own colour first, then its group's, then neutral — and how to use that on purpose.
Read →Search & places
Share links & QR codes
Grab a short link and a downloadable QR code for your whole map or any single landmark — and let visitors share landmarks from the map itself.
Read →Search & placesAdd images and logos to place cards
The three image slots on a landmark — thumbnail, main image and logo — what each one does, and the settings that show or hide them.
Read →Search & placesHow map search works
What the search box at the top of your map matches on, the built-in synonyms, exact-name shortcuts, and the settings that shape it.
Read →Search & placesMake your places easy to find in search
The three things a search actually reads — names, categories and descriptions — and how to write each so visitors find the right place first time.
Read →Search & placesRecent searches and browsing every place
How the search box remembers the last places a visitor opened, how they clear that history, and how browsing the whole list works.
Read →Search & placesSet up the More button
Give a place card a link out — to a website, menu or booking page — rename the button, and choose whether it opens in a new tab.
Read →Search & placesThe place-card Share button
How the Share control on a place card works, the options it offers, how to switch it on, and how to point every share link at your own website.
Read →Search & placesWhat's on a place card
A tour of the popup card visitors see when they open a place — the icon or logo, image, categories, description, and the Directions, More and Share buttons.
Read →Search & placesWhen a search finds nothing: View All and recents
What visitors see when a search returns no matches, how the View All button gets them back to the full list, and why recent places reappear at a dead end.
Read →Search & placesWrite great place descriptions
The description does double duty — it's what visitors read on the card and part of what search finds. How to write it, format it, and keep it working for both.
Read →Levels, GPS & offline
Add floors & levels
Give your map one image per floor, name each level, choose which one opens first, and set the order of the on-map level switcher.
Read →Levels, GPS & offlineShow visitors their live location
Turn on the GPS blue dot so visitors see where they are on your map in real time — then calibrate each level's corners so the dot lands in the right place.
Read →Levels, GPS & offlineCalibrate GPS on every level
Why GPS is set per level, how to read the Dot Enabled and GPS set badges, and how to work through a multi-storey building so the blue dot is accurate on every floor.
Read →Levels, GPS & offlineClear or redo a level's GPS
Re-position a level from scratch, clear its corners entirely, or fine-tune the four latitude and longitude values by hand.
Read →Levels, GPS & offlineDemo the blue dot with Demo mode
Show off the GPS blue dot from your desk — no site visit or calibration needed — then switch Demo mode off before real visitors arrive.
Read →Levels, GPS & offlineFix common blue-dot problems
The dot won't show, sits in the wrong place, or the positioning tool won't line up — work through the usual causes and fixes.
Read →Levels, GPS & offlineGet accurate GPS positioning
Where the blue dot shines, where it struggles, and the practical things you can do — in the editor and on site — to make a visitor's location land as close as possible.
Read →Levels, GPS & offlineHow your maps work offline
Published maps keep working when a visitor loses signal — automatically. Here's what gets cached, what to expect, and how to keep the offline copy up to date.
Read →Levels, GPS & offlinePosition a map with GPS
Overlay a level image on a real street map, then resize, distort, rotate and fade it until it lines up — and capture the four corners so Mapvera knows exactly where the level sits in the world.
Read →Routes & directions
Set up wayfinding & directions
Give visitors turn-by-turn directions from A to B on your map — with an estimated walk time, an optional step-free (wheelchair) route, and distances worked out from your own GPS coordinates.
Read →Routes & directionsDraw an accurate path network
The walkable lines you draw into each level's artwork are what wayfinding follows. Here's how to draw a path network that produces clean, believable routes.
Read →Routes & directionsFix "No route found"
A checklist for when directions won't draw — from disconnected path islands to stranded destinations and mismatched cross-level portals.
Read →Routes & directionsGet accurate walk times
The "Est. N min" shown on directions is only as good as the scale behind it. Learn how distance is worked out, and how to make the estimate trustworthy.
Read →Routes & directionsMake paths connect at junctions
Mapvera works out where visitors can walk from the geometry of your lines, not their names. Learn how two paths are judged to meet, and how to avoid disconnected islands.
Read →Routes & directionsMake places routable destinations
A route needs somewhere to end. Learn the two ways a place becomes a wayfinding destination, and how the path network has to reach it.
Read →Routes & directionsRoute across multiple levels
When a journey spans two floors, wayfinding needs a portal — a stair or lift — that links the levels. Here's how to set portals up so cross-level routes just work.
Read →Routes & directionsSet a fixed "You are here" start
Pin every route to one starting point — ideal for a wall-mounted kiosk or a printed QR at the entrance, where you already know where the visitor is standing.
Read →Routes & directionsSet up step-free routes
Offer visitors a wheelchair-friendly route that avoids stairs. Learn how to mark step barriers in your artwork and switch the step-free option on.
Read →Routes & directionsStyle your route lines
Colour, width, smoothing and animation of the drawn route line — with the defaults and the choices that keep a route readable over busy map artwork.
Read →Styling & embedding
Custom CSS for a single map
Add your own CSS to one map only — it's injected after the company brand and this map's theme, so it always wins. Handy for one-off tweaks that shouldn't touch your other maps.
Read →Styling & embeddingMake an embedded map fit any screen
Understand the responsive embed snippet Mapvera gives you — how the aspect ratio is chosen, and how to change the height, force a fixed size, or fill a whole section.
Read →Styling & embeddingOpen an embedded map on a chosen landmark
Make an embedded map load straight on a specific landmark using ?location=, and let visitors copy a link back to whatever they're viewing with the Deep-linking setting.
Read →Styling & embeddingPer-map colours & fonts vs the team brand
Give one map its own colours, fonts and text sizes without touching your company brand. A map value always wins over the team-wide style; leave a field blank to fall back to the brand.
Read →Styling & embeddingPoint share links at your own site (embedded maps)
When a map lives inside your own website, redirect every share link and QR code to your page instead of the map's own address — while still opening the right landmark via ?location=.
Read →Styling & embeddingTest an embed before it goes live
A quick checklist to confirm your embedded map loads, opens on the right landmark, and isn't blocked by the embedding allow-list — before you publish the page to visitors.
Read →Maps & content
Edit locations in the Standard editor
Keep your map content up to date from a simple spreadsheet — no map to fiddle with.
Read →Maps & contentRestore a map or roll back a version
Every publish is saved automatically — compare versions, roll a map back, or bring a deleted map back to life.
Read →Maps & contentBack up or restore a single map
Download a complete backup file of one map — every level, landmark, group, style and setting — and restore it later, right from the editor's Backup tab.
Read →Maps & contentUse the Team Image library
Upload images once, then reuse them across all your maps by pasting their link.
Read →For visitors
Browse the list of places
How the directory works — the bottom sheet on a phone and the side panel on a computer — so you can scroll, expand and collapse the list of places.
Read →For visitorsGet directions to a place
Draw a walking route to any place on a Mapvera map — pick where you're starting from, follow the line, and switch to a step-free route.
Read →For visitorsGetting around a Mapvera map
A quick tour of what you see when you open a Mapvera map — the map itself, the list of places, and how to find and open somewhere.
Read →For visitorsHow the map adapts to your device
Why a Mapvera map looks and behaves a little differently on a phone versus a computer — the bottom sheet, the side panel, and touch versus mouse.
Read →For visitorsShare a place with someone
Send a friend a link that opens the map right on the place you're looking at — and what happens when you receive one.
Read →For visitorsSwitch between floors and levels
Move between floors on a multi-level Mapvera map using the on-map level switcher — and how the map follows you across floors automatically.
Read →For visitorsView a map in fullscreen
Expand a Mapvera map to fill your whole screen for a bigger, distraction-free view — and get back out again.
Read →For visitorsZoom and pan the map
Move around a Mapvera map — zoom in for detail, drag to pan, and use the minimap and zoom buttons to keep your bearings.
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