Settings
Settings sits at the bottom of the left rail, apart from the others, because it applies to the whole map rather than to one piece of it. It opens one window over the map, its sections listed on the left: the four below for the map itself and, when you can publish, Publish map, Access & sharing and Embed, described in Publishing. The Publish button of the header opens the same window on Publish map.
What you set under Map and Geocoding is inherited by your published map and bounds what your audience can do. Saving and Appearance are about your own work in the builder: the map’s auto save choice and its menu labels travel with the map, the accent color and the theme stay with you.
These constraints are the frame your audience navigates inside.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Projection | Globe, or flat Mercator. Applies here and in the published viewer. |
| Min zoom and Max zoom | How far out and how far in the map can go. |
| Max pitch | How far the camera can tilt. |
| Render world copies | Repeats the map horizontally when zoomed out, or stops at one world. |
| Restrict panning to bounds | Keeps your audience inside a bounding box. |
When you restrict the bounds, four coordinate fields appear, west, south, east and north. Use current view fills them from what is on screen, which is far easier than typing coordinates: frame the area you want, then click it.
A map about one city rarely benefits from letting people wander to the Pacific. Bounds plus a minimum zoom is what keeps a published map on subject.
Saving
Section titled “Saving”The Auto-Save row decides whether this map saves itself a few seconds after each change. Your default lives in your account settings, under Map Builder; each map can follow it, or choose Always for this map or Never for this map. That choice is saved with the map: a working map you rework all day can save itself, while a published map you open to check one label does not.
With auto save off, you save with the save action or Ctrl and S. See
Web maps.
Appearance
Section titled “Appearance”The builder chrome, not the map.
- An accent color, from the swatches or a custom one.
- Theme, light or dark.
- Show menu labels, which widens both rails and the header menus so each icon carries its text. Useful when you are learning the workspace, and useful when you hand a map over to someone who is. This one is saved with the web map.
Geocoding
Section titled “Geocoding”The provider that answers place searches: the search box in the Layers panel, and the Place search widget.
The default provider works without any setup. Providers that need an account key appear in the list only once that key is configured in your Integrations. No key is ever shown or entered here, and no key is written into your saved map.
Adding to Settings
Section titled “Adding to Settings”Settings is meant to grow. New settings appear as new rows in one of these sections rather than as another panel, so there stays one place to look for anything that applies to the map as a whole.