Resources

Description

If you are looking to overlay data from your Access database onto a map of any kind, this template is for you. It works for real estate agents who want to show properties, for cemeteries who want to list plots, for restaurant owners who want to show a map of their tables, and an endless list of others.

Store as many map images as you want with 10 plot points per map (which you can customize for more if you want). Link maps together with jump points, and more. Watch the video above for a complete walk thru.

Sample Database

Download this sample ACCDE (encrypted) database file if you'd like to walk through the features yourself and see how it works. Watch the video above to see all of the features. Both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the database are included.

Full Purchased Database

Once you have purchased the full database template, come back to this page and click on the Download button below. This will give you access to the ZIP file containing the Template ACCDB file. The WalkThru video above gives you complete instructions on how the template works. Both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the database are included.

Note: This is Version 1.0 Software!

Please note that this Template is very much "Version 1.0" software. While I have tested it, I cannot guarantee that there are no bugs in it. Before you install it on any mission critical database setups, please make sure you have a full backup of everything beforehand. I will not be responsible for any problems incurred by your use of this software. I have several updates planned already, and you will get FREE copies for all version 1.x updates of this Template. I'll post a list of updates soon.

Learn How This Database Was Built

As of right now, I don't have any plans to turn this into a full Seminar where I show you how to build the database from start to finish. However, if enough of you want to see how it was built, let me know. Post a comment below and say you're interested in a full Seminar for this Template. I'll be happy to record one if there is interest.

Customize For Your Needs

If you would like to discuss customizing this database for your needs, and integrating it into your current setup, please see my consulting page for details on rates and other information.

Additional Keywords

Microsoft Access Mapping
Real Estate Property Maps
Map of Cemetery Plots
Layout of Tables in a Restaurant
City Map Points of Interest
Gaming Maps

Questions?

Got sales or customer service questions about this template? Feel free to post them below. If you have a questions, or you discover a bug or want to suggest a new feature, then please by all means post your comments below.

Comments for Access Map Overlay Template

Age	Subject	From
3 years	Intersted in a full Seminar	Ilias Delis
4 years	Map Overlay Updates	Richard Rost
6 years	Map Overlay	Chris Bezant

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Intro

In this video, I will give you an overview of my Microsoft Access Map Overlay template. We will talk about how to set up and use the template, including organizing your maps and images, creating clickable areas that link to other maps, customizing boxes with colors and text, and navigating between different map levels. I will also discuss some example uses such as real estate listings, seating charts, cemeteries, and gaming worlds, and show you how to add new maps and images to the database.

Transcript

Welcome to the video walkthrough of my map overlay template. This video will give you a brief overview of what the template is and how to use it. The template is available for purchase on my website. I will put a link in the description below the video.

Please note that this video will not go through exactly how I built the database. However, if you purchase a copy of the template, you will get a full copy of the source code and can edit it to your heart's desire. This database is a proof of concept, so it is not highly polished, but it is designed to get you up and running, show you how to do what you need to do, and let you customize it for your needs.

I will be making some minor enhancements, bug fixes, and other changes to the template in the coming months. When I do, you will get a free copy of any upgrades to version 1 of the template.

When you unzip the template, you will have a mapping ACCDB file, which is your database file, and an images folder. The images folder is where I put all the images that the database will use. You have to have the images folder underneath the mapping database location.

Let's go ahead and open up the database. It will start off with the map list. These are all the maps that I have built in. Feel free to delete them or add your own, of course.

I will start with the world map. I will double click over here. Normally when you open this up, you will not be in design mode. This is so your users can go through and view stuff, but you do not have to worry about them making changes.

I have set it up so each of these text boxes can act as links to take you to other maps. For example, this one will take you to the Middle Earth map and then back to the world map. Or you can go to Greyhawk. Or go to Gotham. If you want to zoom in more, you can even make one on Wayne Manor. That is up to you.

Ricopolis, this is my city. I will double click there. Here is a city map. These are just background images; you can put whatever you want back here.

Glenwood is a neighborhood. This is if you are selling houses, for example, if you are a realtor, you can add blocks on here for all the different lots that you have for sale. Here is my model home. I can double click on this one. Then it will open up a map of the house. You just sample rooms. I try to designate the little arrow here as there is more underneath that one. Or the back arrow indicates you can go back to the city view.

Here is the park map. Golf. There is the golfing. The golf course. The zoo. Baseball fields. Field one, field two. You can put whatever other indicators on here that you want.

Here is a restaurant map. You can do a seating chart for your restaurant.

I initially built this template because one of my students was asking me about how to do it for a cemetery plot map. I thought that would be something I could use in my Access POS that I am building. For those of you who are my students and you have seen my Access POS and Access 2.0, either 14 or 13. I do not remember now, one of those two.

You could use it for real estate to map out houses. If you want to add a map, you have to go to the design mode. Click on design mode. The password is 599CD. That will put you in design mode.

Now when you open up a map, you will see the developer tools down here. Mine is just a little bit too big for the windows. Let me open that up a little bit more. There we go.

Over here is a status box. This is the current box number. This is programmed to go to the next available box. So you can see there are boxes. If you click on them, you will see there is box one, that is three, that is two, and that is four. So if you want to add a box, make sure you go to five.

Click on set box location. Now it says click the top left corner. So say you want to add a lot over here. Click there. Now it says click bottom right corner. Click over there. That will put a box there, wherever you click the top left, bottom right.

Now you can click on the box and put whatever information here you want. Like house four. If you want to make a couple of blank lines in there, it is just control enter, like that. If you want to put a price in here, let's say 750. This is rich text. So you can highlight it and format it with color if you want to.

The box itself, you can change the background color down here by clicking on the dot dot dot button. Give it a different background color if you want to. Like a brighter yellow or a pink. Okay, I do not like that. Let's go back to yellow.

All right, all the code is included. Color module. Other stuff is in here.

If you want to have this box jump somewhere else, you just give it a jump to here, all the other maps. If house four, let's say, goes to Gotham, save it. Now, if I double click on house four, it should load up Gotham.

But now I do not have a way to get back there because I could go to Ricopolis, then go to Glenwood, and then I am back on here. Now you do not want to go to Gotham, so I will just delete that jump and then save the map.

If you do want to add something else on here, let's say we want to go and add something in the waterfront district. Let's say we want to add a map of a pier.

I just went out to the internet, I found a copy of a map of Fisherman's Wharf on the web. I am going to just copy that with whatever screen capture software you have got or save the file, the JPEG file, save it in your images folder under your database. Remember that images folder.

Now I can go in here and add a new map. So go back to your map list. Come down here. I like to use these little numbers to indicate what is under what, but you do not have to if you do not want to. So this is going to be going under the waterfront district. This will be a level four map. That is just for me.

I will just put the wharf in here. Now, if you know the file name, you can type it in here. If not, just open up the map. Right here you will see where it says image, hit the dot dot dot button and you can browse and pick the wharf. That is why it has to be in that folder location. There it is.

Now we are ready to add boxes. Set box location, box one. I am going to start up top here by putting my return button. So I am going to click there, then click down here again and then back to waterfront like that. I am going to make the box background black and I am going to select all that text and make it white. I am just going with a consistent look and feel for my database. Maybe make the width a little bit bigger.

Here are the buttons to control the width. Here is width smaller, larger, the height, bigger, smaller. That is the step ratio there. So if you want to go bigger here, you can make this 100 if you want larger steps, same, like that. I am going to bring it back to 25.

This is to move the box up, right, down, left, right. Now, that has got to jump. Let's get rid of that. You want to jump, this is going to be the jump back to the waterfront. So waterfront district, there we go. I will save the map. It saves every time you close it. I like to get in the habit and hit the save button just to make sure.

This is not a perfect database. I spent a lot of time building this, but I am sure there are probably some little bugs in here you guys are going to find. If you find them, let me know. I will put them on the bug fix list and we will get them fixed. I am not going to try to do bug fixes.

If you want to add another link in here, just go to box 2 now. Yes, it is limited to 10 boxes per map right now. If enough of you want to see it, we can add more. I will be happy to go up to 20 or 30. It is just events you have to tag to go up to more boxes.

Access cannot really easily draw new objects on the form without being in design mode. The trick is, I had to... here, I will save this and show you. Let me go into the map and design mode. The trick is, there is a big picture overlay back here. Down here, here are all the boxes. There are 10 boxes that are in design mode that are hidden. OK, and then it just makes them visible and draws them and moves them and resizes them to the particular location and sets all their properties. You will see that in the code if you look through the code.

So really, it would not be that hard to bring this up to 20 boxes, for example, or even 100. The problem is each one of these boxes has events. It has an on-got focus event and an on double click event for when you double click on it to jump and for when it gets focus to set all these fields in here. So it is just a matter of doing that times however many boxes you want. There is no way around that. I have tried a few different techniques.

Once you have your map up, box 2 is the next one. So we will put it right here. Put up something here. Nana's seafood restaurant. Make that box a little bit bigger. Maybe we will move it to the left a little bit. Change that color. I will make it blue for seafood.

Go to box 3, set box location over here, visitor center. You can make each one of these a link to something else. There you go. Change color if you want to.

When you are all done, you go back to the waterfront. Now we have to put somewhere on here a link to get to our Fisherman's Wharf. So box location. Let's say they are down here. It is not Mr. Wharf, it is the wharf. You can make the text bigger and bolder if you want to. Make it, size it perfectly.

Now we set the jump location to the wharf. Save it. I forgot, I like to do this, that indicates to the user that they can jump by double clicking. Double click, here is the wharf, back to the waterfront, back to the city map, back to the world map.

Once I built this, I realized I could do some neat stuff. I can make a gaming database out of this and put all your maps and stuff for your gaming world.

That is the technology that I built for you, and it is pretty straightforward to use. If you want to get in here and tweak it for yourself, once again, if I close this and go out of design mode, now I can come in here and use this without having to worry about my users messing stuff up. I made it so that they cannot resize this. They cannot tab to any other controls.

If you mix this in with the security stuff from my security seminar, you can prevent them from going in there and making any changes whatsoever.

This is version one of the template. Again, I will be adding some more minor features to it. If you want to see anything added to it, let me know and I can make some additions and modifications. If it is major stuff, then we will talk about maybe a version 2.0 of this.

Share your feedback with me. I am happy to add stuff as needed as there is demand.

That is the Access Map Overlay template. It is available right now on my website. You will find a link to purchase it below the video. If you have any questions, please send me feedback. You can email me or you can contact me on my website or on my YouTube channel.

Thanks.

Quiz

Q1. What is the primary purpose of the map overlay template demonstrated in the video?
A. To allow users to create interactive maps with overlay boxes and links
B. To automatically generate real estate listings
C. To encrypt sensitive documents
D. To manage large image galleries

Q2. What must be placed in the images folder for the template to function correctly?
A. Only database backups
B. All image files used by the maps
C. Only Access executable files
D. Video tutorial scripts

Q3. What happens when users double click on a text box in a map in user mode?
A. It opens a new database
B. It acts as a link to another map or location
C. It minimizes the application
D. It exports data to Excel

Q4. What is required to enter design mode in the map overlay template?
A. Clicking on the help button
B. Entering the password '599CD'
C. Creating a new user account
D. Installing an additional plugin

Q5. How are new overlay boxes added to a map in design mode?
A. By dragging and dropping from a toolbox
B. By selecting 'Add Box' and clicking top-left and bottom-right on the map
C. By entering coordinates manually in a dialog box
D. By importing from an external website

Q6. What customization options are available for overlay boxes?
A. Only text labels
B. Background color, rich text formatting, and size adjustments
C. Size adjustment only
D. Only changing the font type

Q7. What is the limitation on the number of boxes per map in the current version?
A. 5
B. 15
C. 10
D. Unlimited

Q8. What must you do if you want an overlay box to jump to another map when double-clicked?
A. Change the box color
B. Set the 'jump to' property for that box
C. Export the map as a PDF
D. Add a hyperlink in Access setup

Q9. If a user finds a bug in the template, what should they do?
A. Edit the source code directly without notifying anyone
B. Send feedback to the creator to be added to the bug fix list
C. Wait until version 2.0 is released
D. Ignore it since it will not be fixed

Q10. What feature helps prevent users from making unintended changes when not in design mode?
A. Only administrators can open the file
B. Controls cannot be resized or tabbed to, and the design mode is password protected
C. Layers are locked by default
D. The database operates in read-only mode for everyone

Q11. According to the video, what are some use cases for this map overlay template?
A. Only for gaming world maps
B. For cemetery plot maps, real estate, restaurant seating charts, parks, and gaming worlds
C. Law office management
D. E-commerce platforms

Q12. How does the template handle expanding beyond the current box limit per map?
A. New objects are generated dynamically
B. Uses hidden boxes in the design mode, which can be increased by duplicating event handling code per box
C. Runs an external script to create more boxes
D. Deletes old boxes to make room

Q13. How are map images linked to new maps in the template?
A. By pasting them directly onto the form window
B. By browsing and selecting the image file from the images folder in design mode
C. By entering the URL of the image online
D. By importing from PowerPoint

Q14. How are changes saved in the map overlay template?
A. They are not saved unless exported manually
B. The template saves changes every time a map is closed, or you can click the save button
C. The save button only saves some features
D. Saving requires an administrator permission

Q15. Where can users purchase or get more information about the map overlay template?
A. At the local electronics store
B. From the creator's website linked below the video
C. Directly from Microsoft
D. Only via email order

Answers: 1-A; 2-B; 3-B; 4-B; 5-B; 6-B; 7-C; 8-B; 9-B; 10-B; 11-B; 12-B; 13-B; 14-B; 15-B

DISCLAIMER: Quiz questions are AI generated. If you find any that are wrong, don't make sense, or aren't related to the video topic at hand, then please post a comment and let me know. Thanks.

Summary

Today's video from Access Learning Zone provides an overview of my map overlay template for Microsoft Access. In this walkthrough, I want to explain what the template does, how you can use it, and what to expect if you decide to purchase it from my website. You will find a link to the product on my website.

This introduction will not cover the exact step-by-step process of how I originally built the database. However, when you purchase the template, you will receive the full source code with your download, so you are free to modify it as much as you wish. This is meant as a proof-of-concept project rather than a polished application, so it is designed to get you started quickly and allow you to adapt it easily for your own purposes.

I plan to continue improving the template over the next several months with minor enhancements and bug fixes. When updates for version 1 become available, you will receive those at no extra cost.

Once you extract the template, you will get an ACCDB database file along with an images folder. All the images the database uses should be stored in this folder, and it needs to be placed in the same directory as your mapping ACCDB. This is important for the template to work as expected.

When you launch the database, it starts off by displaying the main list of maps. These are sample maps I have included; you are welcome to remove them or add your own as needed.

For demonstration, I start with the world map. When opening one of these, users will not be in design mode by default. This ensures users can browse through and interact with the maps without having to worry about altering the design.

Each text box on the maps can act as a clickable link, allowing you to navigate from one map to another. For instance, one box might take you from the world map to a Middle Earth map, and then you can jump back. Other examples included are links to maps of Greyhawk, Gotham, or even zooming further in to specific areas like Wayne Manor if you wish.

I also have a city map for Ricopolis. You can see how background images serve as the basic layer for each map, and you can use any images you prefer.

There is an example of a neighborhood map for Glenwood. This could be especially useful for a realtor who wants to plot out properties for sale. You could add boxes representing each lot or home, and link them to more detailed maps. For instance, clicking a box for a specific home might bring up its floorplan. Navigation arrows indicate deeper levels or allow you to return to general views.

There are also maps for local parks, golf courses, zoos, and baseball fields. You can add whatever markers or indicators you need to suit your use case.

Another application is restaurant seating charts. You can upload a map image of your restaurant and overlay boxes to represent tables.

My original reason for building this template was to answer a student's question about setting up a cemetery plot map. I realized this concept could also work for my Access POS project. If you are familiar with my earlier Access POS versions, you may see how this could fit into those systems.

Real estate mapping is a practical use as well. If you want to add new maps, you need to switch to design mode. To do this, you simply enter the password 599CD. This unlocks the developer tools and allows you to make customizations.

Each box that you add to the map has its position stored and managed. You set both the top left and bottom right corners for the box using prompts, and then you can enter information into that box, such as a house name, description, or price. You can add blank lines with Control+Enter, and the boxes use rich text so you can use color and formatting.

You are also able to change the background color of each box using the provided color picker.

If you want specific boxes to link to other maps, you set the destination in the box's properties. For instance, clicking on a box labeled "house four" could jump to a different map such as Gotham. If you want to remove a link, you simply clear the destination and save the changes.

Let's say you want to expand your maps. For example, you might want to add a map of a pier in the waterfront district. You can use any map image you find online, save it to your images folder, and then add a new map to your database. The new map's details, like file name, are set in its properties, and then you can assign image backgrounds easily.

Next, you can add interactive boxes to the new map. These may include navigation buttons, restaurant markers, or visitor centers. You can customize the boxes' appearance, adjust width and height, and set their colors for easy visual identification.

Box locations and jumps are handled in the developer options, and you can always resize or move boxes as needed. Navigation back and forth between various maps is straightforward using these jump settings.

The current version supports up to 10 boxes per map. If there is demand, I can increase this to accommodate more boxes, such as 20 or even 100, though each box must be managed in code for event handling.

A technical note for those interested: Access does not let you add new controls dynamically during runtime outside of design mode. To work around this, the database has preconfigured (but hidden) boxes that are enabled, moved, resized, and populated with your data as needed. Making it support even more boxes would just involve scaling this method with more controls and associated events.

After you finish designing your maps, you can exit design mode and the users will not see or be able to modify any of these design elements. Combined with the security seminar principles, you can also prevent most users from making any design changes at all.

This is the initial version of the template. I will continue adding small features as time allows and appreciate feedback. If you have suggestions or run into bugs, let me know so I can add them to the bug fix list. For major new features, I will consider releasing a version 2.0 if there is enough demand.

This Access Map Overlay template is now available on my website. You will find the purchase link below. If you have questions, feel free to reach out by email, through my website, or via my YouTube channel.

You can find a complete video tutorial with step-by-step instructions on everything discussed here on my website at the link below. Live long and prosper, my friends.

Topic List

This is a video overview and demonstration of a Microsoft Access Map Overlay Template, explaining its features and how to use it for various mapping applications.