After you’re done with thumbnail settings, you’re ready to configure your lightbox map. Here are all the options you can use for the interactive map in Google Maps Widget.
Map Mode
The Interactive map allows you to choose from five different modes.
- Directions – shows a path from the address entered in the map’s settings and the Start Address you can define below
- Start Address – start address for directions. Destination address is defined by the map’s address
- Distance Units – choose the imperial or the metric system, or let the plugin automatically detects one
- Place – default map mode; pins the location entered in map’s settings on the map
- Search – displays results of the search term around the location
- Search Query – enter the search term which will be displayed on the map. The term can be geographically restricted but the location must be the same as the one in map’s address
- Street View – displays the panoramic view of designated location
- Streetview – Heading: indicates the compass heading of the camera measured in degrees clockwise from the North. Accepted values are from -180° to 360°. Pitch: Specifies the angle of the camera. Values can be entered from -90° to 90° where positive values will tilt the camera up and vice versa.
- View (clean map, no markers) – shows only the map without any markers
Map Type
The interactive map can be displayed in one of these two modes.
- Road – the default map type which shows the urban map
- Satellite – shows the image as seen from Google’s satellites
Zoom Level
The interactive map can be zoomed on many different levels. While the lowest level 0 will show the entire map of the world, the highest level 24 will zoom into the streets and vegetation of a specified location. Please take note that available zoom levels differ from location to location and that not all locations can be zoomed in at the highest level. If you are using multiple pins on your interactive maps, you can set the zoom level to Auto-adjust which will set the map to show all the pins.
Custom Color Scheme
By applying the code, you can create your own color scheme. Use any online builder to generate a unique map style. Snazzy Maps offers over 15,000 custom map styles you can load and modify elements to your liking. Mapstylr and Mapstyle offer style builders as well. Only use JSON formatted (JS style) custom style.
For more details and examples, please see how to import your own color scheme.
Map Language
Choose a language that will be used on the interactive map. Please take note that not all the labels and text on the map have translations for each and every language on the list. If you use the automatic setting, the map will load the language based on users’ browser.
Lightbox Size
Opposed to the thumbnail map, the lightbox map doesn’t have any size restrictions.
- Custom Size (default) – choose any width and height in pixels
- Fullscreen – opens the interactive map in fullscreen
Lightbox Skin
This option controls the design of the lightbox itself while the map won’t be affected by these changes. You can choose from several options to match your website’s design perfectly. Currently, there are Blue, Cartoonish, Dark, Dark rim, Fancy, Gears, Gray squared, Light (default), Minimalistic, Minimalistic #2, Painting, Polaroid, Rounded, Rounded white, Shadow, Simple, Squared black, Squared white, Tablet, Vintage, and Wood. Here are examples of all Lightbox Skins.
Lightbox Features
There are four lightbox features you can use to enhance the looks and functionality of the lightbox map.
- Close on overlay click – closes the map if a user clicks anywhere around the interactive map
- Close on Esc key – closes the interactive map if the Esc key is pressed
- Show map title – shows the title defined in the widget title field and shows it above the map
- Show close button – displays a close button (which looks different on different skins) which closes the interactive maps
Text above the map
Write any text that will be displayed above the interactive map. You can also use any HTML code or any of the shortcodes you are using on your WordPress website. If you use the {address} keyword it will be replaced by the map address.
Text below the map
Write any text that will be displayed below the interactive map. You can also use any HTML code or any of the shortcodes you are using on your WordPress website. If you use the {address} keyword it will be replaced by the map address.