I’m wondering if a new field can be added to the Places table to incorporate zoom levels (Google Maps). I know this would then require updates for Reports that show Google Maps places but I think it would be very useful.
Example: I use DWR & Narrated Web to show my tree on the website. Chile is such a long thin country that when it is shown at the DWR default the pin is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. You then need to zoom out three times to even see the country.
With the coordinates given, at any scale, it displays in the South Pacific ocean. (-35.44389020, -106.23779900)
I use Wikipedia as part of my place resources. It gives just a simple -34, -71 (SW of Santiago).
You can change the default zoom on centering
You can also also change a few things on a “per location” basis for oddities and special cases.
When you right-click on a map pin and choose to edit the place, it has a scaling choice. I do not know if that is persistent but it’s worth experimenting.
(I haven’t experimented because I don’t like that interface and dismiss it quickly. My use of that ‘edit’ is usually by mistake while looking for the standard Edit Place dialog to review the list of References.)
The other thing you my do is change the GPS center coordinate for Chile. Use a weighted center or the capitol instead.
The country centerpoints tend to be irritating because they indicate a region rather than a point … yet they have the same shape as pins marking a precise location. So you see it and think “what Event happened THERE in the middle of nowhere?”
Most of my Events are located in the US. So I changed the US pin to be just offshore Washington DC in the Atlantic. That way, the guesswork Events that were just narrowed to the nation don’t obscure anything.
