Tripexplorer help

Basic functions

Keyboard shortcuts

Searching

Search for locations

Search for points of interest

Markers

Street Pics

Favourites

Map objects

Routing

Hybrid Routing

GPX files

Isolines

Tracks & Routes

Explore OpenStreetMap data

Printing and Saving

Weather report

The Crossmapzz viewer

Show map in Google Earth

General information about tracks and routes

General information about points

Basic functions

To move the map around, drag it with the left mouse button. To select a region of the map, drag a rectangle with the right mouse button. To remove the rectangle, right-click the map without moving the mouse.

To change the map zoom, click the + or - buttons or rotate the mouse wheel while the mouse position is over the map.
Double-click the map to magnify the map at the mouse position to a predefined zoom. (See: Preferences→ Map)

After changing the map provider, it can take several seconds to refresh the map, depending on your internet connection and the map server.
If no map appears or some tiles of the map are missing, click the blue refresh icon.

The 4 labels in the top-right corner are shortcuts for 4 preset map providers, which you can define in Preferences or by a long click on the label.

The vertical menu panel at the right side is divided into groups (routing, search, tracks, etc.). These groups can be collapsed or expanded by clicking the arrow in the group caption.

Searching:

There are two ways to search:

- Search for locations like cities, addresses, regions, lakes etc.

- Search for POIs (points of interest) like campings, bank, museums, shops.

Search for locations

- Enter some search word(s) in the search box in the right panel You can type something like: "Bordeaux, France" or "43500, France" or "Champs Elysee, Paris, France" or…

- Enter the map coordinates in the Lat & Lon boxes (in decimal: 47.3926 or in degrees, minutes, seconds: 23°44'56.13" or 23 44 56.13)

- Press the "Search location" button.

If there is only one search result, the map jumps to the searched location.
If there are more results, a window opens with a list of search results.
Clicking a line in the list makes the map jump to that location, but the list window stays open, so you can click other lines to browse more results. Now click OK if you found your location or click Cancel to make the map go back to the location before your search action.

Search for points of interest

To start searching, first move the map so your search area is at the center of the map, then click the button “Search POIs” in the right panel to open the search POI window.

In the “Search for” text box you can type a name:
Johnson finds all POIs with the word Johnson in the name, but also all POIs in the James Johnson road.

You can restrict the search results by choosing a “POI type” from the POI types list:
This list is a fixed list, defined by Google. If you try to search for a word that is not in the list, you will be informed. To find a type name, you can type some text, then a list is shown with type names that contain your typed text.
Choose an option from the list to set your poi type to search for.
If you choose “bakery” you will find all bakeries nearby.
If you also type a name in the “Search” text box, e.g. Johnson, you find all bakeries with Johnson in the name.

You can further limit the scope of results by defining a “Search radius”
Initially, the radius is set to “<dynamic>”, which starts the search at the map center. A click on the “Search” button gives 0 to 20 results. If there are more results available, you can click the “More” button to find up to another 20 results.

The maximum number of results for a search action is 60 and the search radius is limited to 50 km..

If you change the radius to a fixed distance, the results are all within that limit and cannot exceed 60 results.

Search results are listed in the search window and shown as icons on the map.
Clicking a line in the list highlights the corresponding icon on the map.
If you tick the box “Center selected place on map”, the map moves to show that item at the map center.
If the text in the list is too wide to show all text, you can resize the search window by dragging a border with the mouse.

If not all results are visible within the map borders, or if the results are clustered densely around the map center, you can click the button “Zoom” to change the map zoom to fit all results.

You can continue to search, but the previous results will be cleared by the new search, unless you tick the box “Keep results”.

Clicking the button “Close” will also clear the results, and also here you can tick the box “Keep results” to prevent clearing.
If you close Tripexplorer, the results are lost. If you want to keep some results, you can do so by clicking a result icon with the right mouse button and choose “Add/edit favourite. The name and address of the result icon are copied automatically to the new favourite.

Markers

You can place up to 4 coloured pushpins on the map for quick reference.
To place a pushpin, drag the desired pushpin from the right panel onto the map.
To move a pushpin, drag it to the new location.
To remove a pushpin, double-click on it.
To center the map view to a specific marker, right-click that marker icon in the right panel. This provides an easy way to jump back and forth to distant locations.
To remove all markers, click the red cross icon next to the markers in the right panel. If the markers look too small or too big, you can adjust their size in Preferences/Map.

Street Pics

To see pictures of a location, move the mouse cursor to a place on the map, then press S
or right-click the map and choose "Street Pics here" from the context menu.

If the Street Pics window is shown, you can:
- Change the camera view direction by a right-click on the map where you want the camera to look at.
- Change the camera zoom: Click the + or – buttons on the picture. Click the view angle text to reset.
- Change the camera tilt (vertical view direction): Click the up or down arrow on the picture. Click the text between the arrows to reset.
- Change the camera position: Click another spot on the map or click the picture to move the camera in steps in the view direction.
- Move the map by dragging it with the mouse (left button).
- Change the map zoom with the mouse wheel.
- Change the size of the picture pane and the map pane by dragging the borders

Options:

There are several options:

- "On top" keeps the Street Pics window on top of all other Tripexplorer windows

- "Show address" shows the street address of the clicked location. It is disabled by default, because every move on the map triggers an address lookup, which may slow down response time.

- "Map follows camera" moves the map view to center around the clicked position

The "Save picture" button allows you to save the shown image to a .jpg file, optionally with lat/lon info, a description. You can also draw lines on the picture.

Favourites

The Tripexplorer favourite system allows you to save important locations under a chosen name, grouped by categories, a long text description and picture files (photos, drawings, graphics). You can search favourites by name, categories and description.
Favourites can be shared with other apps with the import / export feature.

To put a new favourite on the map, right-click a location and choose from the context menu: “Add/edit favourite”
Then give the favourite a name and assign one or more categories and (optionally) a long description, a link to a website and one or more pictures.

You can move a favourite to a new position by dragging the icon with the mouse while pressing the CTRL key.
If you don't want to show all favourite categories on the map, click the eye button in the right panel and check / uncheck the categories you want to show, then click OK.
To change the visibility of your favourite categories, press the spacebar to toggle from none to filtered to all categories.

Search: Click the magnifying glass in the right panel to open a search window, that should be self-explaining.
You can keep this window open during your session and switch from map to search window with the mouse.

To edit a favourite, long-click on it or right-click it and choose “Add/edit favourite” from the menu.
To add/edit/remove pictures, click the Pictures button in the Edit favourite window.
To add a picture, click “Add”, then click the gray rectangle to browse for a picture file. Optionally, you can type a description for the picture.

To see the attached pictures in the main map screen, right-click on a favourite and choose “Show favourite pictures” from the menu.

To show or hide the tooltips of all the visible favourites, press "T"

To delete a favourite, right-click it and choose “Delete favourite” from the menu.

Import: choose menu → favourites → import from GPX file. You can type the name of the file to be imported or click the folder icon to browse to the file and select it. Then click the “Read file” button to show all the favourites in it. If it looks ok, then click the button “Import”.

Export: choose menu → favourites → export to GPX or KML file. Select the favourites you want to export and click the “Export” button.
Optionally, you can choose to include the long description and/or the icon file name in the export process. Those extra data is not supported by all apps, but is useful if you share your favourites with another Tripexplorer user.

Favourite Categories serve to group your favourites and to show an icon on the map for the favourite.
To manage categories, click the Favourites menu and choose “Edit categories”.
In the shown categories list, select the category you want to edit by double-clicking on it or click the category and choose “Edit”. You can assign an icon by clicking the icon picture.
If you prefer your own icons, place any icon file (in the .ico or .png file format) in the sub-folder “favIcons” of the Tripexplorer data folder. In the menu → About, you can see the data folder name.

Icon size does not matter, icons are re-sized automatically, but many big icon files may slow down the map presentation, the preferred icon size of your custom icons is 48x48 px. The displayed icon size can be selected here from 12x12 to 64x64 pixels.

Map objects

Map objects are lines, curves or areas, which are intended to accentuate existing map elements or place signs on the map to emphasize certain spots.

Examples of map objects are: Boundaries (lines or surfaces), train or bus routes, plots of land, hiking paths, neighbourhoods etc...

There are various ways to place a map object on the map:
- Draw a curve on the map with the mouse (point by point or by dragging).
- Convert lines and surfaces from OpenStreetMap data to map objects from the OpenStreetMap menu.
- Convert routes or tracks to map objects
- Import GPX or KML files with routes, tracks or 2D-shapes.
- Import .MOBC files (MapOBject Collection files)

Map objects are stored in a local database and are placed on the map automatically when you start Tripexplorer.

From the menu: Map objects, you can show or hide individual objects, edit or delete objects or export and import objects.

Routing (normal)

Drag the starting point (green A) from the right panel onto the map.
Do the same for the destination point (red B). These routing markers can be managed just like the pushpin markers, see above).
Alternatively, right click a point on the map and choose “Set as destination” or “Set as starting point” or using the keyboard, press A or B.
To center the map to the A or B marker, right-click on it in the right-panel.
Optionally you can place waypoints on the map (a blue numbered icon) by dragging the icon on the map. You can place as many waypoints as you want, but most routing services don't use more than 20 waypoints.

To calculate a route (or more routes), click one of the 3 transport mode icons (pedestrian, bicycle, car).
After a route is calculated, you can drag the start (A) or destination (B) to a new location. The route will automatically be recalculated.
To reverse the route direction, click the reverse button in the routing panel. If you used more than one waypoint, you will probably want to change the order of the waypoints (Menu -> Waypoints -> Sort waypoint list)
To zoom the map to show the whole route, click the route icon next to the reverse route icon in the right panel.
There is also a setting in Preferences to zoom the map so it shows the whole calculated route automatically if the Start or Finish markers are outside the visible area of the map.
To clear the route, click the red cross icon in the routing panel. A second click also clears the A and B markers.
In Preferences, you can choose the routing service(s) to be used. You can select more than one service to calculate several routes simultaneously.
If you activated more than one routing service, multiple routes will be created. A yellow triangle is shown next to the fastest route and one next to the shortest route.
To hide all routes except the fastest or shortest route, click one of the yellow triangles.
To hide or show one of the routes, click on the colored distance box of that route.

Click the "Analyze routes" button to compare all calculated routes for curviness and climbs. In mountain areas, this information can be very important.

Hybrid routing

Hybrid routing is an advanced way to create a route.
While normal routing calculates a route from A to B using one routing provider for the whole route,
hybrid routing gives you much more control.
This feature is especially valuable in the following situations:
- create a route that passes several points of interest (e.g. a city monuments walk)
- create a route that follows precisely a required path
- as an enhanced alternative to a "classic" route with many waypoints
- to create your own optimal route.

To start hybrid routing, click the button "Hybrid Routing" in the routing section of the menu at the right side or import an existing Hybrid Route from: Menu → Routes → Import hybrid route.

A route is created by clicking points on the map.

Hybrid Routing Automatic mode:

First ctrl-click the map to set a starting point.
Then, for every ctrl-click, a route segment is calculated by the selected routing provider.
To ease the exact placement of a waypoint, you can magnify the map temporarily by positioning the mouse over the location, then pressing the spacebar. After a ctrl-click to place the waypoint, the map zoom will automatically return to the original zoom scale. (The value of the magnify zoom scale can be defined in the preferences menu.)
If the route segment is not exactly what you wanted, click the "Remove last" button, then you can change the routing provider to another one or select "Select route" to have the system calculate up to 4 different route segments and then select the route segment, you like most.
And if none of the route segments satisfy your needs, you can draw your own route on screen in Manual mode.

Hybrid Routing Manual mode:

Manual mode is very important for creating routes that go (partially) offroad, where on-line routing services cannot calculate usable routes.

To start manual mode click the "Manual" button.

You can create a manual route segment by ctrl-clicking points on the map or by dragging the mouse over the map while you keep the ctrl key pressed and the mouse button down.

This plots one or more points on the map.

To move a route point, drag it with the mouse.

Manual mode is terminated by clicking the "Idle" button or the "Automatic" button.

Hybrid Routing Idle mode:

This mode is used to prevent plotting any new points and can be used to move waypoints.

The whole route can be a mix of route segments, created in 6 different ways:

- Using Mapquest routing
- Using Bing routing
- Using Google routing
- Using "Select route": For every route segment, you can select one of the route segments, calculated by the 3 routing providers.
- Manual point-by-point ctrl-clicking
- Manual adding points by ctrl-dragging the mouse

After you created a route, you can change it easily by dragging the waypoints to another position. This automatically recalculates the route segment(s). In manual mode you can drag the routepoints.
When finished your route, you can save it to a GPX file and load it into your GPS device.
If you share the GPX file with other Tripexplorer users, they can import the hybrid route and get a completely editable copy of your route.

Options:

- Snap waypoints to route: After a route segment is calculated, the position of the waypoint is adjusted to to end of the calculated route segment.

- Ask waypoint names: When you click the map to add a waypoint, a window pops up to allow you to name the new waypoint. (If you add a waypoint by clicking a favourite, the default name of the new waypoint is taken from the favourite name).

Context menu options:

- Insert a waypoint: Right-click a route segment, then click "Insert waypoint". The new waypoint is placed at the mouse position, but it can be moved to any position later.

- Remove a waypoint: Right-click a waypoint, then click "Remove waypoint"

- Edit waypoint name: Right-click a waypoint, then click "Edit waypoint name"

- Recalculate route segment: Right-click a route segment, then click "Recalculate route segment". This is useful if you want to let the segment be calculated by a different routing service.

- Convert a manual route segment to an automatic route segment: right-click a manual route segment, then click "Convert route segment to automatic segment".

- Convert an automatic route segment to a manual route segment: right-click an automatic route segment, then click "Convert route segment to manual segment". This is useful if you need to move individual routepoints of a route segment.

- Insert a routepoint (in manual mode). Right-click a routepoint, then click "Insert routepoint". This inserts a new routepoint between the clicked routepoint and the previous routepoint.

- Remove a routepoint (in manual mode). Right-click a routepoint, then click "Remove routepoint".

Save to GPX file

- Give the route a (internal) name, which is registered with the route.

- The button "Copy route name to file name" places that name in the file name text box along with your folder name for GPX files

- You can change all save options to suit your needs, but if you save the route, using the default options, the route will be saved in a form, that allows you (or your friends) to import it later as a "hybrid route" which is an exact and fully editable copy of your route.

Isolines

Isolines are lines that connect routing end points of many possible routes from a central starting point to a specified range in distance or time.

An isoline answers the questions:

- How far can I travel in (e.g.) 3 hours.

- If I walk 5 km. in any direction, how far do I get.

You can create an isoline by right-clicking a point on the map (your starting point) and choose from the menu: "Calculate isolines";

In the appearing window you can choose the calculation mode (distance or time), specify the distance or time and a transport mode (car or pedestrian).

The isoline can be saved as a map object, so it can be shown at next startup.

GPX files

A GPX file can contain tracks, routes, waypoints and favourites.

Import data from a GPX file.

It is important to know which data you need.
You can open a GPX file from the menu with different menu choices, that import different data from the file, if the data is present:

- Menu → Favourites → Import: If the file contains points, those points are imported as favourites. In case the points are actually simple points like waypoints, the imported points are converted to favourites with the extra information like elevation, a description and a web link and are stored in the favourites database.

- Menu → Tracks → Import GPX file: If the file contains a mix of tracks, routes or waypoints, you can select which data to import.

- Menu → Tracks → Import KML file: If the file contains a mix of tracks, routes or waypoints, you can select which data to import.

- Menu → Waypoints → Import waypoints: If the file contains points, those points are imported as waypoints, even if they are actually favourites.

Save data to a GPX file.

Like the import options, for exporting data to a GPX or KML file you can also choose from several menu options.

- Menu → Favourites → Export: You can export favourites as favourites or as waypoints.
In both options you can select the tags to export: description, elevation, category, color, web link, icon file name and entry date.

- Menu → Tracks → Export tracks to file: You can export a track as a track or as a route. For the first option, you can select the tags to be included, elevation, time, speed, hdop and vdop.

- Menu → Routes → Save route(s): Only available if there is at least one route on the map. The only option here is to give the route a name.

- Menu → Waypoints → Export waypoints to file: You can choose the file format GPX or KML, and you can edit the name and description of the waypoints in the list

(Hybrid routes are treated in a different way, because they always contain an inter-connected structure of route segments and waypoints. For more information, see Hybrid routing)

If you have not defined a folder for your GPX files, go to menu Preferences → Open/Save and select a folder for these files.

To Open a GPX track, choose menu Tracks → Import GPX file or Import KML file.
Choose a GPX or KML file from the tracks folder and open the file.
If a file contains more than one track, select the needed tracks in the tracks list.

Alternatively, you can double-click any GPX file in Windows explorer to have it opened and displayed in Tripexplorer.
To use this method, you must first tell Windows to associate all files with the .GPX extension with Tripexplorer.
Go to menu -> preferences -> tracks -> "Always open gpx files with Tripexplorer".

To Save one or more or tracks, choose Tracks → Export tracks and waypoints.
Then type a file name, optionally type names for the tracks and click OK.
The tracks will be saved as a GPX track file in the tracks folder.

Combine different data in a GPX file

If you want to save tracks, routes, waypoints, favourites or hybrid routes to a GPX file and choose an existing file, you have the option to add the new information to the file while preserving the existing data.
The following guidelines apply:

- You can combine any number of tracks, routes and waypoints in a single GPX file.
- You should not combine favourites with other types.
- You should not combine hybrid routes with other types.

Tracks & Routes

To import one or more tracks or routes, see GPX files
First import a gpx file that contains routes or tracks. Then you can drag a trackpoint to a new location.
To add a new trackpoint inside a track, right-click the trackpoint after which the new trackpoint must be added and choose from the menu: Add trackpoint. To remove a trackpoint, right-click the trackpoint and choose Remove trackpoint.
Note: Trackpoints normally have a purple dot, but to distinguish the different states of the points, moved existing trackpoints get a red dot and newly added points have a green dot.

In Preferences → Open/Save, you can choose to automatically retrieve new elevation data for the moved trackpoints.

The routes that are calculated in Tripexplorer can be converted to a track. Choose from the menu Routes → Convert route to track. In the dialog window, choose the route to convert and give a name to the new track.
There is an option here to add elevation info to the track.
Click OK to start the conversion.
If there were more than one routes displayed, all other routes are removed from the map.

To draw a new track, click the pencil in the panel on the right. There are two ways to paint a track:
Point-by-Point: Every right-click on the map adds a new track point.
Dragging: Drag the mouse while pressing the right mouse button; a curve will be drawn.

New points can be dragged to another position with the left mouse button. (To drag the map, press <Ctrl> and drag the map.)

In the panel at the bottom, you can optimize the drawn or imported tracks. Adjust the values for "maximum point distance" and "straight line threshold" to obtain an optimal track.
To save the new track, choose menu Tracks → Save track. To stop the draw mode, click the pencil again.

To show gradients (ascends and descends) on the track, choose menu -> tracks -> show gradients.
If the track does not contain elevation info, all arrows are gray. To add elevation info, choose menu -> tracks -> update elevation info. The arrows now are coloured in 5 shades of green (descend) or red (ascend). Light green or red means a gentle slope, dark green or red is a steep slope.

Explore OpenStreetMap data

This option offers a way to read and display information from the OpenStreetMap (OSM) database servers.

See also: General information about the OSM database

To start a search, first move the map to your region of interest, then select an area of the map by pressing and dragging the right mouse button.

Then choose from the menu: OpenStreetMap -> Explore OSM data.

Now the explore window opens (in basic mode). Type a few letters in the box "Feature" to tell what you are looking for. A menu shows the available features.
Double-click in the menu to select an item. Then click the "Search" button to start the search for these features in the selected map area.

You can narrow the search by typing a name. e.g. search for "bank" with the name "Proxybank"

Another option is to leave the feature text blank and search only by name to find all features with this name.
The search is full text search and is case insensitive, so the word "ker" finds bakery, Parker street, but also Kermit, lockeR etc...

If the search found some data, a list is shown with the found items and these items are shown on the map.
There are three types of items that can be displayed:
points (bakeries, taxi stands, ATM's etc...
lines (roads, rivers, boundaries etc...
areas (lakes, forests, buildings etc...

Click an item in the list to highlight it on the map.
Double-click to show only the clicked item. (A next click in the list shows all items again)
Move the mouse over the items on the map to show the information (tags, location, id, ...) in the database.

You can continue with a new search for different features. If you want to keep the current items on the map, click the box "Keep results".
If you want to distinguish between new items and existing items, change the markers colour by clicking the coloured square in this window and select another colour.

When you type a word to search for, you can use some special characters:

To find all words that start with the typed item, start the item with the "^" character: e.g. "^time" finds "Time square", but not "summertime"
To find all words that end with the typed item, finish the item with the "$" character: e.g. "bank$" finds "Proxybank", but not "Bank of England"
To use a one-character wildcard, type a ".": e.g. "b.ltic" finds "Baltic" and "belticar" and "Rebòltic"

Save your queries

If you want to use a search definition more than once, you can save it under a descriptive name, pressing the button "Save query".
To reuse this query, press the button "Use query definition" which fills the query window with all the values, you defined earlier.

Advanced mode

Click the switch "Advanced mode" to obtain lots of new possibilities. Use of this mode requires some knowledge of OSM terminology.
As a minimum, you should know the OSM meaning of tags, keys, values, nodes, ways and relations.
The next chapter gives some (very limited) info about this, but it is preferable to read more about it, for example in the OpenStreetMap wikis:

In advanced mode, the explore window shows more fields and buttons.
The four text boxes now let you type any key and a value to look for.
Between the 2 sets of text boxes there is an option box. The default option is "and", which means the search returns objects that meet both criteria in the two key/value sets.

At max. / at min.

If you change the option box selection to "at max.", the search returns object of the first key/value set which are within a given range to objects of the second key/value set.
Choose the option "at min." to inverse this behaviour.

Example: Show all hotels within 400 m. from a train station (within the selected map area of course):
In the first key/value set, set the key to "tourism" and the value to "hotel".
Click the option box between the 2 key/value sets and choose "at max.", then type a distance in the text box to the right.
In the second key/value set, set the key to "railway" and the value to "station".
A checkbox becomes visible "Show both features".
If unchecked, only the hotels will be displayed, if checked, both the hotels and the stations are displayed.

You can also use a special search format in the second key/value set: Instead of "railway=station" you can type an object id in the key box: e.g.: "node:2854757884" or "way:845647893".
You must include the text "node:" or "way:", only a number won't do.
Tip: To copy an object id to the clipboard, right-click the item in the result list.

Include ...

The boxes "Include nodes, ways, relations" lets you choose the information type to retrieve. If you click the 3 boxes after a search, it shows or hides the found objects.
But if e.g. you unchecked the box "Ways" before the search, then checking it after the search does not show ways, because they were not searched for.

If you see elements on the map, that you wish to search for, but you don't know how those objects are tagged, you can click the button "Show all map features" to show the info of all elements in the selected map area.
As this can easily deliver thousands of objects and can take quite a while to deliver the results, make the map selection as small as possible before you click the button.
In case your selected area exceeds 4000 m2, you will be asked to reduce the search area.

In case, you want to search for an object and you don't know its tag, you can click one of the 2 buttons with a question mark. This will open the TagFinder website where you can search for the proper tag. If you typed some text in the text box left of the question mark button, it opens TagFinder directly on the results page for the text you typed. If you left the text box blank before clicking the button, TagFinder opens the start page where you can type a search text.
If you found what you were looking for, just copy the whole tag text from the TagFinder web page (e.g. "shop=bakery") to the clipboard, then go back to the explore window and click the "paste clipboard" icon. This will split the copied tag in a key and a value text and paste them in the right text boxes.

General information about the OSM database

The database of OpenStreetMap can be queried by means of an interface, called Overpass.
For direct use, there is a website Overpass turbo, where you can type a search command. (see the links below)

As these commands can be pretty complex, Tripexplorer tries to help users without much technical (OSM) knowledge by offering the query window as described in the previous paragraphs.

Basically, the whole OSM database is constructed with points, called nodes. Nodes can occur in series, called ways.
Ways exist in 2 types:
Open ways, like highways or rivers. (compare: In graphics, open ways are called poly-lines.)
Closed ways, like lakes or buildings. Closed ways are referred to as areas. (compare: In graphics, closed ways are called polygons.)
The third type of OSM objects is relation, which is a collection of nodes, ways and relations.

Nodes, ways and relations can be supplied with properties, called tags.
The object tag has a key and a value to define the property, like: shop=bakery or amenity=library or footway=sidewalk

For more information:

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Main_Page
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Map_Features
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tags
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Overpass_API
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Overpass_turbo

Printing and saving

The resulting image or print of the menu option File -> "Save / print map" is actually a screenshot, so the best image quality is obtained by making the needed map portion on the screen as big as possible. To do so:
- Maximize the app window. There is also a setting in preferences to always start the app maximized (preferred!).
- After you have selected a portion of the map, click "Zoom to selection" and wait for the map to be refreshed (if the zoom was increased). There is also a setting in Preferences to zoom the map automatically when you make a selection.

Keyboard shortcuts

Most of the shortcuts initiate an activity at the position of the mouse cursor, so first position the cursor, then press a key. The keys are not case-sensitive: e and E have the same function

A: Set the starting point for a route calculation at the mouse cursor position

Ctrl + A: Drop a map anchor

B: Set the endpoint for a route calculation at the mouse cursor position

1 or +: add a routing waypoint at the mouse cursor position

E: Shows the elevation at the mouse cursor position

F: If the mouse cursor is over a favourite, an edit window for that favourite is opened.
If the mouse cursor is not over a favourite, the edit window for a new favourite is opened.

I: shows the address at the mouse cursor position.

L: If the mouse is over a favourite and the favourite contains a link to a website, the site is opened in your default web browser.

-: If you press the minus sign when the mouse cursor is over a favourite, the favourite is deleted without confirmation. Dangerous key, but practical for quick maintenance of favourite. The recommended way to delete a favourite is by pressing the right mouse button when the mouse cursor is over a favourite and then choose “Delete favourite”.

P: Shows the info balloons for all the POIs on the map (if any)

Q: Displays a window with the geo QR-code of the current map location under the cursor. This code can be read by many GPS devices to go to that location.

R: Redo the last Undo action in track editing.

S: Shows the Street Pics window with a street image at the pointed map position. (Alternatively you can long-click the map with the left mouse button.)

T: Shows the info balloons for all the favourites on the map (if any)

V: This toggles the visibility of favourites in 3 steps:
Show none, Show all, Show selected. To define the favourite categories to be shown on startup, click the eye icon in the favourites section of the right menu column and tick the desired check boxes.

W: Shows a 5 day weather forecast for the pointed map position: (Clicking the view finder icon in the weather window centers the map at the exact location of the used weather station.)

Z: Undo the last edit action in track editing.

<spacebar>: Magnify the map around the position of the mouse cursor. (The magnify zoom scale can be defined in the preferences menu.) After placing a routing marker on the magnified map, then map returns automatically to the original zoom scale. Alternative: double-click the map.
Example: To place the starting point of a route (the A-marker) exactly, move the mouse cursor near the position where you want to place the marker, press the spacebar to magnify the map, move the mouse to the exact position, then press the “A” key.

The most used map types can be activated by pressing the following key combinations:

Ctrl + O: OpenStreetMap

Ctrl + B: Bing maps

Ctrl + G: Google maps

Ctrl + H: Here maps

Weather report

You can show a 2-day weather report for the locations of the favourites, you have selected.
To generate this report, click the menu option “Weather report”.
To add a favourite to this report, right-click on a favourite and choose “Add to weather report”.
To remove a favourite from the report, choose menu -> edit weather report locations and uncheck the box in front of the station(s) to remove. In the same window you can add locations to the weather report.

The Crossmapzz viewer

With the Crossmapzz viewer, you can browse several maps simultaneously, while the map position (and the map zoom) are kept synchronized with the main map. So the Crossmapzz view acts as slave of the main map.
In general, you work with the main map and the slave maps follow your movements.

This allows you to:

- Compare and combine info on maps from different map providers.
  You can mix street maps, satellite maps, terrain maps and hybrid maps in any combination.
  As different maps offer different map details, this mode offers much more information, than can be obtained by viewing just one map.

- Use the Crossmapzz view as a magnifier of the main map.
  Example: Set the main map at zoom 12, click the chain in the Crossmapzz panel to unlink the zooms and set a slave map at zoom 16. While browsing the main map, the slave map shows a magnified portion of the center of the main map.

- Use the Crossmapzz view as an orientation view while you browse the main map.
  Example: Like the previous example, but now set the slave map zoom a few steps lower than the main map zoom.

- Show routes on up to 5 maps simultaneously.
  This is especially useful for pedestrian routes. While the main map can be a street map, the slave map(s) can show the route on a satellite map.

To open Crossmapzz,, click the icon just below the map provider. (Second from right)
To choose the 1, 2 or 4 map providers, click the provider name in the top left part of each map panel.
If the Zoom chain icon looks linked, the zooms of all slave maps are synchronized with the main map.
If it is unlinked, you can choose the map zooms of all the maps individually in several ways:
- Zoom with the mouse wheel while the mouse pointer is over one of the maps.
- Click one of the 4 zoom level text boxes, then use the track bar or the + and – buttons.

You can link/unlink the map positions of the slave map by clicking the Position chain icon.
If the positions are unlinked and you want to synchronize the slave map positions, alt-click the main map. The slave maps will be positioned at the location, where you clicked the main map.

Close Crossmapzz by clicking the same button that you used to open it or click the usual close icon in the top right corner.

Show map in Google Earth

If you have the Google Earth app installed, make a selection, then click the "Show in Google Earth" button to open Google Earth which will show the map at the same position and zoom, with the selection rectangle and the placed markers in Google Earth.

General information about tracks and routes

In Tripexplorer, you can work with routes and tracks, but to many users, the differences between the two are unclear. Let’s explain.

We use the following definitions:

A track is a series of geographical points on a map, which is typically created by a GPS-device.
As the device travels with its user, points are recorded at regular intervals (in time or distance).

A route is a series of geographical points on a map, which can be created by route calculating software, a routing provider (online) or by manually drawing points on a map.

In Tripexplorer, the graphical representation of tracks and routes is a line that connects the trackpoints or route points.

Although routes and tracks are technically speaking almost identical, there is an important difference:
The points of a track were all visited, while the points of a route are theoretical points, where a traveler might go, without the guaranty that the points are actually accessible.
Or in short: a track is practice, a route is theory.

In Tripexplorer you can edit a track, but beware: As soon as you change the position of a single trackpoint, the track in fact becomes a route, because it is no longer certain, that the changed point is accessible. In most cases however, users know very well why they change the positions of trackpoints, so the result is still considered to be a track and can optionally be saved as a track or as a route.

Differences in the GPX-file:

Both a route and a track can be saved in a GPX-file which is a readable text file.
If you open a GPX file with a text editor, you will see, that the route elements in the file are tagged with <rte>, <rteseg> and <rtept> tags, while the track elements are tagged with <trk>, <trkseg> and <trkpt> tags.
One GPX-file can contain multiple tracks and routes.
A trackpoint in the file can store additional information like the elevation and an indication of the precision of the trackpoint, both horizontal (<hdop>) and vertical (vdop>).
Both routes and tracks can also have a name and a description.

General information about points

A GPX file can contain points. In the file, those points are tagged as <wpt> (waypoint), <rtept> (routepoint) or <trkpt> (trackpoint). The most common points are:

- Waypoints: These are intermediate points on a way, like a route or a track. For a route, they are used to determine points, where the route should pass through. For a track, they are used to define the separation of track segments or other significant locations of the track. They are tagged as <wpt>.

- Routepoints: These points are the basic elements of a route and typically come as a collection of many points, to define the route. Routepoints can be calculated by routing software or can be defined manually by placing points on a map. These points normally don’t contain more info than their lat/lon coordinates, but can contain routing instructions, elevation info or references. They are tagged as <rtept>.

- Trackpoints: These points are the basic elements of a track and are normally plotted on a map by a GPS device to create the track. These points contain their lat/lon coordinates, many times their elevation and sometimes information about the precision of the location (<hdop> and <vdop> tags). Trackpoints are tagged as <trkpt>.

- POI’s: Points Of Interest. These points contain (apart from their lat/lon) a name, a description and sometimes a link to a website with more info. They are tagged as <wpt>.

- Favourites: These points are similar to POI’s, but while POI’s are points of common interest, favourites are points of personal interest, like e.g. the home of a friend or the location of your favourite hotel. They are tagged as <wpt>.

- Markers: These are points on the map, you want to remember temporarily. They don’t contain more information than their lat/lon. Markers typically are volatile, usually they are forgotten when you close the application in which they are created. They are tagged as <wpt>.