Points
Overview
The ability to mark a point is a fundamental concept for all maps and globes. In KML this is done using <Placemark>. The default marker is a yellow push-pin the tip of which marks the location. In KML terminology it is actually a <Placemark> parent element with a <point> child.
New KML:
<altitudeMode>
<coordinates>
<description>
<extrude>
<href>
<kml>
<name>
<Placemark>
<Point>
Tutorial
Searching for Locations
(1) Position yourself over Italy.
(2) Search KML files for Giant Pink Rabbit. Note that in the search bar Google's locations are shown with red markers, user community placemarks are shown by blue markers.
Saving Searches to My places
(3) Position yourself over Sydney, Australia.
(4) Search for the location of Aquatic Ping Pong and zoom-in.
(5) Create a Placemark for this location My Places.
(6) Clear your search items (the blue <Placemark> should disappear).
Altitude of Placemark
(7) Open the <Placemark> properties.
(8) Select the altitude tab, adjust height to 100m relative to ground and turn on extend to ground.
(9) Select OK and tilt your perspective in the viewer.
Description Balloons
(10) Open the <Placemark> properties.
(12) Write in the description Hello Earth, I'm playing ping pong!
(12) Select OK and open the balloon.
(13) Re-open the properties and add <href>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ping_Pong</href> as a second line of description.
(14) Re-open the balloon and check the webpage link works.
(15) Save <Placemark> as pingpong.kml.
Editing Placemark KML
(16) Open pingpong.kml in a text editor.
(17) Delete all content between and including <Style>, <StyleMap>, <styleURL>, <open> and <LookAt>.
(18) Save file and check it opens correctly in Google Earth.
(19) Within the file identify the new KML elements listed in the overview section (above).
(20) Experiment with changing the values of these elements. See Google's KML documentation for non-numerical options.
(21) Description balloons support basic HTML objects such as images and flash video. The use of CDATA tags "hides" the HTML from the KML parser and avoids the need to use special character sequences. Some basic HTML tags that are useful for description baloons can be found here. See the following example:
Exercises
(A) Create a placemark located at the UAF campus with a description balloon that lists six different ways to create placemark KML.
(B) Create a placemark at Augustine Volcano with a description balloon that contains the following YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTK8sBaef9k&e