How to organize your markers

Locator maps often have a lot of markers, and there are a few different features in Datawrapper you can use to organize them. This article explains how.

Contents

1. Selecting
2. Grouping
3. Hiding and locking
4. Duplicating and copying
5. Moving to the front or back
6. Changing the name in the marker list
7. Deleting

Selecting

After you've added markers to your map, you'll see a full list of the markers on the left hand side, where you can select one or more markers. If you're only selecting one marker, just click on its name in the marker list. You can then change the marker style, color, icon, etc.

If you want to change more than one marker at the same time, you first need to select multiple markers at once. There are a few ways to do so:

To select all the markers you click on, hold down the Command or Control key while you click each one from the marker list.

To select a lot of markers consecutively, you can click on a marker, and then hold down Shift while you select a different marker. That will select all the markers/groups you've clicked on and all of the markers between the two.

You can also click on the Selected text from the multi-select bar underneath your markers, and choose to select all markers or invert your selection:

Selecting a group from the marker list will also automatically select all of the children in that group. You can also select multiple group at once as just described.

Grouping

Grouping markers is helpful to make your marker list shorter and more manageable. If you group markers, they'll all be moved to an own folder, where they can be edited together or locked in place. You can group markers in whatever way makes sense to you. For example, you may want to group the markers that have already been fully styled, set aside markers that are hidden, or isolate markers based on their type.

To group markers, first select the markers you want to group. You can see that the multi-select bar below your markers appear. Click on Group, then give your new group folder a name. Instead of clicking Group, you can also press Cmd/Ctrl+G. The little number next to the folder name will tell you how many markers a folder contains.

To remove the folder, click on the marker menu next to the group name (the three dots in the circle), then on Ungroup. Or select your folder in the marker list and press Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+G.

Hiding and locking

If you click on a marker, you get a lot of styling options – depending on the marker type you chose. You can read more about those options in our articles on styling point markers, styling area & line markers, and styling arrow markers.

But you also have some options directly in the marker list. To access them, hover over a marker. Five little icons will appear. Let's go through them:

• All viewports | Desktop only | Mobile only: If you click on the first icon (or press V) one or multiple times, you can decide if your marker should be visible on desktop and mobile devices, only on desktop devices, or only on mobile devices. This is useful because space is tight on narrow screens, so yo either want to not show them at all ("Desktop only") or style some markers differently/make them smaller and then set them to "Mobile only". You will also find this setting in the advanced options below the marker list if you click on a marker.

• Hide | Show: If you click on the eye icon (or press H), you can hide a marker. If you click again, your marker shows up again. This can be helpful if you want to try out different designs for markers and compare them.

• Lock | Unlock: Clicking on this lock icon (or pressing L) will make it impossible to move your marker around on the map. Click again to unlock the marker again. This is especially useful for point markers. You can lock the position the marker is in when it's in the correct spot, and ensure it won't be moved by accident through the rest of the editing process.

The next icon – the three dots in the circle – bring up even more options in form of a marker menu:

We'll talk about many of these options in the following sections. For now, let's note that you can also hide/show, lock/unlock, and change the viewport of your markers (Always shown, Desktop only, Mobile only) in this menu.

To hide, lock, or change the viewport of multiple markers, you have two options. You can select a group and make the changes for the whole group with the icons next to the group name. Individual markers will remember their own initial state (for example, whether a marker was hidden or unhidden), so if you move them out of the group, they'll revert to that visibility automatically.

...or you select multiple markers and use the multi-edit bar at the bottom of the marker list that comes with the same options you just got to know for individual markers:

Duplicating and copying

Duplicating and copying markers can speed up your workflow. For example, you can duplicate a marker to prepare two versions, one for mobile and one for desktop.

You can duplicate and copy markers or whole groups. Duplicating and copying are very similar – they both create copies of your markers/groups. If you're duplicating/copying point markers, they will get a "(Copy)" at the end of the label text. The difference is that duplicating makes immediate copies directly above the original marker/group. If, instead of duplicating, you're copying a marker/group, it's in your clipboard and needs to be pasted to become visible. You can paste markers wherever you want, e.g. in groups, by pressing Cmd/Ctrl+V.

Here's how:

• To duplicate/copy one or multiple markers and/or groups, select them, then press D (to duplicate) or Cmd/Ctrl+C (to copy).

• To duplicate/copy one marker or group, select the marker menu next to the marker/group name (the three dots in the circle), then click Duplicate or Copy.

• To duplicate/copy multiple markers or groups, select them, then click on the marker menu in the multi-edit bar at the bottom of the marker list. In the menu, click Duplicate or Copy.

Moving to the front or back

You might want to change the order in which your markers are layered – for example, to make certain markers more visible. The order in which your markers are displayed in the list is also the order in which they shown on your map.

The order of your markers is especially important to keep in mind for tooltips. If an area or line marker with a tooltip sits below another marker, the tooltip for the lower marker won't be accessible.

The easiest way to change the order of markers is to simply drag them around the marker list. To do so, select one or multiple marker or groups, then click and hold while you move your mouse up or down the list.

You can also use the marker menu (the three dots in the circle) either next to a group/ marker, or in the multi-edit bar below the list if you select more than one marker or group. In the marker menu, you get the option to Bring to front or Send to back. That's helpful if your marker lists contain dozens of markers, and you don't want to scroll through all of them.

Changing the name in the marker list

You can rename any marker in the marker list. This name won't be displayed on the map — it's just there to let you organize and recognize your markers better in the marker list. For example, you can rename the area and line markers you uploaded, or you can add some label to your text markers.

The easiest way to do so is to select one or more markers or groups, and then go to the Advanced options below the marker list. In there, you'll find the option to set a Marker name.

If you want to change the name of an area, arrow, or line marker, you can also do so by double-clicking on its name in the marker list. If you do so for point markers, it will change the label text. The following video shows the difference between label text and marker name:

Since the marker name has no impact at all on the map and its appearance, you can ignore it if you only have a few markers.

Deleting

There are a few ways to delete a marker or group you don't need anymore:

• Select one or multiple markers or groups, then press backspace/delete on your keyboard.

• Select one or multiple markers or groups, then scroll to the bottom of the edit options below the marker list and click Delete.

• Select one marker or group, then click on the little marker menu next to its name (the three dots in the circle) and select Delete.

• Select multiple markers and/or groups, then click on the little marker menu down in the multi-edit bar and select Delete.