Streetmaps.co.za Help

Use the mouse to click on-screen elements. If you hover over any graphical element on the screen for a second or two, you will get context-sensitive pop-up help which will explain the function of the button you're currently hovering the cursor over.

Select the various functions from the list at the top by clicking on the appropriate tab:
Search: Search the maps for a street, town, suburb, major landmark.
Database: Browse the database of points of interest.
Weather: View weather for a selected area.
Feedback: Send feedback for ideas, problems, praise, etc.
Coordinates: Some tools to convert between coodrinate systems, and jump to a specified coordinate.
More: Other map features, such as Cadastral Data.

There are also a number of keyboard shortcuts detailed below.

While in the Search tab, enter a place/street to search for; give as much information as you can, and the search results will be a lot more accurate; for example "Main Road, Durban" will return far more precise results than simply "Main Road". Press Enter or Click the Search button to commence the search. The results should return after a momentary wait.

The right hand side of the screen should now show a number of tabs; Roads, Areas and Places. The number of matching results found in each of these categories should be displayed in brackets after the headings. Click on the tab heading to show that type of result.

To View the result on the map, click on a blue underlined search result and the map will immediately jump and zoom in on the search result. A label will be placed on the map to show you where it is. Click on the "Search Result" bubble to remove it and see the underlying map.

The database contains an ever-growing number of interesting points on the map. This information comes from many sources. There are two ways for you to access this useful data.

Find nearby facilities If you are on an area of the map which you are interested in, and wish to browse nearby facilities, click on the Database tab at the top of the screen. A number of categories will appear. Clicking on a BOLD heading will expand that category to show more precise categories contained within there. Clicking on a non-bold entry will initiate a search and return any nearby points in that category if available. Once a search has been done, you will be shown the relevant entries on the right of the screen. You may click on an entry to make the map jump to show the point. You may also use the Search Radius drop-list above the results list to expand and contract the radius of your search. Selecting a new radius will result in your last search being repeated immediately using the new search radius.

View points on the map Clicking on the Points tab overlapping on the right-hand side of the map will cause a query to be initiated that will return all points in all categories, and the right hand side of the screen will change into a list of entries, should there be any. These are categorised for your convenience. Should there be too many to show on the map, a list of headings will be displayed, with the number of results in that category shown in brackets. Click the heading to show all the points in that category, both on the map and in the list.

If you wish to get driving directions, navigate the map to the place where you want to start. You can use the search function (detailed above) to help. Right-click on the map, in the position you wish to start the journey, and select Directions FROM here. Similarly, find the end of your journey, right-click on the map in the destination location and select Directions TO here from the menu. The route will be calculated immediately and the map view changed to display it.

The right side of the screen will change to Driving Directions for your route. Click on any of these driving direction steps to zoom the map in on that particular driving instruction.

Because there are quite a few ways used to represent graphical coordinates, it can be confusing to know how to enter them.

Latitude/Longitude: these specify the actual position of the coordinate. Latitude (Y) represents the distance from the equator to the point, and Longitude (X) represents the distance from greenwich mean (0) to the point.

Y Value: If a coordinate is north of the equator, the Y value will be positive, if it's south, it will be negative. This might be indicated in coordinates as "15.5N" or "15.5S" indicating 15.5 degrees north or south of the equator. These would be +15.5 and -15.5 degrees respectively.

X Value: If a coordinate is west of Greenwich, the X value will be negative, if it's east, it will be positive. This might be indicated in coordinates as "15.5E" or "15.5W" indicating 15.5 degrees east or west of the equator. These would be +15.5 and -15.5 degrees respectively.

Identifying the system used: You can identify the type of system used to represent the coordinates by the amount of seperate numbers used to represent it. These numbers might be separated by words like "degrees, minutes, seconds", their symbols - " and ' , or "d, m, s". Decimal points do not count as separators.

• One number per X/Y: Decimal Degrees
• Two numbers per X/Y: GPS Coordinates
• Three numbers per X/Y: Degrees, Minutes, Seconds

Decimal Degrees: are usually used by computer systems, as it is a nice easy way to represent each coordinate by a single number, eg "15.5" = "15 and a half" degrees.

Degrees, Mins, Secs (DMS): is the classic way of representing a coordinate, this shows the degrees figure, then the minutes and seconds figure as a value between 0 and 60.

GPS Coordinates: Is a slightly shorthand way that many GPS systems to represent coordinates. It's a bit more accurate, which GPS units need to have. It has the degrees and minutes figure the same as the DMS system, but the seconds are instead represented as a fraction and tagged onto the minutes, so "10 degrees, 20 minutes, 15 seconds" would be represented as "10 degrees 20.25 minutes" in GPS coordinates.

If you wish to attach a photo onto the map, right-click and select "Attach Your Photo here". You'll be presented with a form to fill in and select your photo from your local computer. An e-Mail will be sent to you with details on removing the photo should you want to.

If you wish to remove your photo and have lost this email, we can email a list of all your points and removal instruction to you, please enter your email address here and we'll send you a list.
Your Email address:

You may use the keyboard to navigate the on-screen map. The active keys are detailed below.

Up Arrow: Pan North
Down Arrow: Pan South
Left Arrow: Pan Left
Right Arrow: Pan Right
PgUp: Zoom Out
PgDn: Zoom In

	MapIT	Southern African Vector Data, Site Partner.
	Surveyor General	Portions of Vector data; Portions of Aerial Photography.
	Always Active Technologies	Site programming, maintenance, design.
	City of Tshwane	Aerial Photography of the City of Tshwane.

All code on the site was developed by Always Active Technologies from scratch. We've started maintaining a change log if you're interested to see what we're up to.

We use data from a number of sources. If you want to see recent data update information, here is a change log.