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Ten things you mightn't know about using Live MapsYou can get to Live Maps directly via maps.live.com or via a search from www.live.com. For example, you might be searching for an electrician in your local area so on the Live Maps page enter electrician as the type of business and your town name in the address box. A map will come up with all electricians, with phone numbers and addresses listed on the left and pushpins showing location. As you pan the map (hold down the left mouse button and move it), new entries will pop up in the list and on the map. You can make a collection of these businesses for later use if you want. If the scratchpad isn't open on the right of your screen, click on Collections and choose Open to bring it up. For the businesses listed on the left, hover the mouse over any of interest and choose the Add to scratchpad option. Another way of saving your search for later use is to click on Share, choose Copy permalink and paste this link into your note scraps file. Right-click can save you lots of time, especially when you've found a city or location and want to get a closer view. When you first right-click, you might only have the option to zoom to regional level - subsequent right-clicks enable you to zoom down to city level then street level. Another trick is to move a pushpin. It can happen that Live Maps doesn't show the correct placement for an address but you want to correctly place the pushpin. Hover over the pushpin and click Move pushpin, the mouse cursor changes to a pair of cross-hairs and all you need do is click on the correct place on the map. Using the Draw a path or trail tool at the bottom of the scratchpad pane enables you you to measure distances - you might be planning a walk around heritage sites in town, creating a bushwalk trail or a bike riding route.
By the way, if you weren't happy with the blue colour of your path or you wanted to make it thicker. then being able to change properties is only a right-click away. Finally, do you want to see an area in more detail? If you've got a centre scroll wheel on your mouse, hold it down and draw a rectangle - the map view will instantly change to zoom into the area you've selected. If your mouse hasn't a scroll wheel, hold down the ALT key while you mark out a rectangle with your mouse. All of us are a bit lazy at making the best use of the Help facility in services we use but it's worth spending some time reading through the Live Maps help to find some handy shortcut keystrokes and other tricks. Make a difference when you chat with Live MessengerFrom the I'm Home site:
Even though Mess users outside the U.S. can't contribute to the organisations when starting a conversation, you can still raise awareness by addding the special emoticon to your display name so your U.S. friends become aware of the project. Here are some you can choose from the following - simply add the code (e.g., *9mil) to your display name:
Here are some sites to get you started:
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