Tour the earth, oceans and skies
without leaving your classroom!
Getting to Know Google Earth
Google Earth is a geographic browser -- a powerful tool for viewing, creating and
sharing interactive files containing highly visual location-specific information.
The diagram below describes some of the features available in the main window
of Google Earth:
1. Search panel - Use this to find places and directions and manage search
results. Google Earth EC may display additional tabs here.
2. Overview map - Use this for an additional perspective of the Earth.
3. Hide/Show sidebar - Click this to conceal or the display the side bar (Search,
Places and Layers panels).
4. Placemark - Click this to add a placemark for a location.
5. Polygon - Click this to add a polygon.
6. Path - Click this to add a path (line or lines).
7. Image Overlay - Click this to add an image overlay on the Earth.
8. Measure - Click this to measure a distance or area size.
9. Email - Click this to email a view or image.
10. Print - Click this to print the current view of the Earth.
11. Show in Google Maps - Click this to show the current view in Google Maps
in your web browser.
12. Sky - Click this to view stars, constellations, galaxies, planets and the Earth's
moon.
13. Navigation controls - Use these to tilt, zoom and move around your
viewpoint (see below).
14. Layers panel - Use this to display points of interest.
15. Places panel - Use this to locate, save, organize and revisit placemarks.
16. Add Content - Click this to import exciting content from the KML Gallery
17. 3D Viewer - View the globe and its terrain in this window.
18. Status bar - View coordinate, elevation and imagery streaming status here.
To download GoogleEarth
GoogleEarth is part of our standard computer image at Marion.
If you don’t have GoogleEarth at home, go to www.earth.google.com and click the
big green Download GoogleEarth Free button located at the top
right corner of the page. You will have to agree to their terms.
You may read them if you want, but you may also just click
“Agree and Download”.
To open Google Earth
Start > All Programs > GoogleEarth
Viewing and Navigating the Globe
Each time you start Google Earth, the Earth appears in the main window. The area
that shows the Earth is called the 3D viewer. The 3D viewer always appears in
Google Earth and shows you imagery, terrain and information about places around
the globe.
Janice Cook
www.msd3.org/~jcook
June, 2009
Page 2
Setting the Start Location
You can set the starting (default) location that appears each time you launch
Google Earth. To do this, navigate to the appropriate location and perspective and
click View > Make this my starting location.
Navigation around the earth is simple, you may use your mouse or the navigation
controls located in the top right corner.
Using Layers
The Layers panel holds an extensive list of points of interest (POI’s) that you can
turn on to display in the 3D viewer.

Turn on a POI by checking it in the
Layers panel.

Turn off a POI by clearing the check box.

The + sign in front of a POI indicates
there are more options related to that
particular POI category
If you would like to view all available POIs or
layers, at the top of the Layers panel, in the View
box, be sure to choose All Layers rather than
Core which is the default.
You can interact with layers in several different
ways:

Find directions to or from the POI

Search the web for information on the
POI – Click the icon, and in the info
balloon, click on the link that says Google Search. The web window
appears below the 3D viewer or in a new browser window with the Google
search results for that POI.


Save the POI to you’re my Places folder
Right-Click on the POI icon and select Save to My Places from the pop-up
menu.
Janice Cook
www.msd3.org/~jcook
June, 2009
Page 3
Creating a Placemark in Google Earth
1. Position the 3D viewer to contain the
spot you want to mark. (Consider
zooming into the best viewing level for
the desired location.) Use either method
listed here to add the placemark.
Method 1. Select the Add Placemark
icon
from the toolbar.
Method 2. From the menu: Add >
Placemark
The New Placemark dialog box appears and a New Placemark icon is
centered in the viewer inside a flashing yellow square.
2. Drag the icon into place over the desired location for the placemark.
3. Name the placemark, and then type a short
description. You may add links to web pages
as well.
4. To change the icon, click on the default icon
symbol.
5. Select the icon that is most appropriate for
your placemark then click OK.
6. The placemark will appear in the 3D viewer
and as an entry in your selected folder. When
you click on it, the description will pop-up
including live links to the web pages you
selected.
Saving a Point of Interest (Placemark)
Any POI displayed in the 3D viewer may be saved to the My Places folder by rightclicking the placemark in the viewer and selecting Save to My Places from the
pop-up menu.

You can also copy and paste a POI from one folder to another.
Janice Cook
www.msd3.org/~jcook
June, 2009
Page 4
Sharing a Point of Interest
1. Go to File > email > email placemark
2. Select FirstClass. An email message will appear with the KMZ file
already attached!

Add recipient addresses
Saving or Sharing a KMZ file
To save your tour for sharing or posting, follow the method you normally use for
saving a document. Notice in “Save as Type” .KMZ is the default option
 Right click > save as
 File > Save Place as
This will simply save as a .KMZ file instead of a .doc file
Opening the .KMZ file will open Google Earth with your folder also open.
Janice Cook
www.msd3.org/~jcook
June, 2009
Page 5
Creating a Tour in Google Earth
Create a folder with several placemarks that your
audience will visit, and save the folder as a .kmz file
(the default file type).

Places > My Places > right click Add > Folder
or

CTRL + Shift + N
To change touring settings, to go Tools > Options.
On the Touring tab,
change the Fly-To
Speed and Tour Speed
to suit your
preferences.
Pause the tour long
enough to allow your
audience time to read the information contained in the balloon. Be sure to check
the box that allows the balloon to pop up when the tour is paused. This option is
not available in earlier Google Earth versions. Make sure you have downloaded
the latest version of Google Earth. When you have made your changes, click Apply
Settings.
To take the tour, click on the Play button at the
bottom of My Places. As the tour visits each of the
placemarks, it will pause to display the descriptive
balloon associated with each placemark, then go on to the
next placemark.
Janice Cook
www.msd3.org/~jcook
June, 2009
Page 6
Five Cool, Easy Things You Can Do in Google Earth
Want to jump in and start having fun with Google Earth? Try any of the following:
1. View an image of your home, school or any place on Earth - Click Fly To.
Enter the location in the input box and click the Search button. In the search
results (Places panel), double click the location. Google Earth flies you to this
location.
Search button
2. Go on a tour of the world - In the Places panel, check the Sightseeing folder
and click the Play Tour button:
3. Get driving directions from one place to another and fly (follow) the route See Getting Directions and Touring the Route.
4. View other cool locations and features created by other Google Earth
users - In the Layers panel, check Community Showcase. Interesting
placemarks and other features appear in the 3D viewer. Double click these
points of interest to view and explore. See Using Points of Interest (POIs) for
more information.
5. View 3D terrain of a place - This is more fun with hilly or mountainous terrain,
such as the Grand Canyon. Go to a location (see number 1). When the view
shows the location, use the tilt slider to tilt the terrain. See Using the
Navigational Controls and Tilting and Viewing Hilly Terrain for more information.
Tilt slider
To place a picture in your placemark:
 Upload your pics to any of the free online photo services (I use flickr.com) or
use pics from the web as long as they are not copyrighted!
 Right click on the photo and copy the address information listed in Properties
 Paste the address into the following html code on the description tab of your
placemark.
<img src="http://www.website.com/picture.jpg">
Janice Cook
www.msd3.org/~jcook
June, 2009
Page 7
Google Earth Simple Help Sheet -From Teaching Hacks.com
Janice Cook
www.msd3.org/~jcook
June, 2009
Page 8
Google Earth Advanced Help Sheet -From Teaching Hacks.com
Janice Cook
www.msd3.org/~jcook
June, 2009
Page 9