Below are frequently asked questions from users to help you get started with the Travel Mapper add-on.

You can also check out this quick demo: Travel Mapper Walkthrough Video

Getting Started

1) How do I start using Travel Mapper?

• Create a new spreadsheet and find Generate Template in the menu shown below.

2) Only Help is visible in the Travel Mapper menu.

• This is a known Google Sheets issue, independent of Travel Mapper, that requires a fix from Google.
• Wait for 10 seconds and reload the browser page by pressing the Ctrl+R. If the problem persists, please contact us at admin@blueplanit.co

3) I can't generate a template.

• If you see “Uh oh! You are experiencing a permissions issue related to having multiple Google accounts” error, this is caused by having a Google Chrome account signed in that is different from your Google Sheets account you used to install Travel Mapper. This is a known Google platform error existing since 2017 and is not associated with Travel Mapper. Three options to fix this:
• See the support page for step-by-step instructions on fixing this issue.

1. Use the Guest account in your Chrome browser and sign into Sheets to use Travel Mapper.
2. Install Travel Mapper on the account signed into Chrome.
3. Change your Chrome account to the one used to install Travel Mapper

4) Where is the map?

• From the "Extensions" dropdown menu, select "Travel Mapper" and then "View Map".

5) Why am I seeing "Your region has unsupported date formats."?

• Travel Mapper only supports date formats such as "02/20/2023" and "2023/02/20".
• Travel Mapper will automatically fix this issue for you when using any of our premium features.
• To manually set your sheet settings, follow this post.

6) Can I change the sheet tabs or titles?

• No. Changing the titles will break Travel Mapper functionality, but there are no problems when adding additional tabs.

7) Can I add or delete columns or rows on the Itinerary tab?

• No. The add-on only works properly with the columns that are generated from the add-on. Adding or deleting rows may have unintended consequences because the format of the template is hard-coded and certain cells (like the "Destination" and "Budget" cells) cannot be move or removed for Travel Mapper to work properly.

8) What is the “Backdoor Data” tab and can I delete it?

• No, this is where all the automation magic happens.
• Cell B1 of this tab is where you’d enter your Google Maps API Key if you’ve purchased the Comfort Class tier of Travel Mapper. You are welcome to hide this tab.

9) Can I make the sidebar map bigger?

• You cannot make the map wider, but you can make it fullscreen with button in the top right corner of the map.

10) Can I use Travel Mapper on my mobile device?

• You can view the spreadsheet you’ve created using Travel Mapper using the Google Sheets mobile app, however none of the advanced capabilities are available on mobile.
• From Edit Trip on your desktop, email your trip summary to yourself for a summary view of your trip on mobile or import your itinerary to Google My Maps for mobile use.

11) How do I manage my Travel Mapper subscription?

• Open a Google Sheet and from the Travel Mapper menu, click Subscription Settings.

Detailed Planning

12) How do I use the "Location" column?

• If an activity isn’t mapped correctly after clicking "Update Map" with the "Location" column left blank, enter the correct address in the "Location" cell to correctly map the activity location.

13) What is the "Do Not Map" option in the "Location" column for?

• Select “Do Not Map” for any activity entries that you don’t want to show on the map.

14) Can I customize the "Category" options and the map pin color for each activity?

• Yes! Add as many category labels as you want. The color on the map marker corresponds to the cell background color of the category in the spreadsheet. If you like, you can use conditional formatting to color the background automatically.

15) Why am I getting an "Invalid" error message in the Location column?

• You can ignore this. It is a byproduct of having the "Do Not Map" dropdown option.

16) How do I import my itinerary to Google My Maps?

• Click on the Edit Trip button from the side-bar map. Click on the download icon on the left of the new window that opens. Click Download.
• Open Google My Maps, create a new map, and click "Import" under the first map layer. Select the KML file exported from Travel Mapper to upload.

17) Why did Travel Mapper export multiple files for Google My Maps?

• Google My Maps only allows up to 10 layers.
• Each day on your itinerary is its own layer so that the pins are unique to each day. This makes it easier to see which pins correspond to which days on the map.
• For itineraries longer than 10 days, multiple KML files are created to enable importing your full itinerary into multiple maps within Google My Maps. For example, days 1 through 10 on map 1. Days 11-20 on map 2, etc.
• In addition to the multiple KML files separated by days, one last KML file is created with all your itinerary activities as one layer.

18) How to I recover lost data from my Sheet?

• You can always revert your Sheet to an older version if you need to recover lost data or accidentally overwrote your Sheet. See more here: https://support.google.com/docs/answer/190843

19) Can I use the "Replace URL with title" function in Google Sheets for links in the Link column?

• No, cells in the Link column need to be formatted as the URL itself rather than the title that Google Sheets offers to replace the URL with. Without the URL itself, the link will eventually be broken and you'll be unable to click the link from the Email Summary sent with Travel Mapper. Always use the URL itself for the Link column.

20) How do I manage activities without dates and then assign them dates without inserting rows?

• One option is add the activity to an open row using Add Place or by typing it in and leave the date blank for that activity. When you're ready to assign it a date, open Edit Trip (see this video) to drag it into the desired date. This will automatically format the itinerary in date order (be sure to click Save).
• If you already have the Activities Without Dates column in the Edit Trip view, you can click Add Place there to add additional activities. If you don't have this column because all your activities have dates, click More Info on any activity in the Edit Trip view and click the X in the bottom left of the activity to remove its date.