Sunday, February 22, 2015

Why just Google Earth when you can go PRO

Now is the time to act. Google Earth just recently announced that their $400 a year upgrade to Google Earth "Google Earth Pro" is available now for free. For genealogy there really was not a reason to go Pro especially at that price tag but when you say free I say why not. You can get started by going here https://geoauth.google.com/gev0/free_trial.html . What I did was fill out the form and get a Key. The site now says you can just download GE Pro and type in GEPFREE in to the License Key and away you go.


From what I have seen so far the rest is seamless. Its mapping your MyPlaces from the same place as your standard GE so you don't have to go hunt that down.  It even appears to talk to both versions so if you accidental start making placemarkers in one program and then decide you want to print out a map at a higher resolution you can open up GE Pro and do so.

Few things that are new with the Pro version. High-resolution printing capability which is a huge thumbs up from me. You can now print some big maps and they have all sorts of other features like being able to add a title, compass, and more all from the save image feature. There is a Movie Maker, I haven't tried this one yet. Another thumbs up goes to Area Measurement, before you can only measure lines and paths, but now you can do polygons, like the family land. The last is Superoverlays, haven't played with this one either but hope it's not much more then overlays for larger files. I know I have some maps that I would like higher resolution imports vs having to dial it down to smooth out the process.

I will try to get my head around these new features and get some instruction posted soon. If you see something you want me to hit on first let me know.

Thanks for checking this post out, now don't wait and go download your Google Earth Pro now while you still can.