World Atlas Software for Home, Professional, or Commercial Use

Q. Is it possible to run World Navigator off of my hard drive so that I don’t have to put the CD-ROM in the computer every time I want to run the program? (SE, PR, ER)

A. Yes. After starting World Navigator, look at the main menu at the top of the screen and click the item labeled “Options”. After the drop down menu appears, select the submenu item labeled “Copy Database to Hard Drive …” and follow the instructions.

Q. I just installed World Navigator and I can't seem to select the "Satellite (GTOPO30) Map" database option. What's wrong? (PR, ER)

A. The Satellite database comes with World Navigator (PR) and (ER) and if you are running the program off of the CD-ROM, then you will not be able to access the Satellite database because it is on Disk 2 of the World Navigator set of 2 CD-ROM's. You must copy the entire cartographic database to your hard drive. After starting World Navigator, look at the main menu at the top of the screen and click the item labeled “Options”. After the drop down menu appears, select the submenu item labeled “Copy Database to Hard Drive …” and follow the instructions.

Q. Can I “export” maps from World Navigator into my paint program (such as Adobe Photoshop, Corel Draw, Microsoft Paint, or Paint Shop Pro)? (SE, PR, ER)

A. Yes. The easiest way to bring a map drawn by World Navigator into your paint program is to first copy the map to the Windows clipboard. After starting World Navigator, look at the main menu at the top of the screen and click the item labeled “File”. After the drop down menu appears, select the submenu item labeled “Copy Map to Clipboard”. Once your map image is on the Clipboard, you should be able to start your paint program and use its “Paste” option to paste the map image into your active work area.

This feature of World Navigator enables you to use the map image in other software products on your computer subject to the restrictions contained in the license agreement. Please see the Software License Agreement that came with the product for more details.

Q. What is the maximum screen resolution that I can use with World Navigator? (SE, PR, ER)

A. All editions of World Navigator (Standard, Professional, Enterprise, and Web Server) will operate up to a maximum screen resolution of 1600 pixels by 1200 raster lines.

Q. The Location Readout box seems too large. How do I make it smaller? (SE, PR, ER)

A. You probably have large fonts selected. Change your font selection to Small Fonts by going to Start, then Settings, then Control Panel. In Control Panel, select Display and then select the Settings tab. Under the Settings tab, select the Advanced button and then select the General tab. Under the General tab, you can change your selection of font size to Small Fonts.

Q. The Location Readout box seems too small. How do I make it larger? (SE, PR, ER)

A. You probably have small fonts selected. Change your font selection to Large Fonts by going to Start, then Settings, then Control Panel. In Control Panel, select Display and then select the Settings tab. Under the Settings tab, select the Advanced button and then select the General tab. Under the General tab, you can change your selection of font size to Large Fonts.

Q. The maps are not as sharp or detailed as I would like them to be; they appear too grainy and almost cartoonish. Is there anything I can do to improve their appearance? (SE, PR, ER)

A. Yes there is. You can make the maps sharper and more detailed by increasing your screen resolution (also referred to as screen area) to 1280 x 1024 or even 1600 x 1200. You can increase your screen resolution by going to Start, then Settings, then Control Panel. In Control Panel, select Display and then select the Settings tab. Under the Settings tab, look for the Screen area control in the lower right and slide the control to the right to increase your screen area.

Q. Do the maps generated by World Navigator go down to the street level? (SE, PR, ER, Web Server))

A. Not at the present time. There is not enough room on the CD-ROM to include detailed street maps for the entire world.

Q. Can I specify a latitude and longitude and have World Navigator draw a map of that location? (SE, PR, ER)

A. Yes. After starting World Navigator, look at the main menu at the top of the screen and click the item labeled “Move”. World Navigator will display an old fashioned rectangular map of the world and a cross hairs indicating your present location. You'll also see three scroll bars that you can use to adjust your viewpoint's latitude, longitude, and altitude. In fact, as you move the latitude or longitude scroll bar boxes by dragging them with the mouse or clicking the scroll arrows, you'll see the cross hairs follow along. And, as you move the altitude scroll bar box up or down you'll see the yellow box around the cross hairs grow or shrink indicating what will be visible on the new map when you click the DRAW button at the bottom. If you wish, you can also grab the cross hairs right on the rectangular map by depressing and holding the left mouse button anywhere on the map; you’ll see the cross hairs jump over to the mouse cursor as if it were a magnet. You can then move the cross hairs to a new location and release the button. When you're ready, you can click the DRAW button at the bottom and the new map will be drawn at the location you just specified. If you click the CANCEL button, then any changes you made will be discarded and the rectangular map of the world will disappear.

Q. What is the map scale used in World Navigator? (SE, PR, ER, Web Server))

A. World Navigator was constructed using digitized maps with a scale of 1:1,000,000

Q. How accurate are the maps? (SE, PR, ER, Web Server))

A. The various databases used in the construction of World Navigator have a horizontal accuracy of no worse than one to two miles.

Q. Can I change the colors of the countries or the colors of the ocean depths and terrain elevations? (SE, PR, ER, Web Server))

A. Not at the present time. However World Navigator (PR) and (ER) each come with a powerful suite of graphics tools allowing you to customize the maps by changing the size and color of many of the map components.

Q. Can I use World Navigator for navigation of my boat or airplane? (SE, PR, ER)

A. No. World Navigator is a general mapping tool and is intended to provide only general geographic references. It is not designed for use as a precision navigation tool, and is therefore not suited for use in directing support for any activities where precise navigation is critical. This includes, but is not limited to, directing emergency response teams as well as any type of marine, aerial, or land navigation.

Q. How can I zoom in for a more detailed look at an area in which I am interested? (SE, PR, ER)

A. There are several ways you can zoom in for a closer look. The best way is to open a zoom window. Here's how you do it.

Start World Navigator and place the mouse cursor on the globe or map, then depress and hold down the right mouse button while dragging the cursor (you should see your zoom window getting larger).

Release the right mouse button when the zoom window is big enough to enclose the part of the globe or map you want to zoom in on.

Now, click the right (or left) mouse button inside the zoom window (the mouse cursor should be a square with a check mark inside) and a new map will be drawn with the zoom window filling the screen. By the way, if you click the right (or left) mouse button outside the zoom window (the mouse cursor should be a square with an x inside), the zoom window will be erased, and you can start over again.

Another way to zoom in is to simply click on the “Zoom In” button on the menu located at the top of the screen.

Q. Why can’t I zoom in closer than 45 miles in altitude? (SE, PR, ER, Web Server))

A. At an altitude of 45 miles, all the available data in the World Navigator cartographic database is being displayed. There is no need to go any lower because there would be no additional data available for display.

Q. Can I use World Navigator to help me with my school reports? (SE, PR, ER)

A. Yes. World Navigator has an extensive database of facts, figures, statistics, and current issues for every country in the world. Select any one of them and you'll be presented with a wealth of information to help you with your report. To access this database of facts, start World Navigator, look at the main menu at the top of the screen, and click the item labeled “Search”. After the drop down menu appears, select the submenu item labeled “Display Country Facts …”. World Navigator will now display a dialog box that contains an alphabetized list of all the countries around the world. Type in the name of the country for which you are looking or scroll down the list until you find it. Once you've found the name, click the OK button at the bottom, double click on the name in the list, or hit the Enter key. Now World Navigator will display detailed information on the country you've selected. This information is contained on HTML pages (the same as you find on the Internet’s World Wide Web).

Q. How recent is the cartographic data used in World Navigator? (SE, PR, ER, Web Server))

A. Only the latest digitized government databases were employed to build the proprietary cartographic and political databases used by World Navigator.

Q. Why is World Navigator better than a conventional book atlas? (SE, PR, ER)

A. Primarily because World Navigator allows you to quickly and easily navigate to any spot on the earth and then zoom in and draw maps with incredible details, details unavailable in a printed atlas. World Navigator has many other features found nowhere else, such as the ability to move the mouse cursor over a map and watch as the elevation of the land (in feet or meters above sea level) or the depth of the ocean under the cursor is continuously displayed on the screen. It offers the ability to measure the Great Circle distance (the shortest distance between two points on a sphere) between any two points on the earth's surface; and it even offers the ability to measure the distance along any squiggly line you can draw. Unlike any other print atlas or computer atlas, World Navigator allows you to pick and choose the features you wish to see on your map. And no more hunting through the index of names in the back of the atlas; you can now simply type in the name of the place for which you're looking and World Navigator will search its database of over 2.7 million place names and draw a map with your selected place name highlighted in the center.

Q. When I use the search tool to find a town, it finds and displays it without a problem. Then later when I go back to the area where the town was located, it’s not there anymore, even when I zoom in as far as I can. Why does this happen? (SE, PR, ER)

A. Most likely the name of a nearby town or city is being displayed instead of your town’s name. The various names that you see on a World Navigator map are displayed according to the priority that was assigned to the name. For example, country names have a higher priority than city names and city names have a higher priority than town names. Even among the towns, the order in which they were stored in the World Navigator database of names introduced another level of prioritization. In some parts of the world, the density of towns is so high that there is not enough room to display them all at the same time. If that is the case, then only a portion of the town names will be displayed before there is no more room on the map. A possible solution is to increase your screen resolution (also referred to as screen area) to 1280 x 1024 or even 1600 x 1200. You can increase your screen resolution by going to Start, then Settings, then Control Panel. In Control Panel, select Display and then select the Settings tab. Under the Settings tab, look for the Screen area control in the lower right and slide the control to the right to increase your screen area. Increasing your screen resolution effectively reduces the font size with which the place names are written. This means that there is more room to write more names on the screen. If all else fails, you will again have to select the “Find any City, Town, or Village …” option on the “Search” drop down menu and type in the name of the town you wish to see displayed.

Q. Sometimes even the names of large cities are not displayed when it seems that they should be. Why does this happen? (SE, PR, ER)

A. Most likely another name, perhaps the name of the country or state in which the city is located, is being displayed instead of the city’s name. The various names that you see on a World Navigator map are displayed according to the name’s priority. For example, country names have a higher priority than city or town names and are thus displayed first. If it just so happens that the country name is displayed on the map on top of the location of a large city (or even a small town), the name of the city (or town) will not be displayed because there’s no room left. If you redraw the map in a slightly different location, oftentimes the program will display the country name in a different spot allowing the “missing” city name to be displayed. Another possible solution is to increase your screen resolution (also referred to as screen area) to 1280 x 1024 or even 1600 x 1200. You can increase your screen resolution by going to Start, then Settings, then Control Panel. In Control Panel, select Display and then select the Settings tab. Under the Settings tab, look for the Screen area control in the lower right and slide the control to the right to increase your screen area. Increasing your screen resolution effectively reduces the font size with which the place names are written. This means that there is more room to write more names on the screen. If all else fails, you can select “Options” from the main menu at the top of the screen, and then select “Map Options …” from the drop down submenu. Once the Display Options dialog box is displayed, try deselecting the option labeled “Prominent Place Names”, and then click the Draw button at the bottom. The map will be redrawn as before except that there might now be room for the missing city or town name to appear.

Q. The names of many natural features never seem to be displayed even though I have the option “Natural Features Names” selected. Why does this happen? (SE, PR, ER)

A. Most likely the names of towns or cities are being displayed instead of the many natural feature place names that are in the same general area. The various names that you see on a World Navigator map are displayed according to the priority that was assigned to the name. For example, country names have a higher priority than city names and city names have a higher priority than town names and town names have a higher priority than natural feature place names. In some parts of the world, the density of towns is so high that there is not enough room to display them all and all of the natural feature place names at the same time. If that is the case, then only a small portion of the natural feature place names will be displayed before there is no more room on the map.

The easiest way to display most of these natural feature place names is to deselect the display options “Prominent Place Names”, “Large Cities”, “Medium Cities”, Small Cities”, “Large Towns”, and “Villages”, and then click the Draw button at the bottom.

Another possible solution is to increase your screen resolution (also referred to as screen area) to 1280 x 1024 or even 1600 x 1200. You can increase your screen resolution by going to Start, then Settings, then Control Panel. In Control Panel, select Display and then select the Settings tab. Under the Settings tab, look for the Screen area control in the lower right and slide the control to the right to increase your screen area. Increasing your screen resolution effectively reduces the font size with which the place names are written. This means that there is more room to write more names on the screen.

Q. Is there a way to connect World Navigator to a GPS (Global Positioning System) so that I can track my location on the globe in real time? (SE, PR, ER)

A. Not at the present time. We are working on that enhancement and hope to incorporate it in a future release of World Navigator.

Q. Can I use the map images I generate at work? (SE, PR, ER)

A. You may use the map images generated by World Navigator (SE) freely for your own personal use. You may use the map images generated by World Navigator (PR) and (ER) for commercial purposes subject to the restrictions contained in the license agreement. For more details, check the license agreement that comes with your edition of World Navigator.

Q. What exactly is the purpose of the “Altitude Override” feature? (SE, PR, ER)

A. If you select this option, then most of the World Navigator's automatic altitude restrictions are lifted. The amount of detail that is displayed on the map depends on your viewpoint's altitude. The lower you go, the more detail will be displayed on the map. And conversely, the higher you go, the less detail will be displayed. For example, World Navigator normally does not display roads, railroads, airports, or streams and canals when your viewpoint's altitude is above 500 miles. If you want to see any of these from above 500 miles up, then select the Altitude Override option. But, be warned that the map is going to get pretty crowded the higher you go. Experiment with it and you'll understand very quickly what Altitude Override does.

Q. Why can’t I find a specific place when I use the search tool? I know it exists. (SE, PR, ER)

A. We’re sure it exists as well, but World Navigator uses government provided information to create its extensive map and information databases. This means that places are sometimes spelled in their native manner, which might be different than the version you are more accustomed to using. In England they use the word “colour” and in the United States they spell the identical word as “color”. Try experimenting with different spellings.