Interacting with geospatial PDFs in Acrobat 9

Learn how to find locations, measure distances, and add location markers in a geospatially enabled PDF using Acrobat 9.

By Adobe – June 18, 2009

 

When you open a geospatially enabled PDF, you can find locations, measure distances, and add location markers. You can also copy coordinates to the clipboard for use with a web mapping service.

View the geospatial measuring tools by choosing Tools > Analysis > Show Analysis Toolbar.

Geospatial tools on the Analysis toolbar.

Use the Geospatial Location tool to perform these tasks:

• View latitude and longitude while the cursor is over an area containing geospatial information.
• Mark a location with a geospatial annotation.
• Search for a location in a document.

Find map locations

1. Open a geospatial PDF and choose Tools > Analysis > Geospatial Location tool
2. Right-click inside the map, and then click Find A Location.
3. Type the latitude and longitude values (degrees, minutes, seconds, or decimal) in the two text boxes, and click Find.

   If at least one location is available, the location is highlighted with a blue square and the page is centered on the highlighted location.

4. If the PDF includes more than one map, click the Next or Previous button to view additional results, if any. Multiple
   locations are available in several situations:

   • When a document contains multiple maps (for example, if a PDF contains a smaller map within a larger map, such as a city within a map of a state or country). When you search for a location within the city, Acrobat finds it in both the larger map and the city map.

   • When a document contains multiple pages of a map (for example, if page one is a map of a country and page two is a map of a state or city within the country).

5. (Optional) To add a comment (such as a place name or address), click the location marker, and then add the information in the comment box.
6. To end the search, right-click inside the map. Then select Hide Location Search, to remove the search boxes.

Mark geospatial locations

1. Open a geospatial PDF and choose Tools > Analysis > Geospatial Location Tool .
2. Move the mouse pointer over the document to view latitude and longitude values of areas that contain geospatial information. Right-click inside the map, and then do one of the following:

   • To find a location, click Find A Location. Type the latitude and longitude values, and click Find.

   • To mark a location with geospatial information, click Mark Location.

3. (Optional) To add a comment (such as a place name or address), click the location marker, and then add the information in the comment box.

Measure distance, perimeter, and area on maps

When you open a geospatial PDF, the Acrobat measuring tools read the geospatial information and measure distance and area instead of page or object dimensions. Use the measurement tools to calculate distance, perimeter, and area on any geospatially enabled PDF. As you move the mouse pointer over content in the document, snap markers are shown that indicate that you are on a path or path end point. You can also see the latitude and longitude of your cursor location when the mouse pointer is over geospatial content.

1. Choose Tools > Analysis > Measuring Tool
2. In the Measurement Tool display, select a measurement type: Distance , or Perimeter .
3. Select a snap-to option:

   • Snap to paths

   • Snap to end points

   • Snap to midpoints

   • Snap to intersections

4. Do one of the following:

   • If you are using the Distance tool, click where you want to start the measurement, and then drag to the end point and click again. The distance is displayed in the lower-right corner.

   • If you are using the Perimeter tool, click the map in one corner of the perimeter, and then drag to each corner. Click at each corner and then double-click at the end point. The information window displays the perimeter size.

   • If you are using the Area tool, click the map at one corner of the area, and then drag to another corner. Click before changing directions. Double-click at the end to display the total area.

5. To finish the measurement, right-click and select Complete Measurement. Or, select Cancel Measurement.

Copy location coordinates to the clipboard for use with a web mapping service

After you find a location on a geospatial PDF, you can copy the coordinates to the clipboard. From the clipboard, you can paste the data into a web mapping service that reads latitude and longitude coordinates.

1. Choose Tools > Analysis > Geospatial Location Tool , and then right-click the location on the map.
2. Click Copy Coordinates To Clipboard.

   Acrobat copies the data in this format: latitude then longitude, separated by a space. Paste the data into the address bar of a web mapping service that can interpret the location data.

Change measurement units within a document

To change the type of measurement units, right-click inside the map with the Measuring tool and choose Distance Unit or Area Unit. Then select a measurement type.