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Excel To KML - Display Excel files on Google Earth.

Import a spreadsheet of lat/long coordinates to Google Earth.  Pop-up balloons, icons, and paths are easily created from the spreadsheet data.

A B C D E 1 Latitude Longitude Name Description Icon 2 43°36'34.86"N 116°12'23.30"W BAM Art museum 12 3 43 36 33.22 -116 12 18.40 Roses Nice garden 111 4 43.608879028 -116.20320277 Zoo Great visit 186 Sample points plotted onto Google Earth.

Latitude and Longitude are all that is needed to create a basic display on Google Earth.  Add a Name, Description, and an Icon for a professional presentation.

Advanced features support GPS tracks, Time Sliders, and Grid Coordinates.

To get started, read the Quick Start instructions or download the sample data ExcelToKmlDemo.zip.

NEW: Time sliders support eras.  +, -, AD, BC, CE, and BCE can appear before or after the dates.  Read more...

Click the "Browse" button and select an Excel file (xls, xlsx, xlsm, xlsb, txt, or csv).

If you need help getting started, or if you have ideas for improvement, please write or call.

Quick Start

• Open Excel.
• Enter these words into separate cells on the first row: "Latitude", "Longitude", "Name", "Description", and "Icon".
• On the rows that follow, enter the attributes of each point.
• "Latitude" and "Longitude" are required.  The other columns are optional.
• "Name" is the label that appears next to each icon on Google Earth.
• "Description" is the text that appears in the Google Earth pop-up balloon.  An Excel formula can be used to combine data from several columns.
• "Icon" designates the icon that is displayed for each point.  An easy way to get an icon is to enter a number from the table below.  If the Icon column is left blank or if it is missing, icon number 166 is displayed.  You can also enter an icon's "www" web address.  If you don't want an icon, enter the word "none".
• Save the worksheet.
• Click the "Browse" button above and select the worksheet you just created.
• Click the "View on Google Earth" button.

To Save The File

• In the "Places" window of Google Earth, right-click the folder "Earth Point Excel To KML".
• From the pop-up menu, select "Save As".

Features

• Displays an xls, xlsx, xlsm, xlsb (Excel), csv (comma separated values) or txt (tab delimited) file on Google Earth.
• Excel columns "Latitude", "Longitude", "Name", "Description", and "Icon" are all that are needed for a professional looking presentation.
• Advanced options allow you to elevate the icon above the earth's surface, draw a path ("connect the dots"), and control mouse-over effects.
• Icons can be specified by entering a number from the table below or by entering the URL of an icon stored on a web server.
• Formulas may be entered into any cell of a spreadsheet. Formulas can be used to specify icons, icon scale, format the Description text, etc. Formulas cannot be used in csv or txt files.
• Column specifications are listed below.

GPS Track: use the following columns: Latitude, Longitude, LineStringColor, Icon, IconColor, and IconHeading.  Enter "lime" or "yellow" into the LineStringColor column. For direction arrows, enter "196" into Icon, "yellow" into IconColor, and "line-180" into IconHeading.  If you don't want an icon, enter "none" into the Icon column.  more...

GPS track on Google Earth.

Time Slider: If you have GPS tracks or other data that contains time information, you can view this information sequentially using the time slider in Google Earth.  Excel To Kml looks for time information in columns labeled TimeWhen, TimeBegin, and TimeEnd.  See the specifications below.  Google Earth Blog has more information about the time slider.

Universal Transverse Mercator grid. Courtesy Wikipedia.

Grid Coordinates: ExcelToKml supports:
Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM)
Universal Polar Stereographic (UPS)
Military Grid Reference System (MGRS)
MGRS Polar
U.S. National Grid (USNG) (identical to MGRS)
World Geographic Reference System (Georef)

LatLon can be joined as one coordinate.  See the specifications below.

Guidelines

• File name must end in ".xls", ".xlsx", ".xlsm", ".xlsb", ".csv", or ".txt"
• The first row that contains the values "Latitude" and Longitude" or the value "Position" is considered to be the heading row. All previous rows are ignored. All subsequent rows are treated as data.
• The columns listed below control the appearance of each placemark. "Latitude" and "Longitude" are required. All others are optional. Any column not listed is ignored.
• Multiple worksheets are allowed in an Excel workbook. Each worksheet name will be displayed as a separate folder in Google Earth "My Places".

Security

Excel To KML security is comparable to sending an email to a trusted colleague.  Your data is transmitted over the internet and saved as a file on the Earth Point server.  The data is immediately sent back to your PC in the form of a KML file and the original file is removed from the Earth Point server.

Issues

• There are a few issues with the OleDb driver used to read Excel files. Csv and txt files are not affected by these issues.
• Data is read from columns A to UV (1 to 255) of the spreadsheet. Column IV (256) and beyond are ignored.
• By default, for each column of the worksheet, the driver reads only the first 255 characters of each cell. For most people, this is not a problem, as their cells contain less than 255 characters. However, there is a solution. For any column, if there is a larger cell within the first eight rows of the worksheet, then the driver will allocate more space to reading the cells of that column. If you have larger columns, such as "Description", an easy fix is to put =REPT(" ",256) in the first row of the effected columns, and to put the column headings in the second row of the worksheet. The large cells signal the OleDb driver to allocate more space to reading those columns, and since they appear before the heading row, the large cells are ignored by the Excel To KML conversion process. ExcelToKml does report truncation problems. For each column, if the OleDb driver finds no cells longer than 255 characters within the first eight rows, but further down there are cells that are exactly 255 characters, then truncation has likely occurred and is reported.
• If a worksheet starts out with empty rows, these are not displayed on this web page, and the apparent row numbers are inaccurate. This problem can be ignored, since it has no effect on the display on Google Earth or on the functionality of ExcelToKml, but one fix is to type a space anywhere in the first row of the worksheet. Since there is no problem with empty rows within the worksheet data itself, all rows will be displayed correctly.

Columns Used By Excel To KML

Latitude, Longitude, Name, Description, and Icon are all that are necessary for a professional looking presentation.  Advanced options allow you to elevate the icon above the earth's surface, draw a path ("connect the dots"), and control mouse-over effects.  Excel To KML ignores any additional columns in your spreadsheet.

Required Columns
Column Heading	Default Value	Description
Latitude	None	Latitude of point.  Google Earth uses the WGS84 geodetic datum.  Valid formats include:   N43°38'19.39"   43°38'19.39"N   43 38 19.39   43.63871944444445 If expressed in decimal form, northern latitudes are positive, southern latitudes are negative. If blank or invalid, item is not displayed on Google Earth.
Longitude	None	Longitude of point.  Google Earth uses the WGS84 geodetic datum.  Valid formats include:   W116°14'28.86"   116°14'28.86"W   -116 14 28.86   -116.2413513485235 If expressed in decimal form, eastern longitudes are positive, western longitudes are negative. If blank or invalid, item is not displayed on Google Earth.
Basic Optional Columns
Column Heading	Default Value	Description
Name	None	The text displayed next to the icon on Google Earth. If blank, no text is displayed.
Description	None	The text displayed in the Google Earth pop-up balloon. An Excel formula can be used to combine text from several columns. For example, to display data from columns D, E, and F, with each of D, E, and F on its own line, and supposing we are on row 6, the Description column formula is =D6 & "<br/>" & E6 & "<br/>" & F6 where <br/> is the html tag for a new line. HTML tags are allowed. Note to HTML authors: Except for specifying font color, the HTML "style" attribute is ignored by Google Earth. Earlier formatting methods must be used, as illustrated in the sample data ExcelToKmlDemo.zip. If blank, no balloon is displayed.
Icon		Either: 1) A integer between 1 to 279, which designates an icon selected from the table below; or 2) The URL of an icon stored on a web site; or 3) the word "none". If the file cannot be found, Google displays . If "none", no icon is displayed. If blank, is displayed.
Advanced Optional Columns
Column Heading	Default Value	Description
AppendLatLonToDescription	None	Valid values are "True", "Yes", "x", "False", "No", and blank. If true, appends Latitude and Longitude information to the Description text. Useful for seeing the translation of coordinates that are entered into the Position column. The description text is displayed in the Google Earth pop-up balloon. The description text is also displayed in the spreadsheet view on this web page. The following example reports that "30UXC3542" is entered into the Position column, that it is an MGRS coordinate for a 1-kilometer grid, and that the equivalent Lat/Lon is 51.812518, -1.0416 MGRS KM:  30UXC3542 Lat, Lon:  51.812518, -1.0416 If blank, no text is appended to the Description text. If the spreadsheet does not have a "Description" column, the text will nonetheless be displayed in the Google Earth pop-up balloon. However, no text will be added to the spreadsheet view on this web page.
Folder	blank	Organizes the data into folders and subfolders. When viewing the data in Google Earth, the entire contents of a folder can be hidden or shown by clicking the folder in the "My Places" window. Both forward-slashes and back-slashes can be used to separate the folder levels. Examples: Country One Country One/City One/Street One Country One/City Two Country Three/Office Four/Room Six
HideNameUntilMouseOver	False	Valid values are "True", "Yes", "x", "False", "No", and blank. If true, the icon is displayed with no label, until mouse over, then the label is displayed. If False, the label is always displayed. If there many rows in your data, is helpful to hide the labels to reduce screen clutter. If blank, Name is always displayed, regardless of mouse-over.
IconScale	1	A decimal number that increases or decreases the display size of the icon. Typical values are in the range of .5 to 1. No matter how big or small an image actually is, Google Earth displays it according to the scale. For example, Scale=1 Scale=.7 Scale=1.5 If blank, scale is 1.
IconAltitude	0	Height of icon above the ground (default) or sea level (optional), in meters. If blank, height is 0. See IconAltitudeMode, just below.
IconAltitudeMode	Relative	If blank, "Relative", "AGL", or "AboveGroundLevel", the altitude of the icon is measured from ground level. If "Absolute", "MSL", or "MeanSeaLevel", the altitude of the icon measured from sea level.
IconLineColor IconLineColour	Yellow	If the icon is elevated above the ground (see IconAltitude) this is the HTML color of the line drawn from ground up to the icon. Can be an HTML hexadecimal color code, the word "none", or one of the named colors: Aqua Black Blue Fuchsia Gray Green Lime Maroon Navy Olive Purple Red Silver Teal White Yellow Need more colors?  Search Google for html colors. If "none", the line is not displayed. If blank, color is yellow.
IconColor IconColour	None	Fills an icon with a different color. Can be any of the colors listed for IconLineColor. If blank, or "none", icon is left alone.
IconHeading	None	Rotates an icon. Can be a number, the word "line" or the word "line" plus or minus a number. A positive number rotates the icon to the right by the number of degrees specified by the number. A negative number rotates the icon to the left. The word "line" rotates the icon to face in the direction of travel. The word "line" plus or minus a number rotates the icon to face the direction of travel, then rotates it some more as specified by the number. If blank, or 0, the icon is not rotated.
LabelColor LabelColour	White	Color of the label that is displayed next to the ion on Google Earth. If "none", the label is not displayed. If blank, the label is white.
LabelScale	1	Size of the label that is displayed next to the ion on Google Earth. Typical values are in the range of .8 to 2. If blank, the scale is 1.
LineStringColor LineStringColour	None	"Connect the dots" - draws a line from this point to the next. If "none" or blank, the line is not displayed.
LineStringWidth	2	Width of the line drawn from one point to the next. A decimal number, typically in the range of 1 to 3. If 0, the line is not displayed. If blank, width is 2.
LineStringAltitude	0	The altitude, in meters above the ground, of this end of the LineString. If blank, altitude is 0.
LineStringAltitudeMode	Relative	If blank, "Relative", "AGL", or "AboveGroundLevel", the altitude of the line is measured from ground level. If "Absolute", "MSL", or "MeanSeaLevel", the altitude of the line measured from sea level.
Position	None	The position of the icon, in a number of formats: LatLon, UTM, UPS, MGRS, MGRS Polar, USNG (identical to MGRS), and Georef. Used in place of Latitude and Longitude. The following positions refer to 38° 57' 33.804" N, 95° 15' 55.739" W which is the default Google Earth starting point over Lawrence, Kansas, USA. In the following table, "d" is used to mark degree digits, "m" for minutes, and "s" for seconds. For lat/lon, the letters "N, S, E, and W can come before or after the coordinates. So long as the coordinate can be understood, punctuation, spaces, and °'" are optional. Acceptable formats include: Dec Degs 38.959390°,-95.265483° dd.dddddd   dd.dddddd Dec Degs Micro 38.959390N95.265483W dd.dddddd dd.dddddd Dec Mins 3857.5634N09515.92890W ddmm.mmmm dddmm.mmmm Deg Min Secs 38°57'33.804"N, 95°15'55.739"W dd mm ss.sss    dd mm ss.sss   Dec Mins Secs 385733.804N0951555.739W ddmmss.sss dddmmss.sss UTM 15S 303705mE 4314711mN MGRS, USNG 15SUD0370514711 Note that UTM position "15S" is in the Northern hemisphere.  Earth Point uses the convention that the UTM Band letters C, D, E, F, G, H, J, K, L, M are in the southern hemisphere and N, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, X are in the northern hemisphere.  UPS letters A, B, Y, Z are also supported. Georef is specified to .01 minutes, which is a lower resolution than the other systems. Thus, Georef cannot plot the default Google Earth location exactly. The next two points are the same, but they are about 14 meters southeast of the points above. deg min 3857.56N 09515.92W ddmm.mm  dddmm.mm Georef FJKJ44085756 UPS is supported.  These points are by the North Pole. Deg Min Secs 38°57'33.804"N, 95°15'55.739"W dd mm ss.sss    dd mm ss.sss   UPS Z2426773E1530125N MGRS ZGC2677330125 The equivalent Lat/Lon coordinates can be displayed by: Add an AppendLatLonToDescription column to the spreadsheet. If the spreadsheet also has a "Description" column, then the Lat/Lon coordinates will be added to the description. Click the "View File on Web Page, Check for errors" button above. Mouse-over the Position column entries. The Lat/Lon coordinates are displayed. For each row of the spreadsheet: If Position is filled in, then Latitude and Longitude must be blank. If Latitude and Longitude are filled in, then Position must be blank. If Latitude and Position are filled in or if Longitude and Position are filled in, then the row is in error and will be skipped.
Snippet	None	A short text description that is displayed under the Name in the "My Places" section of Google Earth. If blank, no text is displayed.
TimeWhen	None	TimeWhen identifies a location that is to be displayed at a single moment in time. If blank or invalid the value is ignored. If you have GPS tracks or other data that contains time information, you can view this information sequentially using the time slider in Google Earth.  Google Earth Blog has more information about the time slider. Valid formats include: August 17, 2007 1:09:26 PM 8/17/07 13:09:26 2007-08-17 13:09:26 1:09:26 PM 2007-08-17 NEW: Eras are supported. +, -, AD (Anno Domini), BC (Before Christ), CE (Common Era), and BCE (Before Common Era) can appear before or after the date. For example: 8/17/07 13:09:26 BC B.C.E. 8/17/07 13:09:26 AD 8/17/07 13:09:26 A challenge with spreadsheet data is that one cannot readily add characters to a date and still keep the date format. One solution is to use a formula in the TimeSpan column.   ... C D E 1 ... Date Era TimeSpan 2 ... 2007-08-17 BC =Text(C2, "yyyy-mm-dd") & D2 3 ... Aug 17, 2007 B.C.E. =Text(E3, "yyyy-mm-dd") & D3 4 ... 8/17/07 - =Text(E4, "yyyy-mm-dd") & D4 The result in column E would be 2007-08-17 BC 2007-08-17 B.C.E. 2007-08-17 -
TimeBegin	None	Indicates that the location is displayed for a span of time starting at TimeBegin. TimeBegin is often paired with TimeEnd. However, if TimeBegin is specified, but TimeEnd is missing, the location is displayed from TimeBegin forever after. NEW: Eras are supported. See TimeSpan for details. If blank or invalid the value is ignored.
TimeEnd	None	Indicates that the location is displayed for a span of time ending at TimeEnd. TimeEnd is often paired with TimeBegin. However, if TimeEnd is specified, but TimeBegin is missing, the location is displayed form the beginning of time until TimeEnd. NEW: Eras are supported. See TimeSpan for details. If blank or invalid the value is ignored.
All other columns are ignored.		Other columns are allowed in the file however they are not used by Excel To KML.

Google Earth Icons

These icons can be displayed on Google Earth by entering the icon number into the Icon column of the spreadsheet.  Move your mouse over each icon to see what the mouse-over effect will look like on Google Earth.