Points of interest: parking, restrooms and shelters on the map

Points of interest are your network's landmarks: parking lots, restrooms, shelters, viewpoints, first aid, gates. Each one shows on the map as a small square sign, like the ones screwed to a post at a trailhead. Your visitors and your crew can read the map at a glance.

Where: left navigation bar, under Trails → Points of interest. The entry only shows for members whose role can manage points of interest. Those who can only view them see them on the maps, without this page. See roles. Points of interest are part of the Standard, Pro and Community plans: on the Field plan, the entry carries a lock and the page presents the plan that includes them.

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The page at a glance

The list of points is on the left, the map on the right. The page follows the activity picked at the top of the screen: it shows that activity's points and the ones that count for every activity.

Placing points

1. Click Add (on a page that is still empty: Add a point of interest). A bar opens at the top of the map.
2. Pick an icon among your six recent icons, or open the All icons grid, at the end of the row.
3. Click the map: each click places a point. Place ten in a row if you like, and switch icons with one click without leaving the bar.
4. Done, or the Esc key, closes the bar.

Zoom in before placing: the point lands exactly where you click. A point in the wrong spot can be dragged afterwards.

No point on top of another. A click on a sign already there, or so close that the two signs would touch, places nothing: the existing sign grows for a moment and a message names it. Zoom in to place two points side by side, like a chalet's restrooms and drinking water. If a point with the same icon is still less than 10 meters away, a second message says so, without blocking anything.

Nothing to fill in when placing: the name, the description and the rest are set later in the point's panel.

In the field, the mobile app places points the same way, with a tap on the map: see Placing points from the field.

The series color. The color swatch in the add bar sets the color of every point you place: Default, one of the ten suggested colors, or any color from the color picker below them. Each point can be recolored later in its panel.

Undoing a series. The message at the bottom right counts the points placed ("3 points of interest added"). Its Undo button removes the whole series, as long as the message is showing: it goes away six seconds after the last point.

A series of numbered triangles

To mark summits, junctions or numbered posts, pick Text triangle, in the Trails and activities family. The add bar then shows a Text field, S1 to start: each click places a triangle, and the text moves up on its own, S1, S2, S3. It also works with a letter (A, B, C) or a number (1, 2, 3).

• The text holds two characters, letters or digits. A letter series goes up to S9, a number series up to 99; at the end, the text stops moving up and you type the next one.
• The triangle shows a little larger than a square sign, so its two characters can be read on the map.
• The text can be changed later in the point's panel. The name stays separate: "S1" in the triangle, "Summit 1" under the sign.

Finding an icon

The icons, more than fifty of them, are sorted into five families: Welcome and services, Trails and activities, Nature and viewpoints, Safety and Operations. A few letters in the search are enough: "repa" finds the repair station, whichever family is open. An icon picked here joins your recent icons.

What each icon sets on its own

A new point arrives already set up according to its icon. Everything can be changed later in its panel.

Emergency posts. A call box, with a phone, takes the Emergency phone icon. A numbered location marker, the one rescuers ask you for on the phone, takes Emergency marker or Emergency 911: put its number in the name, for example "Emergency marker 12", so it can be read on the map and in the panel.

Reading the signs on the map

A sign's color tells who it is for. The visual below shows the map up close, with the size setting open.

• From afar, the signs shrink so they don't hide the trails. They get back to full size as you zoom in.
• A point's name shows under its sign once you zoom in close enough. A point without a name has no label.
• A chosen color replaces the dark blue or the red. On a light color, the pictogram turns dark blue to stay readable. A "Team only" point keeps its white sign, outlined in its color.

Icon size

The button at the top right of the map shows the current size, 100% to start. It opens a setting from 50 to 250%, in steps of 5. The size applies to every member of the place, on the web and in the mobile app, and to public mode: make the signs bigger on a spread-out network, smaller on a dense one. It saves on its own.

A point's panel

Clicking a point, in the list or on the map, opens its panel on the right. The map centers on the point, and its row is highlighted in the list.

• Icon. The sign, the icon's name and its family. Change opens the same icon list as when placing.
• Triangle text. Only for Text triangle: one or two characters, letters or digits, written in the triangle. Without a name, the point goes by its text ("S1") in the list and in its panel.
• Color. Default (dark blue, or red for safety), one of the ten suggested colors, or the last square, which opens the color picker to choose any exact color, with the mouse or by its code.
• Name. Optional, up to 60 characters. Without a name, the point goes by its icon's name ("Parking") in the list, in its panel and in the mobile app, but it has no label on the map. Name the points people look for by name, like "Chalet parking" or "Summit shelter".
• Description. Optional, up to 500 characters: hours, instructions, number of spaces. People read it by tapping the point in the mobile app.
• All activities. On, the point counts for every activity of the place, including the ones added later. Off, you pick the activities one by one, at least one. The point then only shows on the map of those activities.
• Visible to. Public or Team only. A "Team only" point is never shown to your visitors: not in the app's public mode, nor anywhere outside the team.

The Save button stays greyed out until something changes. After saving, the panel stays open. If you close it before saving, Sentinel asks whether to keep your changes.

A name in each language

If your network has two languages, the panel shows a Language switch (French, English) above the name. Each language has its own name and description.

• An orange dot on a language flags a missing translation: the name or the description exists in the primary language, but not in this one.
• A translation left empty shows the text of the other language.
• Everyone sees the point in their own language: the interface's on the web, the phone's in the app.

The network's languages are set in the place profile, Options tab, Network languages block.

Moving a point

With the panel closed, drag the sign on the map to where it belongs. The position is saved as soon as you let go, and a message offers Undo to put it back. Dropped on another sign, the point goes back to its place: zoom in to bring it closer.

Deleting a point

In the panel, click Delete, then confirm. The point disappears from the map and the list. Deleting is permanent.

Finding a point in the list

The list groups points by icon, in family order, with the number of points in each group. Groups start collapsed; clicking one expands it, and Sentinel remembers which groups are open.

• A named point shows its name; a point without a name shows its icon's name, in grey.
• A triangle shows its text: alone if it has no name, or as a badge in front of its name ("S2 Summit 2").
• The Team badge flags team-only points.
• Search finds a point by its name or its icon's name: "rest" leaves only the restrooms. While searching, every group is expanded.
• The All icons filter keeps one or more icons. The Public and team filter keeps Public or Team only points.

Search and filters also apply to the page's map.

On the other maps

Points of interest also show on the other web maps, like the tasks page map and a trail's detail. Their names appear once you zoom in close enough.

When they get in the way, turn off Points of interest in this menu. It's a personal setting, kept in your browser: it changes nothing for the rest of the team.

In the mobile app

In the field, the app places and fixes points of interest from the Field map. It takes the same right as on the web: manage points of interest. Without it, the crew sees the points but can't change them. On the Field plan, the app shows no points and offers no way to place them.

Placing points from the field

1. Tap the + button, then Point of interest. The map moves to your position, with a target in the middle, and a sheet opens at the bottom of the screen.
2. Pick an icon in the row, or swipe it to All to search every icon.
3. Drag the map to put the target in the right spot. Tapping the map places nothing: move it around freely.
4. Tap Place here. The point lands under the target, and the sheet switches right away to editing that point: give it a name or a description if you want.
5. Drag the map for the next one: the sheet goes back to adding. The cross closes the sheet.

• Color and triangles work as on the web: Default, one of ten colors or a custom color; S1, S2, S3 for a series of triangles. Both are kept from one series to the next, as long as you stay on the same place.
• The target opens the point it touches. When the target touches a sign already there, the sheet switches to editing that point: its name, its description, its color, a triangle's text and its icon (tap it, with its small pencil). Each change saves by itself, even without signal. The gear, next to the cross, raises the sheet to full screen, with Visible to and the activities too: the check mark, at the top, saves and the sheet comes back down; the down arrow brings it down, first asking whether to keep your changes. Drag the map to go back to adding.
• No point on top of another. Since the target opens the point it touches, a sign is never placed on top of another. To place closer, shift the target or zoom in.
• Delete | Move: when the target is on a point, a small pill comes out of the target, just below it. Move lifts the point above the target and hides the sheet, so you see the whole map. Drag the map to the right spot, then tap Place here, in the same pill: the sheet goes back to editing the point, in its new spot. Cancel leaves the point where it was. While moving, the GPS pill at the top left becomes To my position: the target goes to where you stand. Handy for the point you just placed slightly off, too.
• Delete, in the same pill, removes the point after a confirmation. On the point you just placed, that's how you take it back; in a series of triangles, the text goes back to the deleted point's.
• A duplicate? If a point with the same icon is already less than 10 meters away, the sheet says so in orange, with the distance: "Chalet restrooms" is already 6 m away. The point is placed anyway; Delete removes it if it's a mistake.
• Recent icons belong to your phone: an icon picked in All moves to the front of the row.
• The name and the description are written in the place's primary language. Translations are done on the web, in the point's panel. For a series of triangles, no need for names: the S1, S2, S3 text is enough.

Editing, moving or deleting a point

• Tapping a sign opens its card at the bottom of the screen: the name, the icon, Team only when it applies, and the description. The Field map shows the points of the selected activity, team-only ones included.
• The pencil, next to the cross, opens the point for editing under the target, just as when the target lands on a point while adding: the map slides to put the point under the target, the editing sheet comes up (name, description, color, and the gear for all the settings) and the Delete | Move pill comes out of the target. Everything then works as described above. Drag the map to switch to adding; the cross closes and goes back to the map.
• The name and description change in the place's primary language; the other languages stay untouched.

Without signal

• Points come with the place's data: they stay visible even without signal.
• A point placed, edited, moved or deleted without signal changes right away on your map. The change waits in the sync queue and goes out as soon as the network is back.
• In public mode, the trail map only shows visitors the public points.