Create an interactive map in Google Docs

To easily make an interactive map based on a spreadsheet, the fastest way you can opt for is Google Docs, requiring no GIS knowledge or software. Besides, it takes very little time to do it, at the most a minute.

The first thing you need to do is take the information to a Google Docs spreadsheet. The structure is simple, two columns are required: the first with the geographic reference and the second with the data to map. This process is done through geocoding, which is the coincidence of a name with its respective location (city, country).

For this example the data of the Happy Planet Index 2016 was copied, it is very simple, from an Excel table can be copied and pasted, or in turn import the table into Google Docs.

Once you have the table within Google Sheets, you must select the columns to participate. From the Insert menu, select Chart, on the right side of the panel that displays Chart type and select Geo chart.

In the same Chart editor panel you can customize the colors as well as the input data, for example you could select the column corresponding to life expectancy.

Once all the design settings have been made, in the map menu on the top right-hand side you can save it as an image or publish the graphic to share the link or insert it into a web page.