Publish and share a map

Publishing gives a map a permanent share link. Anyone with the link can view the map — no account needed.

#Publish

1. Open the map in Map Studio and choose Publish in the top right. It opens Print Layout.
2. Set the title and check the composition.
3. Choose Publish.

The map moves into the Published group on the project's Maps tab, with a thumbnail. Its page shows the share link; copy it and send it to anyone.

A scratch map (one that isn't in a project) is filed into your My maps project the first time you publish it, so you never have to stop and choose one. You can move it to another project afterwards.

#What viewers see

Viewers see two tabs: Layout, the finished page you composed in the Print Layout, and Interactive map, a map they can pan and zoom. They can also choose Download map (PNG) to save the layout as an image.

#Form data on published maps

A published map is a frozen snapshot. It never links to live form data, and it does not carry every answer. By default a published form layer shows locations only. To show answers on published maps, tick them under Answers shown on published maps in that form's settings (Data tab). Any answer you have not ticked is left out of the published copy.

#Maps that use private data

A published map is public, so it cannot contain your private uploads. If a layer draws a dataset that is private, whether as a live layer or as a copy of its features, Publish stops and names the layers. Either make those datasets public first (Make public on the dataset page) or remove the layers from the map. Curated catalogue datasets are already public and are never a problem.

#Editing after publishing

You can keep editing a published map. It stays in Published, marked changes pending, and viewers continue to see the last published version until you publish again. Republishing updates the same share link.

#Manage the share link

On a published map's page you can:

• Copy link to send it to people;
• Turn link off to stop it working for now (the button then reads Turn link on);
• Edit details to change the title and description;
• Edit map in Map Studio to keep working on the map.

#Unpublish

Choose Unpublish on a published map's page and confirm. The share link stops working and the map stays in your project as a draft. Nothing in the map itself is deleted.

Unpublishing removes the published copy for good, so publishing the map again gives it a new share link; the old one does not come back. If you only want to pause access, use Turn link off instead: the link is kept and you can turn it back on.