Just Discovered Feature of EPE

Although I am sure this feature has been in EPE for a long time, I just now discovered it. It has been so valuable to me recently that I thought I should share it with others who use EPE.

I recently took on the task of producing a POI file for all of the Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft stores in the US. I was furnished with a file that had the coordinates of the stores as per the joann.com website "store locator". What I found, however, was that their coordinates were woefully inadequate (one store was about a mile and a half from where joann.com claimed it was).

So - what I decided to do was to make sure that I could "see" the "Jo-Ann" signage in the general area of where the store was supposed to be. I was using Google Maps or Earth "street view" to find stores. This was getting to be a pain because I was working in EPE to get the "push pin" at an entrance that could be accessed regardless of which direction you were traveling as you approached the area (usually a strip mall type shopping center). I was having to switch between EPE and both joann.com and Google in my browser.

OK - I hear you saying why did you not use "street view" in the upper right pane of the POI Edit dialog in EPE? Well, that works only if you are at a coordinate position where street view will show you something of interest. I was using Google to better zero in on the actual location of the store. If EPE street view showed me something, I used it and did not switch back and forth with Google.

This will not come as a surprise to anyone, but "satellite view" is more up-to-date than "street view". Often, my "street view" was of a field that is now the shopping center. No help there.

Anyway, once I got a pretty good location for the store, I was using "satellite view" to zero in on the entrance where I would put the "push pin". Once when I was zooming in, I discovered that an otherwise hidden option would appear - a "looping arrow" symbol that would let me "rotate" the "satellite view".

Let me orient readers to what is on the upper right pane in the POI Edit dialog of EPE. What one sees for a specific POI is a map of the area around the POI location with a red "push pin" (EPE calls it the "marker") at the coordinates as currently specified.

In the upper left of this pane is a circle that has 4 arrows (up, right, down, left) to let you move the map (or you can just drag the map whichever way you want it to go). Underneath this circle is the "street view" icon (the yellow person) and underneath this is a vertical "zoom" line (+ at the top and - at the bottom).

In the upper right of this pane are two buttons - Map and Satellite.
When I switch to "Satellite" and then zoom in by pushing the "+", there comes a point when the "looping arrow" will appear right below the "street view" icon (but note that there are rare instances when this is not the case and my assumption is that Google has not yet gotten the pictures of this area that would allow it to stitch together the view it would otherwise display). Pressing this "looping arrow" icon will rotate the "satellite" view to the right each time it is pushed.

Almost always when in "satellite view", if you hover your mouse over the "Satellite" button, you will see the options "45" and "Labels". Well, it is the combination of the "Satellite" and "45" degree view that has let me see the store names of the building I am inspecting. In essence, it is like I am in an airplane flying low over the shopping center looking for a Jo-Ann sign.

Having this feature is saving me lots of time. I hope it will be of use to others.