Using the AVH Map Search Interface

AVH Tips

Extracting a publishable/Powerpoint plant distribution map from AVH

Using Photoshop or equivalent

Guidlines below prepared by Murray Fagg from personal experience. They may be helpful for others.

1. Open the mapper in AVH
2. Turn off 'Terain', 'Lat/Long' and 'Botanical Subdivisions' in middle column
3. Leave only 'States' selected in middle column
4. Set to 'Show by Species' in right-hand column
5. Enter 'Genus' and 'species' in first boxes at top of page
6. Click 'Submit Query'

7. You should now have a simple map of Australia with red dots indicating specimen collections

8. Right-click your mouse within the map of Australia.

9. Select 'Save Picture As…' from the menu
10. Choose a place to put your file, ie the desktop or your personal folder.
11. Replace the avh numerical file name with a meaningful file name (no spaces in name)
12. Add the suffix .png to the end of your file name
ie. grevillea-robusta.png
13. Click 'Save'.

14. Open that file in Photoshop (you can drag the file to the Photoshop icon if its on your desktop)

15. Select: Image > Mode > RGB Color
16. Select: Image > Adjust > Brightness/Contrast > set contrast to 100%
17. Select: Image > Image size set width to 300 pixels in top box (or bigger /smaller according to needs)

18. To make map background transparent:
Select the erasor tool (3D angled box icon) from the tools window
Holding the mouse over this icon gives a choice of 3 options
Select the 'magic erasor' (box with star in corner)
With 'magic erasor' selected, click in the sea surrounding the map of Australia
The area surrounding Australia should become 'checkerboard' pattern, indicating transparent.

19. Select: File > Save for web
20. Select: 2-Up option from tab menu
21. Select: GIF, Web, Diffusion options from the three left-hand 'Output Settings'
22. Ensure 'Transparency' box is ticked
23. Click 'OK' and chose where to save the file
it should then be a GIF file including your plant name
ie. grevillea-robusta.gif