Planimeter 55. The point editor: name, note, coordinates, address, map, photo, audio, and sharing.

A point holds where you were and what you found there. This page walks the editor as it opens — the compact Simple view, which is what you get until you choose otherwise. There is also an Advanced view that shows where every value came from and synchronises the point with its attached photo field by field; it gets its own page.

Opening a point

Tap a point on the map and choose Open in the callout it raises, or use MENU › Points to find it in the list and tap its row.

The editor opens over the app. Done saves, and leaves without saving.

The point editor in Simple view: NAME, NOTE, LAT/LONG, UTM, MGRS, ADDRESS, MAP, COLOR, IMAGE, AUDIO, ACTIONS and FOLDER, one row each


The rows

  • Name — the point’s title. A fresh point names itself from the date and a counter until you type your own ( below ).
  • Note — free text, right under the name so the field you touch most never moves ( below ).
  • Lat/Long · UTM · MGRS — the same position in three notations; edit whichever you think in and the other two follow. The little button on each row opens the coordinates converter loaded with that format ( below ).
  • Address — the address the point carries. Tap the title to open it ( below ).

The LAT/LONG, UTM, MGRS and ADDRESS rows, each coordinate row ending in the ⇄ converter button


  • Map — tap the title and a map opens inside the editor, with the point at its centre ( below ).
  • Color — the point’s color on maps and in lists; tap a swatch.
  • Image — the attached photo. Tap the thumbnail to open it full-screen with the drawing tools; the buttons beside it take a new photo, pick one from the library, and open the photo’s options.
  • Audio — record a voice note for the point, and play it back.

The IMAGE row with the photo thumbnail and its three buttons, and the AUDIO row with its record button


  • ActionsNavigate hands the point to turn-by-turn guidance (with or without recording a track as you go); Share sends the point with its photo and details.
  • Folder — which collection the point lives in; tap to move it.

The ACTIONS row with Navigate, Share and its options button, and the FOLDER row naming the point’s collection


Name and note

Tap the NAME title and the row opens into a field with the current name in it:

The NAME row opened for editing, the name repeated in an editable field below it, and a bin button on the row


NOTE works the same way and gives you as many lines as you type:

The NOTE row opened for editing, with the note in a multi-line field below it and a bin button on the row


The row’s own bin button empties the field. Tapping the title again folds the row away; the keyboard’s return key does the same for the name. Nothing is written until you tap Done — and if the point has a photo, the name and the note are two of the things the photo can be told about ( below ).

Changing the position

Four ways, and they all end up in the same three coordinate rows.

Type it. Tap Lat/Long, UTM or MGRS and edit the value; the other two rows follow as you type.

Move the map. Tap the MAP title and the map opens inside the editor:

The MAP row opened: a map with a red arrow fixed at its centre, zoom and layer buttons, and a readout below showing the coordinate, altitude and address under the arrow


The arrow stays in the middle and the map slides under it — move the map until the arrow points to the place required. The bar underneath tracks what is under the arrow: the coordinate, the altitude, and the address. Tap the MAP title again to fold the map away.

Convert or paste one. The button on each coordinate row opens the coordinates converter loaded with the point’s position in that row’s format:

The coordinates converter opened from the point editor, with the point’s latitude and longitude in the input field, the parser’s format list, and Cancel and Apply in the bar


Paste anything the parser understands — degrees, degrees-minutes, UTM, MGRS, OSGB, SK-42 — and Apply brings the result back and moves the point to it. Cancel leaves the point where it was.

Search for the place. In the address, below.

Whichever way you use it, the point’s new position is its own: it is recorded as a manual coordinate, and the Advanced view will say so.

The address

Tap the ADDRESS title to open the row:

The ADDRESS row opened: two editable address lines, a bin button on the row, and the Set from coordinate and Search for address actions


  • The two lines are yours to type in — a name for the place, a room, a mooring, whatever the geocoder cannot know.
  • Set from coordinate looks the address up for where the point is now. It replaces whatever the row held.
  • Search for address finds a place by name — and in the Simple view it does both halves of the job: the point takes the address and moves to the place found.
  • The bin button clears the address.

Moving the point does not re-run the lookup: the address you had stays until you ask for a new one. The Advanced view is where a stale address is flagged as Coordinates changed, where the photo’s own address is offered, and where a search result can be applied without moving the point.

The ⋯ menu

Public beta

The point editor’s More menu: Coordinates converter, Photo sync, the View section with Simple checked and Advanced beneath it, and Help


  • Coordinates converter — the full converter, including formats beyond the three rows.
  • Photo sync — what the attached photo stores compared with the point, and what saving should do about it (below).
  • ViewSimple or Advanced. The choice is remembered and is only a change of presentation: switching never saves, discards or alters a value.
  • Help — this page.

Saving, when a photo is attached

Public beta

A photo taken by the camera carries a copy of some of the same facts — position, altitude, heading, the note, the title. When you change one of those on the point and tap Done, the app asks what the photo should be told:

The save-time Photo sync sheet: Save point and update photo, Save point only, and one row per field showing the photo’s value above the point’s, each with a switch


Every differing field is a row — the photo’s value above, the point’s below, and a switch deciding whether it gets written. Fields you changed in this edit start on; differences that already existed start off, because a difference you did not create may well be deliberate. Save point and update photo writes the switched-on rows and saves; Save point only saves the point and leaves the photo untouched.

If you would rather never be asked, pick a standing behaviour under ⋯ → Photo sync → When saving:

The When saving section of the Photo sync menu, with its four choices: Ask to sync on change, Ask to sync on any difference, Update photo metadata, and Keep photo metadata


  • Ask to sync on change — the default: ask only when this edit changed something the photo also stores.
  • Ask to sync on any difference — also ask when the two already disagreed.
  • Update photo metadata — write the differences without asking, then save. It only ever replaces values; it never removes one.
  • Keep photo metadata — always save the point only.

However it is written, the picture itself is untouched: same pixels, same quality, no re-compression — only the descriptive fields change. Field-by-field control in both directions, and removing a value a photo should no longer carry, live in the Advanced view .