Annotate maps and email them to friends, contacts on the Apple Mac

Sometimes you need to show someone the location of a place, perhaps for a business meeting, a trip or even a holiday. Here’s how to annotate it using markup features and email it on the Apple Mac.

There are several ways to share maps in the Apple Maps app on the Mac and you could share one using social media like Facebook, but emailing it is more private. You could also send a map using Messages, but then you couldn’t annotate it.

Why would you want to annotate a map? You might want to point out places of interest or a place to meet. You may want to highlight a route, such as for walking, running, cycling or driving.

You might want to make a note of the places you’ll stop on a trip or the location of your business, and there are many more uses for annotating maps.

Sending a map using the Mail app offers advantages that other sharing methods don’t have, so let’s take a look at what you can do.

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1 Share a map using the Maps app

Open the Maps App and find the location you want to share. Zoom in or out to give the best image and then click the Share button in the toolbar at the top. There are several sharing options and wel will use Mail.

2 Mail's hidden menu

The Mail app opens and a new email message is created automatically. The map is inserted automatically and appears in the message. Move the mouse over the top right corner of the map image and a little button appears. Click it and then select Markup on the menu that is displayed.

3 Mail markup tools

The map image opens in a new window that looks remarkably like Preview and it has the same editing tools. Click the Text tool (T) to add text to the image. Click it and replace it with your own text.

4 Add shapes and arrows

Click the shapes icon in the toolbar, the one with the circle and square. There are several useful shapes, a line and an arrow. Click the arrow.

5 Point something out

Drag the ends of the arrow to change the size and make it point to a place you want to highlight on the map.

6 Style the text

Click the text and then click the A in the toolbar. Some useful text formatting controls appear and you can change the font, size, colour and so on. Click Done in the top right coirner when you have finished annotating the map.

7 Select the map size

The annotated map appears in the email message. There is an Image Size menu in the header area of the email and this enables you to select the size of the map. Bear in mind that Actual Size maps can be quite large, such as 1MB. It is a trivial size for Macs, but someone with an iPhone might not want mail with large attachments. Select whatever size is best for you.

Enter the recipient's email address in the To box and click the Send button to email this annotated map. Make sure it is addressed properly. Here's How to avoid emailing the wrong person.