With offline maps and traffic data, Windows 10 Maps is the perfect companion for mapping out long journeys. To help you get from point A to B, you can save your favorite locations to quickly bring up directions. Here’s how.
The Maps app in Windows 10 is pre-installed, ready for you to use. To open it, click on the Start button and search for “Maps,” find and click the Maps icon in your Windows Start menu tiles, or look for “Maps” in your installed programs list.
Adding your Home, Work, and Car Locations
You can access your favorite places in Windows Maps by clicking the “Saved Places” button in the Maps window. The button resembles a star-like icon in the top right.
The pop-up menu that appears has two tabs: “Favorites” and “Collections.” When you choose the Favorites tab, you will be shown three common locations.
The “Home” and “Work” locations are fairly self-explanatory while “Car” lets you save the location of where you parked. This might be useful if you’ve parked your car in a temporary location, for instance.
Under each of the tabs is an “Add” button. Click on this button to begin adding locations to these common locations.
When you click the “Add” button, a search bar will appear. Use this to choose your desired locations. For instance, for your “Home” location, search for your home address and then press the “Enter” key.
As soon as you press the “Enter” key, your new location will be saved. You can then quickly refer to it again in the “Favorites” tab in the “Saved Places” menu.
If you need to quickly direct yourself to your “Home” location, you can click the “Directions” link that appears underneath the item. This will provide you with directions from your current location or from a location of your choosing.
You can also search for “Home,” “Work,” or “Car” in the Maps search bar. This will bring up these locations as a listing for you to share, print, or list directions to.
Adding a Favorite Place
Windows Maps allows you to save more than just the three most important locations. You can save additional locations in the “Favorites” tab by clicking the “Add a Place” button.
You have two options for adding a favorite place. You can search for a location using the search bar or you can click “Choose Location” to manually position the map to your chosen location.
If you choose to manually position the map, move it to the appropriate location and then click the “Set” button.
Once set, your newly added location will appear as a listing in the “Saved Places” tab underneath your prominent “Home,” “Work,” and “Car” locations.
Clicking on one of these entries will take you to the listing, where you can share it, add notes, see what’s nearby, or remove it from your favorites list entirely.
You can add as many entries as you like to your list. For quick directions, click the “Directions” link underneath the name of each entry.
Creating a Collection
If you’re somebody who likes to travel a lot, the “Favorites” tab might start to get a little cluttered. To help you, Windows 10 Maps allows you to create collections.
Collections are groups of your saved, favorite locations. For example, you might decide to group a list of your favorite tourist destinations by location. You can keep these private, or you can share them with others.
To start, click the “Saved Places” icon in the top right and then click the “Collections” tab.
To create a new collection, click the “New Collection” button. Give your collection a suitable name and description.
If you want to make your new collection private, press the “Make Collection Private” checkbox. When you’re ready to create your collection, click the “Save” button.
Your new collection will appear in the “Collections” list, ready for you to begin adding locations.
To start adding locations, click on your new collection. Next, click “Add a Place” to begin the search.
Type in your chosen favorite location in the search bar or click “Choose Location” to position your map manually. Click “Set” when you’re ready to save the item.
Once set, your selected location will be added to your new collection. You can add as many locations as you want to a collection.
As with any individually saved favorite location, clicking on any item saved within a collection will bring up the listing, where you can save notes, share it with others, or remove it entirely.
You can also click “Directions” underneath the listing to quickly bring up directions.
