Adjusting Settings for Places

As with any post, you can set a featured image for People, Places and Items. Places can have either a featured image or a map; these settings are sitewide, so you can’t have some place posts with maps and others with featured images.  

To change which displays:

1. From the site dashboard, go to Settings > People, Places, Items.
2. Select the Places tab.
3. Under Display, select either Featured Image or Static Map. This setting will be applied to all place posts.

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If you choose Featured Image

You can upload a featured image to your Place post in the right panel. Select Set featured image when creating or editing a Place post.

See recommended featured image sizes for Place posts »

If you choose Static Map

Set the display map zoom level by typing in a number from 1-20, with 20 being the most zoomed in.

Zoom level

The degree to which your preview maps are zoomed in or out should reflect your audience’s familiarity with your location.

People familiar with campus 

• If your site’s audience consists of people from within the WashU community who are familiar with your campus, a tighter zoom would be appropriate.
• Recommended zoom: 15-17

People unfamiliar with campus

• If you’re talking to an audience that isn’t as familiar with your location, such as patients or event attendees, a wider zoom may be better.
• Recommended zoom: 10-12

Examples of zoom level

For this website, our Places show a featured image rather than a static map. However if we did choose the map option, this is what the zoom options would look like.

Let’s assume your audience mostly consists of new WashU students. A zoom of 13 or 14 is too zoomed out to provide much context of where the DUC is on campus.

A zoom of 15 still seems too zoomed out; 16 is better.

A zoom of 17 provides some smaller street names that community members will know; whereas 18 is so zoomed in that street names are no longer visible.

For this location, the Eric P. Newman Education Center, located on the Medical Campus, let’s assume the site’s audience is people from around the Greater St. Louis area.

A zoom of 10 or 11 provides rich context for where the location is relative to downtown St. Louis and the Mississippi River, as well as cities within St. Louis County.

A zoom of 12 or 13 may not provide enough context for people west of Clayton or east of downtown, though most people are familiar with Forest Park.

Zooming to 14 or 15 provides little context for people who aren’t familiar with the Central West End or the intersection of S. Kingshighway Blvd. and Forest Park Ave.

Remember, this is just the static map that displays in the Place post preview. The post page itself will provide an interactive map with a link for site visitors to get directions.