A Microsoft Excel Application for

Automatically Building Historical Geography GIS Maps

Michael Polczynski, Mark Polczynski

Transactions in GIS, 17:1, 148-157, 2012

The ability to visualize location and time information on satellite-generated maps using geographic information systems (GIS) such as Google Earth has enabled researchers with limited mapping expertise to use GIS for a wide range of applications.  GIS holds special benefits for research in historical geography involving visualization of events and time-based changes in geographical information.  This article describes a Microsoft Excel VBA application which automatically converts information contained in a Microsoft Excel workbook into a .kml (Keyhole Markup Language) file suitable for display by mapping systems such as Google Earth.  The application requires no knowledge of KML or Excel VBA. 

To download the application, a user’s guide, and an example of the application’s use, click here.

The following is an example map made using the application to trace the 1241 Mongol invasion of Poland.