Story Maps¶

Story maps turn a project into a chapter-based narrative. The map moves between saved views, and project layers can fade in and out. In-app presentations offer manual navigation and autoplay, with the presenter always able to take control. Standalone HTML exports retain their scroll-driven reading experience. The feature is inspired by the maplibre-gl-storymaps template. Authoring and the in-app presentation run locally, though basemap styles and any chapter images are still fetched from their URLs, and the standalone HTML export loads MapLibre and scrollama from a CDN.

Open the builder¶

Choose Project → Story Map to open the builder. The builder edits a story that is saved inside the .geolibre.json project file, so it travels with your project.

Story settings¶

• Title / Subtitle / Byline / Footer appear in the presentation header and footer. The footer accepts inline HTML (for example, links and credits).
• Panel theme switches the chapter panels between light and dark.
• Show markers drops a marker at each chapter's center; pick its color.
• Inset minimap shows a small overview map in a chosen corner.
• Hide chapter list removes the navigation pane from the presentation, for a story meant to be read straight through.
• Enable start view adds an opening screen before the first chapter, carrying the story's title block. Choose what the map shows behind it: an Empty screen, a Black screen, a Global view, or a Preview of first chapter.
• Enable closing slide adds a final screen after the last chapter, for credits or a closing note. The same backdrop choices apply, plus Hold on last chapter to leave the camera where the story ended.

Chapters¶

Click Add chapter to capture the current map view as a new chapter. Each chapter has:

• Title, Description (inline HTML allowed), and an optional Image URL.
• Panel alignment: left, center, right, or full.
• Map animation: flyTo, easeTo, or jumpTo.
• Hide panel keeps the map transition but hides the text (useful for a pure map beat).
• Rotate camera slowly spins the view after the transition settles.
• Stay duration (seconds) controls how long autoplay stays at this chapter after the camera arrives. Leave it empty for the default of 15 seconds. Values from 1 to 3600 seconds are supported, including fractional seconds.

Use Set to current view to re-capture the camera after panning, zooming, or tilting the map, and the map-pin button to fly to a chapter while editing. Reorder chapters with the arrows and remove them with the trash icon.

Import and export chapters¶

To author content outside GeoLibre, use Import / Export next to Add chapter:

• Export JSON writes the whole story (settings and chapters); Import JSON reads it back (a full .geolibre.json project file also works).
• Export CSV writes one row per chapter (spreadsheet-friendly). Import CSV replaces the chapters while keeping your current story settings.

The CSV columns are id, title, description, image, alignment, hidden, lng, lat, zoom, pitch, bearing, mapAnimation, rotateAnimation, onChapterEnter, onChapterExit, durationSeconds. Columns are matched by name, so order is flexible and you only need the ones you use; lng/lat set the chapter center, and missing ids are generated on import. The onChapterEnter/onChapterExit columns hold JSON and can be left blank when authoring by hand. The optional durationSeconds column sets the autoplay dwell time in seconds. A missing or blank cell keeps the 15-second default, so older CSV and JSON stories remain compatible.

Layer effects¶

Under On enter and On exit, add layer fades that run as a chapter becomes active or is left behind. Pick a project layer and a target opacity (and optional transition duration). This is how you reveal or hide data as the story progresses.

Present¶

Click Present to open a presentation over the live map. It starts paused; use Play automatically to begin moving through the story. The countdown for each chapter starts after its camera transition finishes. Playback ends at the last step without looping. Press Esc or Exit to return to editing.

A navigation pane on the left lists every chapter for a quick overview; click any entry to jump straight to it. Toggle the pane with the list button next to Exit. The map controls (navigation, fullscreen, globe, layer control) stay usable during the presentation. Selecting a chapter, Previous, or Next switches to that step and pauses, so a live discussion does not trigger an unexpected advance.

Pause and take control¶

Click Pause to stop the countdown, camera movement, and rotation at their current position. Panning, zooming, rotating, searching, or starting a map tool also pauses playback before the interaction. Playback never resumes because the mouse has been idle.

While paused, explore a location and explain it at your own pace. Return to chapter view restores the authored camera and stays paused; exploring the map does not overwrite the saved chapter. When the explanation is finished, choose Autoplay next chapter to move directly to the following step and continue automatic playback. This does not replay the chapter you just discussed.

The mouse wheel over the map zooms it; over a chapter card it scrolls the text. Use the chapter list or playback controls to change steps.

Each chapter card is movable and resizable: drag its title bar to reposition it (double-click the bar to reset), or drag the bottom-right corner to resize, so you can move a card aside and explore the map beneath it.

Temporary annotations and measurements¶

Open Presentation tools to search for a place or latitude/longitude, place a pin or text label, draw a line or area, or measure distance and area. Coordinate searches are parsed locally; place names use the project's geocoding provider. Measurements are surface distances and areas and do not include terrain height.

While drawing, click to add vertices and choose Finish or Cancel drawing. Finish or cancel before changing chapters or exiting. Temporary drawing does not edit the project's existing features. Switching chapters hides the current chapter's marks and restores them when you return; switching rendering engines also preserves marks and unfinished drawings within the current presentation.

Choose Save as result layer to keep a chapter's annotations as GeoJSON in the project, then save the project file normally. Unsaved temporary annotations are cleared when the presentation ends. Use the text toggle beside Exit to hide the story text and leave more space for discussion.

Space plays or pauses, Page Up / Page Down navigate manually, and Esc exits. These shortcuts do not override text inputs or open dialogs.

Handout (PDF)¶

Click Handout (PDF) to export the story as a multi-page PDF, one page per screen. Pick which screens to include, the paper size and orientation, and the document title, subtitle, byline, and footer text drawn on every page. Each chapter page shows the captured map view, the chapter photo beside it when the chapter has one, and the chapter description.

Clickable location markers draws a marker at each chapter's location, its tip on the chapter coordinate. Opened in a PDF viewer, clicking a marker opens that coordinate in Google Maps, so a reader can navigate to the place. The marker takes the story's Marker color, and the option starts on when Show markers is enabled for the story.

Export to HTML¶

Click Export HTML to save a self-contained .html page that reproduces the story without GeoLibre. In-memory GeoJSON layers referenced by chapter effects are inlined so the exported story behaves like the in-app preview. The page is a single static file you can host anywhere (GitHub Pages, Netlify, S3, or any web server).

The HTML export remains a separate scroll-driven player. The in-app autoplay controls, interactive presentation tools, and temporary annotations are not included in that export. Basemap tiles, remote images, and CDN scripts still require access to their original URLs.