Tip of the Week #25: All about the Mini-Map
Thursday, March 6th, 2008 at 11:44 AM by: TorleyAs promised following the ultradose of 13 QUICKTIPS, I’m back, and here to teach you what the Mini-Map is, and how to customize it! All so you can find your way around Second Life easier. 
Ever wonder what those little icons and colors (AIIIIEEE!) are for? And did you know you can stop the Mini-Map from rotating, or even right-click it to change zoom level? All this and more:
If you desire a text version, please see this article in our ever-expanding Knowledge Base.
And as always, you can watch more video tutorials!
-Torley Linden 
appreciates your help in helping you
P.S. My inworld office hour just took place (they happen on Thursdays @ 12-1 PM PST), so in the future, come to Watermelinden Land if you’d like to discuss video tutorials + more!
March 6th, 2008 at 11:54 AM
Is the feature active anymore that friends are yellow on the map?
Great tut again, always fun to watch!!!
March 6th, 2008 at 11:57 AM
WHY ISN’T THERE A BLACK NEWBIE
THERES ASIANS & ARABIANS & GOTHS WE WANT A BLACK NEGRO NOOB
March 6th, 2008 at 12:05 PM
Nice tutorial, but there is actually one thing missing - if hovering the cursor over the minimap, you can just scroll in and out and adjust your zoom level this way much more accurately and faster than with the right-click thingie.
March 6th, 2008 at 12:23 PM
hmmmm anyone else notice that torley uses an older version without the messed up UI? look at the release keys button
we want it too X(
March 6th, 2008 at 12:33 PM
why not telling first the people , how to get back a working friendslist, Torley?
March 6th, 2008 at 12:36 PM
@Epocx - I was wondering the same thing. I liked that feature.
March 6th, 2008 at 1:18 PM
“Zed” instead of “Zee.” Is that your roots showing Torley?
March 6th, 2008 at 1:19 PM
I can deal with no friends for a day or two (like a vacation), but hurry up and get 1.19 working! And I’m tired of the same pic at log in! It’s been there over a year. Get it changed please !
March 6th, 2008 at 1:23 PM
Thanks
And another small tip: You can use your mouse scroll wheel o to zoom in/out on the minimap too. I often find that more intuitive than the context menu.
(BTW ctrl-shift-M works fine for me in windlight)
March 6th, 2008 at 1:33 PM
Torley, as always a great video. All the time I’ve been on SL I didn’t know you could click the red map arrow and have beacons disappear. That is going to be a real time-saver.
You know what I would like to see with the mini-map? There removal of those [expletive deleted] bright cyan colors to represent our builds. Know why? ‘Cos they totally blot out the green people pointers. The colors are too similar. Surely they could have chosen a different color of gray or something. That cyan is just… UGH!
I know you’ll likely say “Please report this as a suggestion to LL. You’re right… Cyan sux bigtime”. Well, I did suggest it, long ago… and IT’S STILL CYAN! AAAAAARRRRGGGGHHH!
Please get them to change the cyan to something more user friendly. Pretty please. Thankyewverymuch.
March 6th, 2008 at 1:35 PM
There’d better be 2 ‘friendly greetings’ next week!!
March 6th, 2008 at 1:47 PM
@ 8. If I’m right, your log in picture changes according to your preference. There’s an option about that or something. You can log in with the standard scene (which you’ve been viewing a year) or your last location or something like that. : )
March 6th, 2008 at 1:53 PM
Blinders, he’s talking about the website, not the client.
March 6th, 2008 at 1:56 PM
i found the SL client 1.18.6.4 download. click here if you wish to download it and are tired of smartheap library (memory) errors from secondlife client.
http://games.softpedia.com/progDownload/Second-Life-Client-Download-11134.html
March 6th, 2008 at 2:12 PM
ignore my link… we are stuck with at least 1.19.0.4 which i believe im downloading at the moment.
March 6th, 2008 at 2:16 PM
@8 - you can make those colors anyway you want, just edit the colors.ini and colors.xml in C:\Program Files\SecondLife\app_settings. Here are my settings:
colors.ini:
NetMapYouOwnAboveWater 128 128 255 255
NetMapYouOwnBelowWater 128 128 255 255
colors.xml:
(hope that the .xml info shows right here!)
March 6th, 2008 at 2:17 PM
colors.xml partial content:
NetMapYouOwnAboveWater value=”128, 128, 255, 255″
NetMapYouOwnBelowWater value=”128, 128, 255, 255″
March 6th, 2008 at 2:27 PM
One suggestion I have is to be able to auto center the map inside the window like the regular map can.
March 6th, 2008 at 2:28 PM
Oh and one tip you forgot to explain is what it means when the minimap suddenly goes red
March 6th, 2008 at 2:30 PM
@#11:You are right.
@Torley; U didnt really think you can change THIS part of your tutorials, did you?
And..what’s on with asking the international team about
…:::Translated Video Tutorials:::…
@MiniMap:cool vid, didn’t know the “arrow up” and “arrow down” one….
Where the hell do you have ALL this UI knowledge from?
Alex
March 6th, 2008 at 4:32 PM
Good tutorial, even after being on SL for over on year, there are things to be learned. I do wish the grid and the viewers were more stable. It is hard to run a magazine business in Second Life when it crashes several times per evening.
March 6th, 2008 at 5:03 PM
any way u can make inventory that u purchase separated from the things u get free without a lot of moving things around like automatic and my screen is full of invitations to join groups, can chats of the public why is that so? is there away to remove it??? how come i am reading others im ’s on my screen isnt that a bit personal ?? just asking ….also can i channel my own cd’s from my pc ? tyvm for allowing me to express my self
March 6th, 2008 at 7:11 PM
I’m sure you can answer that question Phil , if not then you have spent ages talking to peeps that cant hear you , if the mini maps turned red then your no longer conected and need to relog , wont take long though cos youve already been logged out.
March 6th, 2008 at 10:30 PM
@22 I had to read your post a few times to understand it but I think you raise at least one good point. It would be nice if items we buy would automatically go to the correct folder. Your invitaions to join groups are from other users and LL does not control that. Your “chats of the public” phrase lost me. I doubt you are ever reading other people’s IMs-you are getting group messages that pop up on your screen when group members chat with each other..leave the group to avoid that. Finally, “channeling your own cds from your pc” involves a visit to a new-age psychic .
March 6th, 2008 at 10:35 PM
@ 2 : Teach yourself the complicated process of skin/shape creating in SL . There are many good tutorials and it will be a good hobby.
March 7th, 2008 at 12:47 AM
Hehe…
Quick para-translation from Torley-speech:
up and down pointy thingies = chevrons
(but that is purely from remembering a previous blog post about the minimap change that “turns them from perpendicular lines to chevrons”)
Oh btw - The friends-are-yellow-on-minimap does work for me. Albeit sporadic and with a select few friends lol - Perhaps it has something to do with the same cause for having (hippos) on my friends list at times. >:P
Long live Video TuTORials!!
March 7th, 2008 at 5:15 AM
Usually the land of a region on the minimap is green, but sometimes it turns brown. When it does this, it usually happens only for one region.
Is there a reason for that?
March 7th, 2008 at 8:31 AM
@23 Yes I know, I posted that right after SL crashed for the millionth time and I was suddenly staring at the red map yet again. :/
March 7th, 2008 at 11:35 AM
@27 (My own comment)–
By “brown”, I meant “red”. The answer is found in the Knowledge Base at https://support.secondlife.com/ics/support/security.asp?deptID=4417&task=ticket&ticketID=4544694 …
Yay, Knowledge Base!
March 7th, 2008 at 11:45 AM
Always love your tutorials Torley. I watch all of them even if I *think* I know all about the topic because I am continuously amazed at what I can learn in Second Life… Plus your tips make for some great entertainment
Thanks so much Torley
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`’¹li¡|¡¡|¡il¹’` ♡¸.•*´)¸.•* *mwah*
March 7th, 2008 at 4:42 PM
To stop tracking, you can also click in the center of your dot on the large map (the last I knew). I never knew about right click/”Stop Tracking” on the mini-map until now. That’s much easier. Thanks!