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If you are experiencing difficulties with using Get-a-mapTM, please read the frequently asked questions (FAQs) for general queries.
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
Please see the troubleshooting section for any technical issues.
We hope to answer most technical user queries here. However, if we don't, please complete our feedback form to enable our technical team to give you focused assistance.
If you still have a problem and need help, then please email us giving details about your computer and platform, browser and version, any other hardware or software you were using, and tell us what you were trying to do when your problem occurred.
Frequently asked questions
What mapping data is used to produce the images?
Can I get larger-scale maps? (Great Britain only)
How do I remove the search symbol?
I can't find the location I want. How many locations are in the Gazetteer?
I want to find a postcode. What format should I use?
I want to find a grid reference. What format should I use?
Why doesn't Get-a-map let me search for a Gaelic place name with accented characters?
Answers
What mapping data is used to produce the images?
The data products used in Get-a-map are current from the approximate dates shown for the data:
| Zoom level | Dataset | Currency |
|---|---|---|
| 1 (GB) | 1:25 000 Scale Colour Raster | 2008 |
| 1 (IOM) | 1:50 000 Scale Colour Raster | 2008 |
| 2 (GB) | 1:50 000 Scale Colour Raster | 2008 |
| 3 and 4 (GB) | 1:250 000 Scale Colour Raster | 2008 |
| 5-6 | MiniScale® | 2008 |
| 1 and 2 (NI) | OSNI® 1:210 000 scale mapping | 1997 |
| 3 (NI) | OSNI 1:600 000 scale mapping | 2000 |
Can I get larger-scale maps? (Great Britain only)
The largest scale of mapping currently available free of charge (see terms and conditions) from Get-a-map is 1:25 000 for Great Britain. The Isle of Man uses an enlarged 1:50 000 scale.
However, Ordnance Survey has a range of mapping at larger scales than this, which you can obtain under licence from our Business section.
We also have many Licensed Partners who are able to produce bespoke mapping for your use online.
Business section | Licensed Partners
How do I remove the search symbol?
The pink circle highlights the last place name or postcode searched for. This symbol is meant to help you to visualise the location you are interested in, relative to the whole country, when you subsequently zoom out and pan around. However, the symbol can be removed by hitting the 
button in the Last search was for section.
No marker symbol appears on maps searched for by grid reference.
I can't find the location I want. How many locations are in the Gazetteer?
Get-a-map allows users to find selected place names. Get-a-map includes roughly 42 000 locations in Great Britain listed in the 1:50 000 Scale Gazetteer, and nearly 350 towns and villages from the Land & Property Services (formerly Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland®) 1:210 000 Scale Gazetteer for Northern Ireland.
If the name you type does not match an available name, close-matching alternative names will be proposed. If there is more than one location with the name you typed, these will be listed for you to choose the location in which you are interested. You must enter at least three characters*.
Get-a-map does not include famous landmarks such as Hadrian's Wall.
*Except for the Scottish village of Ae.
I want to find a postcode. What format should I use?
A space must be included in postcode searches. This is in order to differentiate between the different data types that the search text box accepts on the Get-a-map application.
If the postcode entered in the search box is valid (that is, included in our current datasets), the map will zoom straight to that location (for example, SO16 4GU). Alternatively, enter the beginning of the postcode (at least up to the first character after the space, for example, SO16 4) and you will get a list of postcodes from which you can pick the one of interest.
The postcode index is based on Ordnance Survey's Code-Point® data, which covers Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It contains approximately 1.6 million postcodes.
I want to find a grid reference. What format should I use?
Grid references
There are two common ways for referring to a specific location on the ground using grid references.
One method is the eastings/northings method, which involves quoting two six-figure grid references. These refer to the eastings (the location on the x axis) and northings (the location on the y axis) respectively.
In Get-a-map the letter prefix method should be used to search for a location, with spaces omitted. The letter prefix method uses two initial letters to identify a 100 km square, then three digits from the eastings and three from the northings to narrow the search down to a kilometre square in which the location of interest is found.
Example of the two grid reference methods
The reference entered can be as little as a single character long (for example, J in Northern Ireland) and up to 12 characters long (for example, TQ1234567890 ).
By using the letter prefix method it is possible to browse the map and zoom in to a specific location. For example, a coarse reference such as just the letter prefix (TQ ) defines a 100-km by 100-km area. The user can then zoom to a different scale by adding more detail to the grid reference entered in the search box. Try comparing searching using TQ, TQ55 and TQ5555. The map will always be centred in the middle of the reference entered.
Coordinate systems
Two different coordinate systems are used in Get-a-map.
For all views at levels five to eight, the map data is registered to the British National Grid. Mapping for Ireland at view levels one to four is registered to the Irish Grid.
The two grids are not parallel to each other but they do overlap. They both use an alphabetical method for identifying 100-km grid squares: Irish – one letter; British – two letters. Please note that for views at levels five to eight, the British National Grid reference is shown when centred over Northern Ireland, because the MiniScale mapping is registered to this grid. It is not conventional to use this system to describe Irish locations.
More information about coordinate systems
Please note that no marker symbol appears on maps served in response to grid reference searches.
For more information about how the National Grid works, try this interactive guide.
Alternatively, see the Irish Grid page on the OSNI website – just close the browser window to return to this page.
Why doesn't Get-a-map let me search for a Gaelic place name with accented characters?
There are examples of place names in Great Britain that include characters with accents; for example, Loch na Sàlach in Scotland, Isle of Rhé in England and Pentre-tân in Wales. The accented characters are displayed on screen by the use of a character set that extends the 26-letter alphabet to include the accented characters and other symbols.
Whereas web browsers are able to display these characters correctly, provided the web page tells the browser which character set to use, many online database applications cannot use them to carry out a text search. Unfortunately, our Get-a-map service falls into this category.
As a workaround, we would suggest you try a different method for locating the area, such as:
-
using a postcode if known; orsearching for a nearby town or village and moving across the map using the arrow keys to the left of the map screen; orpositioning your cursor in the general area of your chosen location on the map of the entire country displayed by Get-a-map and, with the 'zoom in' option selected, clicking on the progressively larger circles to zoom in. As you do so, you may need to recentre your position on the map with your cursor.
Troubleshooting
Internet service provider (ISP) issues
Software issues (including personal firewalls, cookies, browser toolbars, mouse cursors and server downtime)
If you are having difficulties with place name search, postcode search or use of National Grid references please see the FAQs above.
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
Answers
Platform compatibility
- Get-a-map has been fully tested on Windows® 98, Windows NT®, Windows 2000 and Windows XP® by Ordnance Survey and offers full functionality on these platforms.
- It has also been tested on Mac OS X. Although not fully tested on other Macs, it should work satisfactorily on computers running Mac OS 9.
- It has not been proven via formal testing to work on any other platforms running any other operating systems.
Browser compatibility
Get-a-map on Windows XP functions correctly on the following browsers:
- Internet Explorer® 6.0
- Firefox® 1.5.0.9
- Firefox 2.0.0.4
- Opera 9.22
- Safari® 2.0.4
Get-a-map on Mac OS X functions correctly on the following browsers:
- Firefox 1.5.0.9
- Firefox 2.0.0.4
- Opera 9.22
- Safari 2.0.4
Internet Explorer 5.2 on Mac OS 9.X is no longer supported; is not available on Mac OS X and official support was ended by Microsoft® in January 2006.
Get-a-map was tested using Opera, and problems were encountered with its implementation of HTML/JavaScript® and a possible bug in the redrawing of the browser window. We recommend using an alternative browser.
JavaScript must be enabled on the browser. Get-a-map does not require Java®, plug-ins or cookies.
Browsers must be enabled to accept pop-ups. Pop-up blocking facility in browsers must be disabled.
Get-a-map was designed to work with some browser versions older than those listed above but is no longer tested on them. While we hope it will work successfully using your preferred alternative, we cannot guarantee that it will do so.
Internet service provider (ISP) issues
No issues with ISPs are known at this time.
Ideal client configuration
There are no minimum hardware specifications for Get-a-map. Any computer that can surf the Internet should be capable of running Get-a-map. However, please bear in mind the following points:
- Modem speed – the map images served up by Get-a-map have quite large file sizes. The images used for the Get-a-map print page are of a higher quality and have an even larger file size. This means that slower modems will take some time to download each image – perhaps a minute or longer.
- Screen resolution – Get-a-map is best viewed on a screen with a resolution of 800 x 600 pixels or larger.
- Screen colours – the more colours the screen displays, the better the maps will look. The 16-bit high-colour setting is recommended for best results.
Hardware issues
Some customers have reported problems in producing paper copies of maps from Get-a-map using their printers.
If you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer for Windows, the cause could be incomplete support for the PNG file format, as previously discussed. It may also be worth visiting the website operated by the manufacturer of your printer to download and install the latest driver software for your particular model.
Browsers must be enabled to accept pop-ups. The pop-up blocking facility in browsers must be disabled.
Software issues
Personal firewalls
Some users have reported problems with Get-a-map when they have a personal firewall installed on their computer. So far these problems have been found to be due to the configuration of the firewall. Changing the firewall set-up has resolved these problems. Get-a-map is hosted on a different server from our corporate website. A different address is also used. Some firewalls block this link because they do not recognise it as being part of Ordnance Survey's website and thus stop the site from being opened.
Firewalls allow the user to turn off some Internet functionality, including disallowing JavaScript. Get-a-map will not function with JavaScript turned off.
Get-a-map will work when Java, plug-ins and cookies are disabled by a firewall.
Cookies
Get-a-map will work with cookies, whether enabled or disabled. If cookies are enabled, Get-a-map will use these to control the session. If cookies are disabled, Get-a-map uses URL rewriting to maintain the session state.
Users of Internet Explorer 6 – and possibly other versions – should note, however, that setting it to prompt for cookie download stops Get-a-map working. This issue, which doesn't affect Netscape® 6.2, can be resolved by choosing either to allow or to block all cookies.
Browser toolbars
Browser toolbars are removed from the new browser window in which Get-a-map runs in order to restrict the use of the browser's forward and back buttons, the use of which can confuse session tracking by the server and cause on-screen errors.
Mouse cursors
When hovering over the map image, the mouse cursor should change to a cross-hair. This is not always the case with earlier browsers, including Netscape version 4.7. However, the functionality should remain the same.
Server downtime
Your Get-a-map service should not be disrupted, but in the event of a server outage, you may reach the point where a flashing 'Retrieving map' graphic is displayed but no further progress can be made. If this occurs, we would recommend that you try again in a few minutes.
All Get-a-map images are protected by Crown copyright; please read our full terms and conditions of use.
Firefox is a registered trademark of Mozilla Foundation. Internet Explorer, Microsoft, Windows, Windows NT and Windows XP are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Java and JavaScript are registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. Mac OS and Safari are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Netscape is a registered trademark of Netscape Communications Corporation. Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland and OSNI are registered trademarks of Land & Property Services.