Fold A Map Like A Pro For Easy Access

@krom: also, I don't want to pay exorbitant data fees while in other counties on my smartphone.

ugly

@baest: You wouldn't believe all the idiots there are in the world, until you have a capital "J" in your name, and everyone(!!!) confuses it with an "S".

So if they take away an I, so it's not confused with another letter, such is life.

I
H

Rotate either character 90°.

@baest: Because i looks too much like a dotted line.

elsifer

@krom: Then there are those of us who don't have a smart phone that can handle Google Maps.

If you're travelling in Europe, look for Falk maps. Falk is a German company, and they make these really cool maps with little tabs that fold up or down, maximizing space. ADAC is another company that makes a similar product. I took these maps with me around Europe whenever I could find them, and they were fantastic.

dewey_decimal

@[www.pocketmod.com] . A bit too many phases, but this does the trick.

Willeh

@D0rk: I got seriously interested in this PocketMod thing. It would be utterly practical if I could turn my speech written onto A4 to 8 PocketMod pages. Any ideas how this could be done?

Willeh

@cpma282: Heck, you could do it like DC on the lettered streets and have an "Eye" street, but no J St. That confuses tourists nicely.

AmphetamineCrown

@whats_in_a_name: i have heard similar reasons for not using "i" as it's too similar to (lowercase) "j".

cpma282

In Orange County, California, a Thomas Map is considered indispensable. These multi-page maps are extremely detailed and can be found in everyone's car. This multi-page fold method reminds me of those maps.

As I recall, the PocketMod fold does not reveal one side of the paper. Similarly, this method will make the reverse side of the map relatively inaccessible. You may then lose easy access to the street index and downtown detail panels that are printed on the reverse sides of some maps.

DanYHKim

@deliciouscake: awesome.. too bad that wasn't around 2 years ago

delightt

@[en.wikipedia.org])#Seven_Folds . Ok, it was 170 ft x 220 ft, but they still managed it with a steamroller...

Richard Chiswell

I used to use the cutting method when navigating in car rallies. I could reach any quadrant without having to lift or re-fold the map. It only got a bit confusing when moving across a cut.

The alternative, folding and refolding a table-sized map while doing 60 down winding country lanes, was no fun at all and was the quick path to car sickness.

Do you know it's impossible to fold one sheet on iself more than 8 times ?
Whatever the paper and whatever the size you choose...

Funny to try.

@delightt:
[maps.google.com]
i hope this helps

I just close the app, and put my iPhone back in my pocket.

@krom: Or you could join those of us who regularly leave the future behind and go where cellphones and Google Maps might as well be on the moon for their utter inaccessibility.

Enjoy your latte at your wifi enabled hotspot but stop presuming that your vision of the world is the predominant vision.

ObtuseMoose

@PocketMod: The Free Recyclable Personal Organizer

@baest: The same goes for a lot of other things because it's sometimes hard to distinguish between i and l, you can check Go (Baduk) boards, no i in there either.

poboxy

When I'm a visitor in an unfamiliar city (and there have been many), I tend to acquire the most accurate and up-to-date city maps possible (try finding Rangoon on googlemaps. Uh huh. Thought not). And then fold the map with the edges on the inside-back, so that the places I need to be in most is in the middle, facing out.

Basically, split the map into a 4x4 grid, fold the top ¼ backwards, the bottom ¼ backwards, then the side ¼s. Or simply adjust depending on which parts of the map you'll need most often. You want to get the creases around (not through) the places you'll navigate the most.

delightt

@baest: I don't know what's up in this case, but in some professions - mainly architecture and structural engineering - to skip the letter I when lettering things because in most fonts as well as most peoples hand writing it is hard to distinguish from a 1. The same is true for O and 0.

whats_in_a_name

@baest:
There's no I in "tourism".

wait a minute...

psychiccheese

@krom: sometimes it's useful to see a few square miles on a paper map rather than having to scroll around on your phone or zoom out and lose many details.

I remember learning how do to this fold in primary school at about age... 7 or 8.

I saw it in the Pocketmod thing, and was amazed that it was used by adults - I had completely forgotten it. Is this not an activity done by young children in the states?

I do think it is a clever way of compressing down a sheet of paper though...

Why does the diagram go from H to J? Doesn't I come between those letters?
a-b-c-d-e-f-g-h-j-k.... wait, that's not how the song goes.

baest

Don't fold the map! There's a big crease right through the middle of Kansas now. Rolllll the map!

four12

Or you could join us in the future and use Google Maps on your cellphone.

That being said I'm pretty decent at map folding. The nature of the creases give away their proper folding. And the bigger the crease, the later it will be folded.

krom

Isn't this the exact way you fold a modbook?

Adrianb

This is the same folding style the PocketMod uses. It's very effective for turning a sheet of paper into a small booklet.

D0rk

@DaveDavies: The purpose of the hole is so that you can fold it to 1/4th the size while still having full access to all 4 quadrants of the map.

Why do you need to slash a hole in the middle? You can just as easily fold it up without that hole.

DaveDavies