How to Use the Partner Church Finder

Welcome to the Partner Church Finder! This web mapping application, created with Maptitude for the Web from Caliper Corporation, lets you find the location of Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) churches (in North America) that have partners overseas, and Unitarian churches outside North America that are, or want to be, partnered with a UUA Church. You can also get information about the partnerships.

The help topics below describe how to use the controls around the map, starting in the upper left.

To Change to a Different Group of Maps or to a Different Map

There are a number of different maps that show information about overseas and UUA churches, using map themes. The maps are in groups, reached by clicking on the tabs above the drop-down list.

The current group has bold lettering on a green background. Click on the link for the other group to change to that group. Within a group you can choose a map from the drop-down list, and click Redraw.

The overseas church maps are:

- Overseas District: shows the district that the overseas church is in

- Partner Status: shows whether there is an active partnership, or it is vacant and the church wants a partner

- Partner Country: shows the country that the overseas church is in

- By UUA District: shows the UUA district of the partner of the overseas church (if any)

The UUA church maps are:

- UUA District: shows the district that the UUA church is in

- By Overseas District: shows the overseas district of the partner of the UUA church

The legend to the right of the map shows the layers in the map and the classes in the map theme.

Click the Overseas Church Maps tab when you want to get information on an overseas church, and click the UUA Church Maps tab when you want to get information on a UUA church. For more on getting information on a church, see "To Change the Scale of the Map and Get Info" below.

To Find an Overseas Church (outside North America) by Place Name

This is the way to find a Unitarian church outside North America that is, or want to be, partnered with a UUA Church. Type at least the first two letters of the place name of the overseas church below where it says "Find Overseas Church." If you start typing something you have typed before, a drop-down list appears, and you can choose from the list.

Click Find. If there are any matches, they are listed as links below where you typed. Click a link to change the map to show the location of the overseas church. Only the first 10 links are shown. Typing more letters can shorten the list.

If there is only one match, the map changes automatically to show the location of the overseas church. If there are no matches, a message says "Cannot find desired Partner Church. Please try again."

The links show the overseas place name and the city and state/province of the UUA church partner, separated by "&." If a church has more than one partner, the links show the overseas place name more than once. If a church has no partner, the link shows "(Vacant)."

To Find a UUA Church (in North America) by City Name

This is the way to find a UUA church (in North America) that has a partner. Type at least the first two letters of the city name of the UUA church below where it says "Find UUA Church." If you start typing something you have typed before, a drop-down list appears, and you can choose from the list.

Click Find. If there are any matches, they are listed as links below where you typed. Click a link to change the map to show the location of the UUA church. Only the first 10 links are shown. Typing more letters can shorten the list.

If there is only one match, the map changes automatically to show the location of the UUA church. If there are no matches, a message says "Cannot find desired UUA Church. Please try again."

The links show the city and state/province of the UUA church and the overseas place name and country abbreviation (the first two letters of the country name) of the partner, separated by "&. There is a link for each combination of a UUA church and its partner. In the example, there are three UUA churches in Pittsburgh and one has two partners.

To Select by Overseas District

This is the way to list all of the overseas churches by district. Only the churches in India and Romania are in districts. Type at least the first two letters of the district name below where it says "Select by Overseas District." If you start typing something you have typed before, a drop-down list appears, and you can choose from the list.

Click Select. If there are any matches, they are listed as links below where you typed. Click a link to change the map to show the location of the overseas church. Next to the link is the overseas district name, and below it is "Partner" and the city and state/province of the UUA church partner, or "Vacant" if there is no partner.

If there are no matches, a message says " Try again. No records found." There can be matches for more than one district that start with the letters you typed.

Click Clear to clear out the list of links.

To Select by UUA District

This is the way to list UUA churches within a district that have partners. Type at least the first two letters of the district name below where it says "Select by UUA District." If you start typing something you have typed before, a drop-down list appears, and you can choose from the list.

Click Select. If there are any matches, they are listed as links below where you typed. Click a link to change the map to show the location of the UUA church. Next to the link is the UUA district name, and below it is "Partner" and the city of the overseas church partner.

If there are no matches, a message says " Try again. No records found." There can be matches for more than one district that start with the letters you typed.

Click Clear to clear out the list of links.

To Change the Scale of the Map and Get Info

Above the map is a row with a button and four tools for changing the scale of the map and getting information on an overseas church or a UUA church:

- Initial Map: click to return to the Overseas District map in the Overseas Church Maps group, showing the area in Europe from Prague to Bucharest, where most of the overseas churches are located.

- Zoom Out: click at a new center for the map to make the map area twice as wide and high, or (with some browsers) click at one corner of a rectangle and drag to another corner, then release the mouse button to reduce the scale of the current map area to fit into the rectangle.

- Zoom In: click at a new center for the map to make the map area half as wide and high, or (with some browsers) click at one corner of a rectangle and drag to another corner, then release the mouse button to enlarge the scale the map area inside the rectangle to fill the whole map.

- Pan: click at a new center for the map, or (with some browsers) click and drag the map in any direction, then release the mouse button to draw the map at the same scale but with a new center.

- Info: click on the map near the symbol for an overseas church on a overseas church map or a UUA church on a UUA church map to get information, which is shown in a table below the map. With some browsers, a marker is displayed at the point where you clicked. You need to click within a mile of a church symbol. If you click farther away, a message appears saying "Cannot find information near the point where you clicked. Please try again." You can zoom in to make it easier to click near a church. If more than one church symbol is within a mile, information is shown on all the partnerships. Information that contains Hungarian names does not have any accent marks on the letters.

You can copy an overseas church name from the "Overseas Church" item in the information table, using the Edit-Copy command or the Ctrl-C shortcut key, and paste the name into "Find Overseas Church:" edit box with the Edit-Paste command or the Ctrl-V shortcut key. You can do the same with:

- The city portion of the "UUA City, State" item, pasting it into the "Find UUA Church:" edit box

- The overseas district name in the "District" item, pasting it into the " Select by Overseas District:" edit box

- The UUA district name in the "UUA District" item, pasting it into the " Select by UUA District:" edit box

To Change the Layers in the Map

To the right of the map are checkboxes for controlling the layers on the map. Check or remove the check for one or more layers, and click Redraw. You may need to zoom in to display all the layers you have checked, since some layers are only shown at larger scales.

To Learn More or Report Problems

If you want to learn how this web mapping application was created or want to report problems, such as errors in the information, please e-mail Peter Van Demark