Using the Track Marker and Track Selection

The Track Marker and Track Selection are important concepts when working with Tracks, Routes, and Shapes in ExpertGPS. The Marker, as its name suggests, is an orange triangle that marks your place along a track. You can use the Marker to step through the points in a track one at a time, see your exact speed at any point on the track, compare your position on the map to your elevation on an elevation profile, and to mark the location where you'd like to modify the track (break, split, insert trackpoint, place label...).

The Track Selection allows you to highlight a section of a track or shape in magenta, and apply commands to just the highlighted section of the selected track.

In the instructions below, I'll refer to Track Marker and Marker interchangably, and Track Selection and Selection interchangably, and talk about working with tracks. These techniques can be applied to routes and shapes, as well.

Placing and Moving the Track Marker

The track marker is automatically placed on the track at the point where you clicked to select the track with the Select or Move Map tool. It appears as an orange triangle, pointing in the direction of travel along the track. You can right-click and Reverse Track if needed. If you select a track by dragging across it with the Select tool, the Marker is not set, and you'll have to click on the selected track to set it.

The track marker also appears as an orange triangle in the track's Elevation Profile, and in the Trackpoint List. As you move the marker on the map, its position will update in the List and on the Profile.

You can use the Arrow Keys to move the marker from one trackpoint to the next. Left Arrow moves the marker one trackpoint closer to the beginning of the track. The Right Arrow moves the marker one point closer to the end of the track. In both cases, the marker will now be exactly on top of a trackpoint. The Up Arrow moves the marker halfway to the prior point, and the Down Arrow moves the marker halfway to the next point. This is really useful if you want to use the Insert Trackpoint command (press the I key, or right-click and select Insert Trackpoint) to insert a new trackpoint between two existing ones.

The Home and End keys move the marker to the start and end of the track, respectively.

Placing and Moving the Track Selection

You can highlight a section of a track or shape by first clicking on it to select it, and then dragging with the Select Tool across points, or dragging down the length of the selected track. The points you selected will be highlighted in magenta.

If you hold the Shift key while using the Arrow Keys as described above, the Marker will move and the old and new location of the Marker will be added to the Track Selection.

Clearing the Track Selection

To clear the Track Selection and remove the magenta highlighting from a track, you can press the Esc key, or right-click and click Clear Trackpoint Selection on the popup menu, under the Trackpoint Selection sub-menu.

Commands that Use the Track Selection

The following commands are available when a track is selected and you've created a Track Selection along the track. When a track has a Selection and a Marker set, the Selection takes precedence in the behavior of the following commands.

Right-click on the selected track, and select the command below from the Track Selection (Magenta Highlighter) sub-menu.

Clear Trackpoint Selection - Remove the magenta highlighted selection from the track (shortcut key: Esc).
Delete Selected Trackpoints - Delete all trackpoints contained within the selection (shortcut key: Delete).
Average the Selected Points - You can get higher accuracy when recording a location by letting the GPS record points in one location for a few minutes. Use this command to create a new waypoint by averaging all of the location samples.
Create Waypoints at each Selected Point - Convert the selected trackpoints into waypoints.
Break Track at the Selection - Break the track into two tracks, removing everything within the track selection.

Commands that Use the Track Marker

The following commands are available when a track is selected and the track marker has been set at a point along the track. Please note that if a magenta track selection has been made on the track, it takes precedence, and some of these commands will be applied to the Selection, not to the Marker.

Right-click on the selected track, and select the command below from the Track Marker (Orange Triangle) sub-menu.

Place Label Here - Move the track label to the marker location. Choose a relatively straight section of the track.
Insert Trackpoint at Marker - Create a new trackpoint at the marker (shortcut key: I).
Insert Gap at Marker - Remove the line connecting the points on either side of the marker, but keep everything as one track.
Break Track at Marker - Break the track into two tracks, removing the line between the two points on either side of the marker.
Split Track at Marker - Slice the track into two tracks at the marker point. There will be no visible gap.
Set Active Point at Marker - Use the marker point as the start point for distance, bearing, and rotation measurements.
Erase Track Back to the Marker, and Continue Drawing
Draw a Side Trail, Starting at the Marker

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