What Can Scribble Do? — AI Capabilities Overview

Scribble is the built-in AI assistant in Scribble Maps. You talk to it in plain language, and it acts on your map directly. It can also guide you through the interface, answer questions about features, and help you find tools without knowing where they are.

This article gives a broad overview of what Scribble can help you with.

Interface Guidance

Scribble knows the Scribble Maps interface and can help you navigate it.

Finding things. If you're not sure where a button or panel is, ask Scribble. It will highlight the element on screen so you can see it right away. For example: "Where is the toolbar?" or "Show me the layers panel."

Opening panels. Ask Scribble to open any panel directly instead of hunting through menus. It can open the import panel, share panel, legend editor, plugin panel, basemap selector, account settings, elevation profile, and more.

Switching tools. Tell Scribble what you want to do, and it will switch to the right drawing or editing tool. You do not need to know the tool's name. For example: "I want to draw a shape" or "Let me trace a freehand line."

Answering feature questions. Ask Scribble whether something is possible, and it will check the documentation and give you a direct answer. If the feature exists, it explains how to use it or opens the right tool. If it doesn't exist, it will say so.

Guiding multi-step tasks. When a task requires more than one step, Scribble walks you through each one. It prompts you to click the right overlay, select a folder, or confirm an action at each stage. You do not need to know the sequence in advance.

Watching the screen. Scribble can look at your current map view and answer questions about what it sees. Ask it to describe what's on screen, explain a shape, or help you understand what you're looking at.

Navigation and Map Control

Tell Scribble where to go, and it moves the map there. You can use an address, landmark name, city, or exact coordinates in almost any format, including lat/lng, DMS, MGRS, What3Words, and Plus Codes. You can also ask it to change the map type, adjust zoom, or open your map in 3D.

Drawing and Creating

Scribble can place markers, draw shapes, and set up tools with the right settings based on what you describe. It can place a marker at a specific location, draw a circle or square of a given size, create a route between two places, add an administrative boundary, or place a military symbol using a SIDC code.

Styles and Appearance

Ask Scribble to change colours, line styles, fill patterns, or opacity on any shape. For the base map, describe a visual theme such as "dark mode" or "vintage", and Scribble restyles it. You can also ask it to bulk-change styles across a folder, or conditionally style shapes based on their attribute values.

Data and Analysis

Scribble can search for points of interest and place them as markers. It creates distance buffers, travel-time areas, and service zone polygons. For a selected polygon, it can pull in population figures, building counts, roads, footprints, and POI data from real-world sources. Pro users can also run location scoring and site comparison with ScribbleSight.

Filtering

Ask Scribble to filter your map by attribute value or by location. For example: "show only markers where status is active" or "hide everything outside this polygon." Scribble sets, disables, or clears filters without you opening the filter panel.

Custom Plugins

If Scribble can't do something directly, ask it to build a plugin. Describe the task in plain language, and Scribble writes and runs a custom JavaScript plugin. If the plugin has an error, ask Scribble to fix it.

Voice Input

Scribble supports voice commands using Push-to-Talk. Press and hold the Space bar, speak your command, and release. To enable Push-to-Talk, click the gear icon in the Scribble panel.

Example Prompts

Click Examples in the Scribble panel to browse sample commands grouped by category. These are a starting point, not a full list of what Scribble can do.

See also

• Scribble — Your AI Mapping Assistant
• Using ScribbleSight for Location Intelligence
• Get Data for a Polygon