# How to set up your Notion database

### Basic database structure

In order to begin creating maps, you first need to prepare your databases with the necessary columns.

You can create locations in two ways. If you have the coordinates (latitude and longitude) you can just use your database with that two columns, **"Latitude"** and **"Longitude"**, if your columns have different names, you can specify that, the moment you create the map. Both coordinates can be specified in decimal form, for example: 45,321, -60,321, or in degrees form, for example 45°15' 15''.

The other way is using an address, in that case you will need a column called **"Address"** or **"Location"** (if you want to use another column with another name you can specify that in the map config), that column must be of type text, because that column will be used to obtain the coordinates for every row. Besides that, you will the Latitude and Longitude columns in your Notion database, that columns will be used to store the results from the geocoding process.

### Additional columns

Except for the 3 columns needed to create a map, you can have as many columns as you like, as long as they do not have the same name as the other required columns.


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