Getting started

Set up the Excel Route Planner workbook, then run a small example to check that everything works.

Video walkthrough #

The video includes Google’s pricing at the time of recording. Check Google’s current allowances and rates before running a large job; Google API usage is billed separately from your product license.

Open the workbook #

1. Download the ZIP from your purchase email and extract it. Open the extracted folder rather than running the workbook from inside the ZIP.
2. On Windows, right-click the downloaded .xlsm workbook and choose Properties. If Unblock appears, select it and click Apply.
3. Open the workbook in desktop Excel. If Excel displays a macro warning for this downloaded product file, click Enable Content.

Enter your keys #

1. On the Settings sheet, paste the license key from your purchase email into License Key.
2. Click Get your API KEY here to open Google Cloud. Create or select a project, link an active billing account, and enable the Routes API in that project.
3. Create or copy an API key for that project and paste it into Google Maps API Key in the workbook. The license key and Google API key are two different keys.

Run your first example #

1. On Settings, choose the distance and time units, travel mode and traffic mode.
2. Open Route. Enter your start and end addresses in the marked cells in column B, then list the intermediate stops below them. For a round trip, use the same start and end address.
3. Click Optimize Route. The workbook fills the stop order and shows the distance, travel time and totals.
4. Use View on Google Maps to open the route in your browser, or Save Route as PDF to create a printable copy.

Save the workbook to keep your settings and results.

Google Maps API not working? Follow the step-by-step API troubleshooting guide to check your key, billing and required APIs.