I have an Access database with geographic data. can i autobuild a KML with it to plot the data on google earth?

I'd like to make a google earth map from my Access database, with a minimum of hand-coding into KML. My data is simple - it includes cities, states (but not ZIP). I'd like to plot dots for each city and state on the map. Is there a software solution for this?I have an Access database with geographic data. can i autobuild a KML with it to plot the data on google earth?
As far as i know, there is no pre-existing solution that will do what you want to do. I have come across several Excel to KML solutions, however each assumes you already have the coordinates for the plotpoints. This is really the core problem you'll run into, as though the Google Earth program supports the ability to lookup by address, the KML file format requres the use of latitude and longitude corrdinates.



This doesn't mean your at a dead end though. One longer solution is to export your data to excel, then use the free service at http://www.geocoder.us to convert the addresses to latidude and longitude, and add to the spreadsheet. Finally use the included macros to generate the required KML file. If you have alot of points or you need to do this frequently, it could be more trouble than its worth.



If you have programming experience, you could automate the process; the geocoder.us site allows remote procedure calls designed for programmers.



The biggest limitation you'll find is that the addresses are valid only for US addresses, and it is based on data that is about 7 years old, so very new addresses may not be valid.



If your looking for coordinates for actual cities, you might try wikipedia instead; most have corrdinates listed for each cities applicable page.



Good luck.