Once you have your map created,

Use your mouse roller to scroll down as close to the ground as you can get and then, holding the roller down, scroll your mouse around till you get an angle on the map that you would like to use as your map photo on Workshop. Your mouse is now a camera, which tells you that you can click the right-mouse button to take the photo. This will now be the "thumbnail" photo of your map that Workshop sees and I, at least, have found no way to change that once the map is shared to Workshop,...so be sure the one you want subscribers to see on the Workshop maps list is the one showing on your map before you share it (you can go back into your map after saving -- but not sharing -- the map and resnap another photo as many times as it takes, till you get one that you like).

Click the sprocket in the upper right corner of your screen to SAVE MAP and give it a name (in both locations for it on both columns of the SAVE MAP screen).

Be sure at this point to click on the PUBLISH MAP IN NEW GAME PANEL button so it is blue (found in the right-hand column).

SIDE NOTE (not necessary to sharing your map, but might be of interest): If you want to make other photos of your map that will scroll through your map's main Workshop page, Click on the MAP SETTINGS icon (a green square with a sprocket on top of it) in the toolbar at the bottom of your map creation screen. When it turns blue, click on the Snapshot tool (the one that looks like a photo). Your mouse is now a camera, which tells you that you can click the right-mouse button to take the photo. Each time you click it, you save another photo to your CSkylines files. Take as many photos as you like from different angles. These will now be the photos of your map that can be placed on your map's main Workshop page (there are instructions for that in the Edit Images & Videos section, but you don't need to worry about it now).

Click SAVE. This will save your map to your computer and the CSkylines game on your computer (but will not share it to Workshop -- that will be done in the steps below).

Quit to main menu.

Click on CONTENT MANAGER

Click on MAPS

Scroll down on the right-hand column of maps till you see yours.
Make sure it's blue light is on.


Click the SHARE button.
In the PUBLISH MAP ON STEAM WORKSHOP window that opens, click PUBLISH.

Now wait patiently.....sometimes this takes awhile .... have a coffee....do a crossword .... chat on the phone with a friend....... but KEEP AN EYE ON YOUR COMPUTER SCREEN because you want to do the next steps fairly quickly .... it won't hurt anything if you don't, but some subscribers may not see your finished map page if you don't.

Eventually you will be bounced to Workshop, where you will find yourself looking at the new screen (in Workshop) for your map, which is now publicly shared. Now the fun begins.....

MAKE IT PRIVATE TILL YOU HAVE IT FINISHED

IMMEDIATELY scroll down till you see, in the right-hand column, the words CHANGE VISIBILITY (right above the green button that says "Add Links". Click on CHANGE VISIBILITY and then click on the word HIDDEN.

Your game is now shared in Private mode, so you can work on the screen before setting it to public mode.

ADD REQUIRED ASSETS YOU USED TO CREATE YOUR MAP

Here, in the right hand column, just above the Change Visibility, you will see the words ADD/REMOVE REQUIRED ITEMS. Click on it.


You will now have a screen with three tabs, Items You've Published – which will show all the assets you have created, Subscribed Items – which will show all the assets you subscribed to, and Items in Your Favorites --- which will show all the items on Workshop that you've tagged as your favorites.

All tabs work the same way. Go to the tab that will have the asset you are including in your game and scroll down to find it. Once you find it, you can click on it and it will show up in the list of ITEMS MARKED AS REQUIRED BY YOUR ITEM. Once it is in that list, it will show up on the main screen for your map.
Heads-Up if you have a Map Theme on your Map:
Remember that if you've created your own map theme and then shared it to Workshop, moved your personal copy out of Cskylines files, and then subscribed to it from Workshop (which you have to do to make it stick to the map when it is shared) it will not show up in the tab for your published items, but rather in the tab for your subscribed items.

When you have all the assets you want on that list, scroll to the bottom of it, and click on SAVE AND CONTINUE.

You will now be bounced back to the main screen for your map, where all your required assets will show up on the right-hand column.

If you used a DLC on your map (or will want to use it when using your map to create a game) click on the words ADD/REMOVE REQUIRED DLC and, following the same process as that for the required items, add any DLCs you want on it to the list.

To add extra images to the map save (NOT the thumbnail that is seen in the Workshop lists, but the additional photos on the page subscribers see after clicking on that thumbnail), you need to have placed the images (only 1200 pixels across) that you want to use in a file immediately within your C drive on your computer. I use a file called "A-CS photos" so it is right at the top of the C drive file folders when I open it, but you can place them in any file you choose to create in your C drive.
Here's how to do this – step-by-step:

When you hit the F12 button in your map creation screen, it will create a photo that goes into a file in your Cskylines files on your computer. In my computer, they go into:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\231991649\760\remote\255710\screenshots
Your file will be on a path similar to this, but probably with the 255710 being a different number.

Go into that file to find your photo(s). You can change the VIEW on that file to icons so you can see the photos rather than just the numbers that represent them – which makes it easier to find your photo(s).

Once you find it you need to change it's size to no more than 1200 pixels horizontal. I do this by right-clicking on the photo and then clicking on OPEN WITH and choosing PAINT. PAINT is the program I use, so hopefully you will have that program on your computer.

Once the photo pops up on the PAINT screen, I click on RESIZE, PIXELS, change HORIZONTAL to 1200 and make sure the check mark is in the box next to MAINTAIN ASPECT RATIO. Then I click on OK – SELECT – Scroll over the photo to cover the portion of the picture I want to be in the map photo – click on CROP, and click on SAVE (do NOT EVER change the name of the screenshot when you save....CSkylines needs it to have the number it originally has as it's name).

This saves the photo for you, with the right size, to the Cskylines folder, but getting there from the Workshop is really a hassle, so, as I stated above, you can create a file just inside the C: drive of your computer that says A-CSKYLINES SCREENSHOTS .... this identifies it as the folder you will drop copies of your screenshots into when you need them for this purpose, and also keeps the folder right at the top of the C: drive list.

Scroll your photo from the:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\231991649\760\remote\255710\screenshots file (or it's equivalent on your computer) into the file under the C: drive that you created for this purpose -- using your RIGHT mouse button (so you can say COPY rather than move) -- to that folder.

Repeat this process for as many photos as you want to show on your map page in Workshop. Then continue with the instructions below.



Now, in your map's main screen on Workshop, click on ADD/EDIT IMAGES AND VIDEOS. Click on the DOWN ARROW just to the right of the LOOK IN: address bar on the black box that pops up.

Click on C:\. Then Click on the file folder you created for your Cskylines photos.

When it opens, click on the photo you want to use. Click on OPEN. You will be bounced back to the ADD/EDIT IMAGES & VIDEOS screen. Click on the blue UPLOAD button.

Repeat this process (in the above 3 paragraphs) for each photo till you have all the photos you want to show for your map. Then click SAVE & CONTINUE.



You will be bounced back to your maps main screen, where you will find the photos scrolling through on that screen.



BUT, HEY, WAIT A MINUTE......WHAT ABOUT THAT NASTY THUMBNAIL EVERYONE SEES WHEN THEY ARE LOOKING FOR A MAP????

The photo you took of your map while still in your map creation screen will still be the photo showing on the right side, and on the Workshop lists when subscribers are looking for a map. It's probably not as pretty as you would like it to be and you know you can make a better one, but how do you get it up there? Well....... I didn't know how to fix this either, till MR. MIYAGI gave me a step-by-step to try. Between his step-by-step and my stumbling about figuring out what works with my computer setup (and yours, I hope), I've come up with these instructions to change the "thumbnail" people see on Workshop, when they look for a map, into a photo you are proud of and want them to see. Follow our joint instructions below to accomplish this.

---- Make your *.PNG-format image and name it PreviewImage. Mr. Miyagi uses either 800x450 pixels for the rectangular, and for the full square image 600x600 pixels. He says if you make it larger, it will give you an upload error and not upload the new image.

-----SHARE YOUR MAP TO WORKSHOP – do NOT subscribe to it yet.

-----Close out workshop and Cities: Skylines.

-----Create a file to hold private versions of your maps (if you haven't already) anywhere on your C drive OTHER THAN in the Colossal folders.

-----Scroll your private map out of your computer's Colossal Order CS file Folder and MOVE it into the private maps folder you just created. That Colossal folder is located on this path in my computer, so probablyclose to that in yours:
C:\Users\Beth\AppData\Local\Colossal Order\Cities_Skylines\Maps

NOW WILL HAVE NO DUPLICATE PRIVATE MAP IN THE COLOSSAL FILES WHEN YOU SUBSCRIBE TO YOUR WORKSHOP VERSION OF THE MAP. TRUST ME – THAT'S A GOOD THING.

-----Open CS, Go back to Workshop and Subscribe to your own map

-----Close out Workshop and go to Content Manager

NOW you can update the thumbnail image on the workshop version of your map (because your private version is no longer in the Colossal Data Folders gumming up the works with duplicates).

-----Click Update on the Workshop version of your map (it should be the only one with that name, now, on the MAPS list and should have a Steam logo), a window pops up, don't hit upload just yet. The preview image access is a tiny manila folder icon (bottom right of the current preview). Click it.

-----in the pop-up file explorer window, while holding down the right-mouse-button, scroll it over from one folder to the other and select COPY from the mouse's drop-down menu. This will copy/paste your new PreviewImage.png to overwrite the current one.

-----When you ALT Tab back to the PUBLISH MAP ON STEAM WORKSHOP window, you will see your new PreviewImage. If it is there, click UPDATE and your Workshop page should open up with the new PREVIEWIMAGE as your new thumbnail.

WARNING: When you update your map, Workshop automatically makes it PUBLIC view, so if you had it on PRIVATE or HIDDEN, you want to immediately Click the CHANGE VISIBILITY link and click PRIVATE or HIDDEN again.

AGAIN, MY HEARTFELT THANKS TO MR. MIYAGI FOR ALL HIS HELP IN THIS SECTION. WITHOUT HIS INSTRUCTIONS WE WOULD ALL STILL BE TRYING TO FIGURE THIS ONE OUT.

Now, last but not least, the EDIT TITLE AND DESCRIPTION section.

In the Owner Controls just above the images link that you used previously, you click on EDIT TITLE AND DESCRIPTION. That will take you to a screen where you can type in any description you want to show up the Description section just under your photos on the map's main screen.

This is a great place to do a copy/paste of the URL address for your Assets Collection if you want your subscribers to be able to just do a One-Click subscription to all the assets your map requires.

Once you've done all this and you are satisfied with the look of your new map's main page, you can return to the CHANGE VISIBILITY link on the right side column and change it to Public so your subscribers can now see the finished page.

Just click on CHANGE VISIBILITY, then click on PUBLIC, and you are done.