QGIS » QGIS Application

Currently, the overview frame feature works like this: the user selects map#overview onto which an overview frame will be drawn, and through a drop-down list select which map item (e.g. map#zoom) will have its extend used as frame. This obviously limits the number of overview frames drawn to one.

In many scenarios, the user would benefit from having more than one overview frames drawn. See for e.g. this map: http://imgur.com/F2nOwRb (done with QGIS, imagery (c) bing).

IMO, it might be good to consider fixing this limitation prior to release of 2.0, when the overview frame feature will be used more broadly.

There are two ways this could be done:
1/ Reverse the selection interface: have the user select map#zoom, then through a drop-down list choose map#overview to draw the overview frame onto. That way, the user can select map#zoom1 and set map#overview as map to draw frame, then select map#zoom2 and set map#overview as map to draw frame, etc. That also allows for different styling of each overview frame
2/ Alternatively, and maybe more simple, keep the same interface, but extend the selection UI so the user can select more than one map.