How to play a downloaded minecraft map

Ok so you've downloaded a minecraft map from me or from somewhere else. Great, but now what? How do I get to play with it? Well, luckily it's not very complicated or difficult. It's just a matter of putting it in the right place, and minecraft will be able to see it and let you play it. Hopefully these steps will guide you through the process of loading these maps and you'll be playing them in no time.

1. Unpack the files
If you downloaded a map from me or from somewhere else on the web, there is a good chance you received the file as compressed archive like a zip or rar file. The first thing you need to do is to extract all the files from the archive. Your operating system should be able to handle most archive files without the need for additional software, just right click the downloaded map file in your file browser (windows explorer, file manager, nautilus, whatever it may be) and you should see an option that says 'extract' or 'open with archive manager' or something of that nature. If your operating system can't open the compressed file on its own just google for the type of archive file it came in and you should be able to find some software that can extract it for you. When you extract the file, you will see the new map appear as a directory at whatever location you extracted it to. Cut or copy this directory, we'll need to put it in the minecraft directory next.

2. Find the minecraft saves directory.
Where to find your minecraft data depends on the type of operating system you are using.

Windows - Search for

%appdata%\.minecraft\saves\

in windows explorer and it should direct you to your minecraft saves folder.

Linux - Linux users like me just look in your home folder. Your minecraft data is in a hidden folder named .minecraft. In a nautilus window you can press ctl+h to view hidden folders, and you should see it appear. Open that then the saves folder, and there are your saved worlds. If you're comfortable with linux commands, you can open a terminal window and type

cd ~/.minecraft/saves

to get to your saved worlds directory.

Mac - In finder, do Go -> Go to Folder and enter

~/Library/Application Support/minecraft/saves

3. Put the Downloaded map in your minecraft saves directory.
If you copied or cut the extracted directory from step 1 earlier, just paste into the saves directory you found in step 2. Your new downloaded map should fit right in with the rest of your saved maps now.

4. Start Minecraft
Start Minecraft, select singleplayer, then the new map should appear in the list.
5. Play

6. Enjoy

That's really all there is to it. Hopefully now you know how to use your downloaded map files and play them without any problems!