Monday, May 26, 2008

4 New Customizing Videos for PowerPoint

Click on the How to Videos link in the upper left corner of this blog for 4 new customizing videos we released the weekend.

Two videos on some of our favorite customizing tips including Part 1, use of the shift key, grouping and ungrouping, and Part 2, enlarging and the Snap To Grid option.

A video on converting PowerPoint files to jpg graphics for your web site.

And finally look over our shoulder and watch us solve a customers complex customizing problem on a regional county map.

Send us your PowerPoint map questions and we might turn them into a video. Stay tuned more to come.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Is your total U.S. county map editable (meaning each county or the state in its entirety)?

Today's Question: Is Every US State and County Editable?

Answer: Yes every state or county in our map is an individual element that can be customized, colored, deleted, moved around. The counties themselves are grouped together by state to help you keep organized. But all elements are individual. If you are using Adobe Illustrator make sure you check out the layers features, it will help you a lot with keeping things organized.

thank you, bruce jones

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

USA Map with Capitals for Book

Customer Question: Can you supply a suitable map of the USA covering all states to use in a book covering a trip we did covering all the 48 lower US states. We would love it if the map showed state Capitols

Answer: We have a number of US maps that would help with your project. My recommendation is that if you are publishing a book you probably want to work in Adobe Illustrator so that you can produce the best and sharpest graphic.

From Illustrator you can customized all you want and then export it as an .eps or .ai file for your desk top publishing program where you can lay out the book.

I have attached a black and white jpg file of one of the maps with capitals so you can see what it looks like. We also have this in color. All of our illustrator maps are completely editable, each state or block of text is an individual element. You might also want to use some of our individual states to give more detail when you are describing that place.

Hope this helps, please contact me if you need further info

thank you, bruce jones

Friday, May 2, 2008

Video on Coloring Land on County Map

How to Video on how to change a map color when it is part of a Grouped County Map.

1. Click on a single map say Ohio, Ungroup it, you will see that you now have two groups, text and land. Don't need to Ungroup any further.

2. Click in the ocean to De-Select the map

3. Click on just the Ohio counties to select the land and then choose a new color from the Drawing Tool Bar

4. Once the color has been changed, drag around the entire state with your pointer to Reselect the two groupings, the text and the land and Regroup them together, that will keep that state whole and a single unit until you are ready to do something new.

5. Do the process for each state. Ungroup, change land color, Regroup.