Thursday, October 25, 2012

Locating the Edit Points Command in PowerPoint 2010

Found an excellent tutorial from Indezine on editing points in Powerpoint 2010. The Edit Point option is always a tricky thing to do and often hard to locate in Powerpoint, they keep moving it around. But gives you the ability to customize your map http://www.indezine.com/products/powerpoint/learn/shapes/edit-points-for-shapes-in-ppt2010.html

Monday, October 22, 2012

Downloading and Sharing Our Editable Maps with Your Staff

Map Monday video question about using our maps with your staff and downloading it to multiple PCs. No problem at, we love when multiple people use our maps for their projects and we make it as easy as we can for you to do this. Our maps are in PowerPoint format and they are easy to email around however you need.

If you have a lot of offices around the country or world we also have licenses for that, but for the general work team, feel free to share. For more info please contact us or visit www.bjdesign.com

Check out our video on this topic.


Sunday, October 7, 2012

Canada and The Canadian Provinces Map Coloring Book Video

Video for our new geography map coloring book, Canada and the Canadian Provinces Map Coloring Book. Our book is available at Amazon


You can also see samples page at our site, www.FreeUSandWorldMaps.com 

Canada and the Canadian Provinces Coloring Book

We are pleased to announce the release of our newest geography map coloring book. Canada and the Canadian provinces Coloring Book. In this book you will learn and color blank, outline maps of the Canada and its Provinces and Territories with Canada and the Canadian Provinces Map Coloring Book. The Canada Map Coloring Book includes blank, outline maps for learning Canadian geography, coloring, home school, education and even making up a map for marketing. Each blank, outline Province is presented with detail maps of political borders, capital, major cities and towns. 

Each Provinces or Territory is broken down to 6 maps with their names and other information like highways, rivers and lakes, cites and towns, and capital. Also included is a blank outline map without any information, which is great to color however you want. Along with each Province map is included their flag with some general information, including; Capital, Population, Size, Confederation, Motto, Bird, Flower, Tree, and a Fun Fact. Students can trace the outlines of the map, study and highlight regions and features. A great resource for students and kids.


Black outline, blank Canadian maps included in the coloring book are:
• Canada and the United States
• Canada
• Canada Provinces
• Canadian Flag
• Alberta
• British Columbia
• Manitoba
• New Brunswick
• Newfoundland and Labrador
• Northwest Territories
• Nova Scotia
• Nunavut
• Ontario
• Prince Edward Island
• Quebec
• Saskatchewan
• Yukon Territory
• North America
• North America Globe
• United States
• Each Province or Territory includes its flag.
Each map includes a blank version without names.

The printable, blank, outline maps in this coloring book can be freely photocopied by a teacher or parent for use in a classroom or for home school lessons.

Our book is available at Amazon.com in paperback. Click here to check Canada and the Canadian Provinces Coloring Book

Saturday, September 29, 2012

How to Make a Blank Canada Map in PowerPoint

We get asked this question fairly often on how to use our editable Powerpoint maps to make up blank map copy master for a school worksheet or presentation. It is real easy to do and this short video will take you through the steps


It is easy to make a blank, printable, outline Canada for marking up, coloring, school project, whatever you need from our royalty free downloadable PowerPoint clip art maps. Watch the video to learn how to take a basic World of Maps map, select it and change the colors to have a map with sharp, clean vector lines for your project. It is very easy to produce a clean blank printable map.

1. After purchasing and downloading our editable PowerPoint mapyou're your project, open it in PowerPoint. For our example we are using a Canada map.

2. Select the map with your pointer by clicking in the upper left corner of the slide and dragging the pointer over the entire map so that it is completely surrounded by the light blue field. Once you release you finger all the land will be selected. You can also do this by choosing Select All in the Edit pull down menu. You can also hold the SHIFT key and select each province individually.

3. Once everything is selected you can go to the Formatting Palette or up in the Ribbon -- Colors, Weights, and Fills and choose the Fill Bucket and fill the map with the color white. I like using the white fill instead of nothing because it is easier to select a province with color in it if you want to customize it later. If you have no fill you have to grab the line to select it, with a color fill you can click anywhere on the state to select it. That is it, you are ready to go, save it and print it, pretty easy.

TIPS:
4. If you group the map you can also resize it, (check out our enlarging and reducing video) and make a custom map.

5. I usually recommend removing the text first but if you don't then just hold down the shift key and select each state or county individually and then fill with color.

To see all of our How-To videos checkout the Instructional Video Page on our MapsforDesign.com site:  http://www.mapsfordesign.com/Instructional-Videos.html

Thursday, September 27, 2012

PowerPoint Russia, China, India and Southeast Asia Map

Russia, China, India, and Southeast Asia editable PowerPoint Map.
On of our bigger more complex World Regional Maps. This map has the former Soviet Union, now independent countries, China, India and South East Asia. We have a number of maps of this region. This map comes in both PowerPoint and in Adobe Illustrator, all countries can be edited and customized however you need. It is also easy to change the colors to white and you have a blank, printable map for a worksheet or to color.

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Central America Editable Map from World of Maps Collection

Today's post we look at our Central America map. Central America runs from just below Mexico down to Panama, including Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica,  and Nicaragua. Often included in this map are the Caribbean Islands such as Cuba, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Jamaica, and many more. On the east is the Caribbean Sea and on the left the Pacific Ocean.

Central America with Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama

Monday, September 24, 2012

Canada Editable Map for Presentations

Canada map with titles and individual Provinces and Territories for presentations from our World of Maps clip art collection of editable maps. This map is a fully editable PowerPoint or Adobe Illustration ready for building a presentation or customized for a classroom copy sheet. All text can be customized and the provinces can be colored.

Editable Canada Map with Provinces and Text from World of Maps Collection




Canada PowerPoint Map, Our Neighbor to the North

One of our most popular editable editable country maps is Canada. We have them in several different ways, color, black/white, combined with the USA and standing alone. All of the elements on the map can be customized, land and text. Our Canada maps are available from both of our sites, www.bjdesign.com and www.mapsfordesign.com.

Color, editable map of Canada, with provinces, no text

Map of Canada, black/white outline map with text names, each province is an individual element.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Australia Oceania World Regional Map

We have been highlighting some of our World Regional Maps from our World of Maps collection. Today we show our editable Australia Oceania map. We actually have several maps of this area of the world, including individual country maps, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines Indonesia and more. All maps are editable and in both PowerPoint and Adobe Illustrator. This map is available at both of our sites, www.bjdesign.com and www.mapsfordesign.com

Australia and Oceania editable map, comes in both PowerPoint and Adobe Illustrator

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Africa Regional World Map from our World of Maps Collection

Africa Regional World Map
Above is a copy of our Africa Map, one of the series of our World Regional Maps. This is an editable map, each country can be colored or changed, including taken out. All text is editable. We also have this map in Adobe Illustrator again with all countries individual objects. We have this map on both our World of Maps site, www.bjdesign.com and on www.MapsforDesign.com

Republic of Ireland Map produced for a customer

We had a request from on of our World of Maps customers from www.bjdesign.com for a PowerPoint map of Ireland for a customer who was setting up sales territories. We have included that map in our Great Britain map all along but didn't have it as a separate map. Not sure why that happen, but sometimes things get over looked. The customer asked about an individual one, so easy enough to make up. I took the Great Britain map and deleted the UK parts and then enlarged the Ireland side, fixed the text a little and there you are. Our maps are pretty flexible and easy to change. Once done I sent the map off to the UK for the customer. We received back and very comment and I am glad to help.

Here is the comment, thank you very much, we love comments and we love finding out where we have holes in the collection. I will get this new map into the collection.

"Bruce, that's fantastic, thank you!
We use your maps every day when selling territories. Best maps we've ever bought!"

Paul

Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, editable PowerPoint Map



Monday, July 23, 2012

Map Monday Video • US National Country Map with Names in PowerPoint


It is time for our Map Monday Video so on to a question that came into our comment box, people send us all kinds of questions and we love to get them.

Today's question comes a viewers boss and the question is do you have an editable national US County PowerPoint map with all of the names listed on the map.

Answer:
So they're asking about our USA National County editable PowerPoint map. This is the map the entire national US County editable PowerPoint map. This map is in PowerPoint and it has all the counties in United States all 3120 of them and also has all of their names on it.

So lets bring that map up here in PowerPoint so you can see that. So this is a fully editable National US map of all the counties in PowerPoint, all 3120 of them in United States. So if I click on it let's say the state of Maine, lets zoom in here and I can select this state and go to my formatting palette and choose another color. We can change this orange color to say a yellow color. I still have the entire state grouped so it all changes to one color, but everything in this state is a separate editable County. The state of Maine is made up of individual county maps and I can go and ungroup it in PowerPoint and work each individual county. I go to the draw toolbar and I can just click right here and I can now see all the individual counties are separate objects. I can color each individual object and fill it with its own color.

So that's what people are asking about, that can they change these things, are they editable but what they are really looking for is are there names on all of these counties. Because this is a big map with a lot of names and a lot of counties and they wanted to go in there and find their specific County and make the changes. So yes we have a US national County map with all the usual counties and that we also have a version with names on it. The name version isn't on the site but we can send you that our version if you purchase of the regular County map. It is a pretty big file so we just email it to you rather than set up for download like all the others.

So not only can you change all the individual counties and the colors but also the text you just have to ungroup it is we have it group by state can keep it organized. Each one of those names can be change, formatted differently, deleted or moved around or whatever it is you want to do.


Here is the link for the actual map on MapsForDesign.com
http://www.mapsfordesign.com/US-National-County-Editable-County-PowerPoint-Map-for-Building-Regions.html

We have lots of customers go in and customize this map especially when they have a need for a general territory map that's crossing state lines. There are much more sophisticated maps out there that are tied to a database, we don't have that. Our map is all done by hand but it works pretty well when you need to set up a basic territory map.
We also have individual state county maps in PowerPoint.

The slide package also includes a version of the map with names, without names, on a blank map with just names, and also a state outline map that can be laid on top to give you a nice borders.

For More Information, These maps are located on both of our sites on
http://www.BJDesign.com our subscription site
http://www.Mapsfordesign.com our site for individual maps

Monday, July 16, 2012

How to Add Cities and Location Dots to Our Editable PowerPoint Maps


We had a great question from a customer on how to add new cities and location dots to our PowerPoint or Adobe Illustrator maps. This is pretty easy to do using either a text bullet or drawing a small circle and then a text box for the name. I also thought this would make a great video as we get this question now and then.

We love customer questions, please let us know what you need to know and we make up a video on the question.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

We Need Your Help on Our New Canadian Map Coloring Book

Hi all, we have been working away on a new map coloring book for Canada. Our book will include the Canadian Provinces, maps of North America, the US, and Mexico. But most of its focus will be on Canada. We have a great set of Canadian maps to work from which include the major cities and towns, major highways, and waterways. Normally when we set up our coloring books we include a set of maps from detailed to just an outline. But I am not sure that is what people would like to see.

What I am looking for is what you would like to see in a  coloring book like this. How many maps for each provinces. I set up a poll over on the right and would love you to check off what maps you thinks should be included. If there is something different you would like to see, please leave a comment below in the comment section. All feedback welcome. I know that a lot of little kids use our books to color so maybe what I really need is to make two books, one with simple outline for younger kids and one with lot more details for older. Please let me know.

Thank you, bruce jones



Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Removing the Instruction Box on Our PPT Maps

We had a good question about the instruction block on our editable PowerPoint maps. We put it there to get you going and using our maps but sometimes not everyone knows how to delete it. I thought I would lay it out here.

1. Click on the text with your pointer/curser to select it, this allows you to edit the text, this also selects the text box

2. Then move the mouse curser over to the blue line that is running around the outside after you select it. This line is also connected to the 8 dots that you see when an object is selected.

3. Click on that line with the pointer, you can then do two things, click and hold and move the box around the screens or hit the Delete key on your keyboard and it will Delete.

This is the same thing you will do to color a county or block of text, click on it to select it and then change colors, or to edit or remove a county name

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

New! USA Maps and the 50 USA States Coloring Book

Our latest geography coloring book is out now on Amazon.com,  USA Maps and the 50 USA States Coloring Book: Includes Maps of Canada and North America

Learn about and color the basic geographic layout of the USA and each of the 50 US states with USA Maps and the 50 USA States Coloring Book: Including Maps of Canada and North America. USA State Maps are great for coloring, home school, education and even marking up a map for marketing.

Each outline map is presented in two ways, one page has the map with corresponding cities, capitals and physical features. the opposite page has the blank outline without any of the information, includes a blank state map set in context in a general US map and some basic state facts including State Capital, Population, Size, Statehood, State Motto, State Nickname, State Bird, State Flower, State Tree, and a Fun Fact.

Students can trace the outlines of the map, study and highlight cities, capitals and features, and finally review by filling in the pertinent data on the blank map. Each state is located on a USA map and is a great resource for students.

USA Maps and the 50 USA States Includes

Includes maps of all 50 US States: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho and Illinois. Also Includes maps of: Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada and New Hampshire. And outline state maps of: New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

Also included are maps of US territories: Guam, Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands.

The printable, blank, outline maps in this coloring book can be freely photocopied by a teacher or parent for use in a classroom or for home school lessons.

Check out a copy at Amazon.com (affiliate link)