How to Identify Terrain Features on a Map in PowerPoint
A person may decide to make his own map for educational purposes, to make a political point or to help people find their way to a certain location. Professional mapmakers know how to plot out a map, but for amateurs, creating a map from the beginning will prove challenging. PowerPoint users can insert a digital image of a map into the PowerPoint program and, using PowerPoint's features to identify terrain features on the map, can create their desired map.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
-
1
Scan a map of the area where the user wishes to mark terrain features. Save the scanned map as a JPG file on the computer's hard disk.
-
2
Open a new PowerPoint presentation. Open it to the first slide.
-
-
3
Place the cursor on one of the serrated lines that forms each of the two boxes on the PowerPoint program's first slide. Click on the serrated line once to select the entire box and then click "Delete." Do this for both boxes. Begin to work on the blank slide.
-
4
Click "Insert" on the PowerPoint toolbar, then "Picture" and then "From File." Choose the map file from the list of files and insert the scanned map into the PowerPoint slide.
-
5
Place the cursor on a corner of the JPG map's outer borders and drag the corner outward so that all of the map's borders move outward together, enlarging the map. Stop dragging the corner when any map border reaches the borders of the PowerPoint slide.
-
6
Place the cursor on the map in the spot to label a terrain feature. Click to mark the spot to place the text labeling the terrain feature.
-
7
Click "Insert" on the PowerPoint toolbar and then "Text." A text box will appear on the map where the user intends to insert the terrain feature.
-
8
Type the desired terrain feature's text in the text box. Press "Enter" to enter the text into the text box.
-
9
Place the cursor in the middle of the text box and left-click the mouse. Keep pressing the left mouse button while moving the text box to the exact spot on the map where the feature needs to appear.
-
10
Pass the mouse over the text while holding down the left mouse button to select the text. Resize the text by enlarging or reducing the font using the font size icon on the toolbar at the top of the slide. Italicize the font by clicking on the "I" after selecting the text or or bold the font by clicking on the "B." Locate these icons at the top of the PowerPoint slide.
-
11
Select the entire text of a text box by passing the mouse over the text while holding down the left mouse-click. Create a solid-colored background by clicking on the paint icon on the bottom of the PowerPoint screen and selecting a color. Instead of superimposing the text on top of the map itself, the text that identifies the terrain feature on the map will now stand out against a solid-colored background.
-
1
References
- Photo Credit Map image by Stephen VanHorn from Fotolia.com
