Resizing the map is a similar task to resizing the key.Click here to read how to re-size a key. We start by selecting the map using the Select Multiple Object dialog.
Now we choose Format→Object and make sure we have the Size tab
selected. When resizing maps it is important to maintain their aspect
ratio. We can do this by selecting the Lock Aspect Ratio option in the
Size tab. In this example we are going to resize the map to 75%. This
is approximately the size required to allow enough space to the right
of the map for the keys.
After resizing the map, you will notice that most map objects have rescaled correctly and in proportion. The exception is text, which retains it's font and so is trying to take up as much room as it did before. This often leads to untidy looking text items, sometimes with word-wraps.
In the map above the placenames like Leeds are particuarly noticable, but if you look closer you will see that all of the sector labels are also wrapped. We can help to improve the look of our map, by making the text smaller. Unfortunately there isn't a way of making all of the text 75% smaller, and so we will have to spend a little time getting the fonts of different objects right. The most difficult text to select is the sector labels as there are most of these, and so we will start with those. The first step is to ungroup the map. We select the map group (in Select Multiple Objects), and choose Ungroup from the Draw menu.
When we go back to the Select Multiple Objects Dialog, we can see what Groups and Objects make up the map.
Reading through these groups you will find one called Tile Labels.
We need to select just the Tile Labels (click Unselect All, and then
click the checkbox next to the Tile Labels Group). Now we can change
the Font of all of the tile labels using the Format→Font dialog.
We can see in this example the font size is listed as 7+ The tile labels are being shown in a font size of somewhere between
7pt and 8pt, but PowerPoint doesn't let us specify fractional font
sizes. We know that the font needs to be made smaller, and we know that
it needs to be approximately 75% smaller, so we will try with 5pt (0.75
x 7 is a little more than 5). Note that you can type font sizes into
the box that are smaller than those you can pick from the drop down list.
Going back to the map, we can see that our tile labels now look much better, but problems with placenames still exist.
We now need to go through the various levels of placenames, and perform a similar operation. Each placename level has it's own font style, so we need to make sure we do them all.
Here we select Cities
and in Format→Font discover than the current font size is 10+. Changing this to 7 means that our city text labels (Leeds, Bradford, Kingston upon Hull in this example) now fit correctly again.
We repeat this process for each of the levels of place name.
Finally we regroup the map, as we don't want to leave bits behind if
we start moving it around. With an object from the map group selected
(for example the last level of placename label that you changed),
choose Regroup from the Draw menu. Go back to Select Multiple Objects
and make a note of the new Group name that PowerPoint has assigned to
your map group. Return to Contents page... |