GPS for Dummies.pdf - Engineering Surveyor

Chapter 17: Saving and Editing Street Maps281Editing a MapEditing a saved map is just a matter of opening the saved file with a graphicsprogram. The graphics program can be as basic as the Paint accessory programthat comes with Windows or as sophisticated as a commercial, high-enddesign program.A simple graphics program like Paint is fine if you’re not making a lot ofchanges.If you’ve got an itch to be a cartographer and want to go beyond using generalgraphics programs, check out Map Maker, a popular commercial desktopmapping program. You can get a free, limited-feature version called Map MakerGratis at www.mapmaker.com.Almost all Web maps have text at the bottom with copyright information andwhere the map came from. Leave it intact to respect the copyright and to creditthe company that provided the map.Opening a fileIf you used Print Screen or a screen capture program, you need to get the mapinto the graphics program so that you can edit it. Follow these steps to load amap so you can edit it:1. Run the graphics program.2. If one isn’t already onscreen, open a new file.3. In the Edit menu, select the Paste command. Or, if you’ve previouslysaved the map to a file, use the Open command in the File menu toopen it.The map image is loaded, and you’re ready to change it.CroppingIf your map file has more than just your map (such as unrelated windows,icons, or dialog boxes), one of the first things that you need to do when thecaptured screen is loaded in the graphics program is to crop (trim) the imageso only the map is shown.