Working with PowerPoint Based Maps

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US Counties Map for PowerPoint

This question and answer pertains to the US County Map available for download at DigitalMapz.com.

Editing colors in the USA county map is easy using the editing tools provided in PowerPoint. Each county is an individual shape that can be customized using the shape fill.   Here are step by step instructions for changing a county color.

1. Because each county shape is quite small in the slide, we recommend first, using the zoom feature to make the view of the map size larger and the individual counties easier to work with.  Of course, you will not be able to see the entire USA in a single screen unless you have a large monitor.  So you will need to use the vertical and/or horizontal scroll to position to the area you want to work with.
2. Once you have the state you want to work in zoomed in, click on the state. This will put a bounding box on the state.  Once you see the state group selected, click again to select the county you want to edit.
3. Once you have selected the county(ies) you wish to edit, use the shape fill and shape outline to meet your needs.  These are found in the drawing tools in PowerPoint. In the newer versions of PowerPoint, this is located on the “Home” tab. In older versions of PowerPoint, the drawing tools show up along the bottom of the PowerPoint window.

Tips:

1. To change the color of the entire state, select the state by clicking once.  When you see the bounding box around the state, you know it’s selected.  Then click on the fill color you want color the counties in the state.
2. To change the color on multiple counties within a state at one time, simply select the state. Then, hold down the “shift” key while selecting the counties you want to color. Then use the shape fill as described above.   To select multiple states, hold down the “shift” key while selecting states
3. As with any PowerPoint map, it’s easier to edit when you zoom in on the map, increasing the size of the shapes.

Buy the US County Map here!

One of the benefits of editable PowerPoint maps is that you can edit individual objects, such as state, county and division objects.   Adding color to an object is easy.

1. First, make sure the map has been ungrouped.
2. Next, simply click on the object to select it.
3. After the object you want to edit is selected, click on the “Shape Fill” located in PowerPoint’s drawing tools palette.
4. Choose the color you want to use.

As soon as you choose the color, the selected object(s) are colored.

Now what if you want to choose multiple objects?  It can be a real pain to select each individual object and apply the color individual.  Instead you want to select multiple objects and probably even group those objects. 

To select multiple objects hold down the “Ctrl” key while selecting the individual objects you want to include.  You can then apply the color changes to those selected objects.  

Or, if you think you’ll have more edits to that same group in the future, you may benefit from grouping those objects.

To group objects:

1. Select the objects you want to group
2. Right-click the selection
3. Choose Group, then Group again.

Then you can apply the colors or attributes from the drawing tools palette.

This is demonstrated in the following video.

Often when you import a WMF map or open one of our PowerPoint maps, you notice that you can’t immediately select the individual state, county or division objects.  This is typically because the map is grouped. 

In order to edit the map, you must first “ungroup” the drawing. To do this, follow these simple steps:

1. Select the image containing the objects you want to edit.
2. Right-click on the image. This will bring up a menu. 
3. From the menu, select Group (or Grouping in earlier versions of PowerPoint)
4. Then, choose ungroup.
5. Select anywhere outside the map to deselect the objects. Then you can free select any of the individual objects on the map and edit using the editing tools provided by Microsoft PowerPoint.

To see this demonstrated, view the following video: