Creating a map using Microsoft Word

Word 2007 offers loads of shapes that can be used in drawings but we are just going to use two basic kinds and then copy and edit them to use them elsewhere in the map. Start Word and create a new blank document. Then, click the Insert menu. From here it is possible to add pictures, clipart, charts, Smartart and shapes, which is what we will be using. Click the Shapes button to open the gallery and then select the rectangle in the Basic Shapes section by clicking on it once.

Click and hold the left mouse button and drag to draw out a rectangle. Notice the ‘handles’ at each corner and halfway along each edge. These allow you to resize the rectangle by grabbing them with the cursor and moving them in and out. When a handle is active, the cursor will turn into a double-headed arrow. Alternatively, when the cursor turns into a four-pointed arrow you can pick the shape up and move it. Finally, grab hold of the green circle with the cursor to rotate the shape left or right.

Click the Insert menu again, choose Shapes and click on the Freeform shape. It is in the Lines section of the gallery. This lets you draw freehand with soft curves or straight lines. To start, pick a point in line with the bottom of the first rectangle and click there once to create the bottom left-hand corner. Then move the cursor to the right and click once again to create the right-hand corner. Then drag the cursor up and create a short straight line and click once; then start dragging up and left to make a diagonal.

Drag the end of the diagonal until it is directly above the first corner and click once with the left mouse button. Then drag down to the first corner carefully and get as close to it as possible. Then double-click the left mouse button and Word will join the two lines to make a complete shape. If it doesn’t work, just delete the shape and try again. These are the two basic shapes we will need to create our map.

Well, nearly. If you are anything like us, you may need to make some fine adjustments to square up the second shape. For example, ours has a wonky left-hand edge. To fix this, click the View button and choose Zoom. When the dialogue box opens, type 200 into the Percent box and click OK. Use the scroll bars so the entire shape is visible and then right-click in the middle and choose Edit Points from the pop-up menu.

Choosing this option allows us to drag the points on each of the corners to make our shape more regular. So, we are going to move the cursor over the top left corner and drag it to the right just enough to make the left-hand edge perfectly vertical. This regularity will be important later on when we copy and re-use this shape elsewhere in the map. When the cursor turns into a ‘sight’, click and drag the point into a new position.

Click the 100% button on the button bar to return to Word’s ordinary view and then save the document. Now we can use these shapes to begin to make our map. Start by clicking once on the rectangle and then holding down the Ctrl key and pressing C to copy it to the Windows Clipboard. Then we can press Ctrl and V to paste a copy back onto the page. Pick this up with the mouse, drag it to a new position and then use the handles to resize it.

Make a copy of the other shape in the same way. Next, click on it once to select it and then click the Format menu and then open the dropdown menu next to the Rotate icon (this looks like a couple of triangles next to each other). Then, move the cursor down the menu and watch what happens to the shape. Like all Word 2007’s formatting commands this one works in real time, making it easy to rotate the shape into the correct position; in this example we have flipped it vertically and then rotated it right by 90 degrees.

We have then copied the rectangle a couple more times to create the small square in the middle and the large square on the right, and then resized and repositioned the various other blocks to form the outline of the streets around our house. It’s starting to look good, but we would like to make the diagonals on our two irregular shapes run parallel with each other. Again, we use the Edit Points command (see Steps 5 and 6) to move their corners around to neaten things up.

Next we will create a couple of straight lines at the top and bottom to indicate two main roads. Click the Insert menu and choose Shapes, then select ‘line’ from the Lines section in the gallery. Position the cursor where the line begins and then, while holding down the Shift key, draw the line with the cursor. Keeping Shift pressed down will ensure the line is perfectly straight. With the line still selected, make a copy and then drag the copy to the bottom of the map.

There is a one-way system round our house, so we should add some arrows to show visitors how it works. Click the Insert menu, choose Shapes and then pick a line with a single arrow at one end, then draw out a straight line using the Shift key like we did in Step 10 (when drawing an arrow, Word always starts at the base and finishes at the head). Add other arrows in the same way or copy and paste them into the map and drag them into position using the cursor. Finally add one that points to your house.

Now let’s add some street names. Click the Insert menu and choose Text Box. When the dialogue box opens, select Simple Text Box and when Word drops a sample one onto the page, replace the highlighted placeholder text with your own. Next, with the text box still selected click on the Shape Outline button and when the gallery opens, choose No Outline to remove the box around the caption. It’s also easy to use Word’s formatting commands to change the font, emphasis and so on.

We have gone on and added some more labels in exactly the same way and then drawn a new rectangle along the bottom of the map to indicate the edge of a large common. Now we will use Word’s drawing tools to colour-code some of our map. We will start by selecting one of our shapes and clicking the Format menu and choosing the Fill button and picking a colour from the palette there. After choosing the colour we can go back to the Fill button gallery and choose Gradient and then select an interesting effect.

Colour in the box that represents your house in the same way and then select any of the other boxes that need some colour by clicking on them while holding down the Shift button. This lets you highlight them all at once. Then, go to the Shape Styles menu and use the arrow key to scroll through the various choices and then click on one to select it.