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CONVERTING AND ALTERING DOWNLOADED MAPS

1. Maps can be obtained in three ways:

- Scanning of hand-drawn maps using the departmental scanners . Scanned maps can be saved as jpeg, gif, or png files directly from Adobe Photoshop (see scanning instructions).

- Downloading campus maps from the Wildlife Biology Home Page (assuming you are using the South Fork for your study area). Hold down the right mouse button over the map you wish to download, and select "save image as" to download the image to the W drive of your computer.

- Downloading aerial photographs from Microsoft's TerraServer. Note that you can either download individual portions of maps in the conventional way (holding down the right mouse button), or you can download an entire map by clicking the download option at the TerraServer web site (this takes a few moments, so be patient).


2. Campus maps of the South Fork have been put on the web in .png format. Maps downloaded from the TerraServer site will be in jpeg format. Regardless of where the maps come from, they must first be converted to .bmp format before they can be altered using a paint program. Microsoft Photo Editor will be used for this purpose.

Once you have downloaded a map to your W drive, open Microsoft Photo Editor from the Start button:


3. Use the File menu of Microsoft Photo Editor to open the downloaded file. If it is not so already, set the viewing option to 100%.


4. In this example, an aerial photo of the UW-River Falls campus has been downloaded from the TerraServer site. Convert the image from grayscale to 24-bit color using the Properties menu item of the File menu.


5. Save the image as a Windows bitmapped image:


6. From the Start button, select Programs -> Accessories - > Paint. Open up the bitmapped image using the File menu of Paint. You can use a variety of tools to modify this image in any way you like, using any colors.


7. Once the map has been modified in Paint, Save it and Open up the modified file in Microsoft Photo Editor. Now save it not as a bitmapped file, but rather as a .png or .jpg file. (Note: .Png files cannot be viewed with Netscape or Internet Explorer unless version 4.0 of these browsers is being used).


8. The modified map image can now be added to a web page.