About using shapes in MapPoint

Shapes in MapPoint are similar to shapes in other programs, such as Microsoft PowerPoint or Microsoft Word. The differences mostly have to do with the shapes being drawn on a round globe as opposed to a flat presentation or document.

Lines on the globe

For simplicity, MapPoint views the world as a sphere, but in actuality it is squashed a bit at the poles. When a line is drawn on the globe, it follows a great circle. In other words, a line is always a segment of an imaginary circle around the earth's surface, as shown in the following picture.

The line follows the curvature of the earth and does not appear straight. Here's the same line in the flat map view:

The distortion is greater on a flat map. Still, this line represents the shortest distance between the points and is the route that an airplane would travel to conserve fuel.

Shapes on the globe

Unlike lines and freeform shapes, shapes in MapPoint are not drawn as great circles on the globe. Only the center of a shape has a defined geographic location. Shapes are drawn flat on the screen at their center point. Their sizes are measured in miles or kilometers, at the size of the pixel at the center of the screen. (Because the screen is flat and the globe is round, the same distance on the globe takes up a different amount of space on the screen, depending on where it appears on the screen.)

This rectangle is centered on the Azores.

Here's what the rectangle looks like (shown with a white line) when the map view is panned.

Notice that the rectangle is centered on the same point on the globe and is the same size, but it has no distortion.

Here's the same picture, switched to a flat-map projection:

Now the rectangle looks smaller but takes up the same portion of the globe.

Text boxes on the globe

Text boxes, like rectangles, are anchored to the map at a location. Unlike rectangles, they are measured in pixels, not in miles or kilometers. Zooming in and out does not change the apparent size of a text box.