Very interesting program you have created. My compliments.

I've been playing around with recreating some of the examples you use. For the most part the program is fairly intuitive, but I'm having problems with one of the formats.

How do you *tilt* a map to create perspective, as in your map of market share in the UK? By "tilting" I mean moving the map toward or away from the viewer to create the illusion of 3-D. When you open BeGraphic in Excel, the red rectangle shows. The red rectangle's shape can't be altered. If I insert a trapezoid (a tilted rectangle) into the red rectangle, the map doesn't fit into the trapezoid, it still fits in the red rectangle and stays 2-D.

Thanks again.

Rougaroo

Well-judged! We didn't do the 3D effect on the UK map with BeGraphic, but with Photoshop.

To make vector shape become a trapezoid, we use graphics editing tools:

• Photoshop (free open source equivalent: Gimp http://www.gimp.org)
• Illustrator (free open source equivalent: Inkscape http://inkscape.org)

Steps to make a 3D effect on a map, by using Photoshop (or Gimp because it's free):

• Insert the map by copying (from Inkscape) and pasting the map (group freeforms) as a layer in Photoshop.
• Go to the tab "edit" to find the right function "Transform/Perspective"
• Deform the map as much as you want
• Copy and Paste the map in Inkscape (or Illustrator)
• Inside Inskape (or Illustrator), save the map as an WMF or EMF file.

Inkscape or Gimp How-To:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yU6FPu98Ki4
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMbIPleMiZ0
• http://www.built-to-spec.com/blog/2011/01/02/quick-inkscape-tutorial-perspective-transforms/
• http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/Inkscape_for_Adobe_Illustrator_users

Photoshop How-To:

• http://www.tutorial9.net/tutorials/photoshop-tutorials/using-transform-in-photoshop/
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeIk6n8iw-c
• http://iit.bloomu.edu/vthc/photoshop/blending/transforming.htm

More information about WMF and EMF formats : http://www.begraphic.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=66
.

Tres simple - merci beaucoup.

Rougaroo