This page features a collection of customizable base maps, used to create all the original GeoCurrents maps (searchable by country and by topic). These customizable base maps were initially created by hand in Keynote, the Apple presentation program that competes with PowerPoint, and are now presented in both Keynote and PowerPoint formats — feel free to use these maps as you like.
The customizable base maps were made by the laborious process of outlining the shapes of geopolitical units on basic maps held in the public domain. Once the outlines have been made, the resulting country-shapes can be easily manipulated through a few simple clicks, allowing one to instantly change country color, boundary color and thickness, and so on. Keynote’s “shape” feature allows one to easily draw on the maps to show additional features — just click on a country (or US state) to change it as you see fit. Keynote’s transparency feature is quite useful as well. Country shapes can also be dragged out of place and then placed back where they belong (to place shapes precisely, make sure that the “guidelines” are turned off). Similar functionalities are available in the PowerPoint format (How can these maps be manipulated in PowerPoint). Additional maps will be added later.
