In this video, which is part two of How to Split a State in Half, I’m going to show you the second technique for splitting a state in half. One of the most common questions we get is how to split a state in half. If somebody’s setting up a territory map, they often need to have two or more territories in the same state.

The tracing technique works well on states with simpler outlines. For more complicated borders please see Part 1 on How to Split a Map using Edit Point.

• Let’s work on a simpler state border like New Mexico. You don’t have to edit the points. You can just add another partial map on top of the existing map by tracing the base map. If we look in the Shapes box we see lots of different kinds of boxes and objects we can draw. If we scroll down a little we will come to the Line Tools. My favorite line tool is the Freeform tool. It is the second option from the end.

• Zoom your PPT slide into 300% or 400%. Click on the Freeform tool and trace over the border lines that are already here. I usually try to go from corner to corner around the area that I want to highlight. You trace it as nicely as you can. We just go around the perimeter. Little more difficult if you are trying to do California or Texas. But works pretty well on states like New Mexico. You can also go around most counties pretty easily.
• When you get back to the beginning the line will reconnect itself and you will have a closed shape that you can fill with a color. If you didn’t hit all the corners just right you can use the Edit Points option in the Control Box to adjust the line a little. You also might need to adjust the line weights to match the existing states or counties.