To me this is the most exciting step in the whole process, this is where you see your maps come alive.

Setting up the Map Identification, Zoom Levels, and Map Transparency

1. If the newly generated Polish Map file (.mp file) hasn't been named to something meaningful (like the GPS coordinates of the top left corner) do so now. After creating a lot of topo renders, it'll help to keep things organized.
2. Open the Polish Map file with the GPSMapEdit application.
3. Click on the File menu and select the Map Properties option.
4. On the Header tab, change the ID of the map to something unique, again, I use the GPS coordinates of the top left corner.
5. Change the the Name field to something unique, again, I use the GPS coordinates of the top left corner.
6. Click on the Levels tab.
7. There should be four levels created, the Garmin unit will need six in ascending order, perform the following procedure:
1. Highlight the last level, it should be Level3. Click on the Insert Before button twice to insert two more levels.
2. Change the Major Interval to 500 so that it will create a heavy contour line every 500 feet.
3. Highlight Level1 and click on the Change button.
4. Change the Bits to 22 and click on the OK button.
5. Highlight Level2 and click on the Change button.
6. Change the Bits to 20 and click on the OK button.
7. Highlight Level3 and click on the Change button.
8. Change the Bits to 19 and change the MapSource Zoom Range to 3. Click on the OK button.
9. Highlight Level4 and click on the Change button.
10. Change the Bits to 18 and change the MapSource Zoom Range to 4. Click on the OK button.
11. Highlight Level5 and click on the Change button.
12. Change the MapSource Zoom Range to 5 and click on the OK button.

NOTE: The MapSource zoom must be sequentially in ascending order from 0 (ex. 0, 1, 2, 3, etc).
8. Click on the cGPSMapper tab and change the Map is transparent field to Y - Transparent map without background object. Click on the Apply button and then the OK button.

NOTE: the contour lines may "disappear", they haven't actually, they are just on a different zoom level. If you wish, you can click on the Zoom In toolbar button a few times to zoom in.

Adding the Hydrological Data (Water)

This process assumes you've already extracted (unzipped) the Hydrology file(s).

1. For each Hydrology section, navigate to the Hydrography folder, you should see quite a few files, the files we are interested in are NHDArea.shp, NHDFlowline.shp, NHDLine.shp, and NHDWaterbody.shp.
2. Drag the NHDArea.shp file to the map in GPSEdit, an import dialogue window will open. Scroll down until you see the 0x0029 Blue-Unknwown selection. Select it and click on the Next button.
3. Click on the next three Next buttons without making any changes and finish by clicking on the Finish button.
4. Drag the NHDFlowline.shp file to the map in GPSEdit, an import dialogue window will open. Scroll down until you see the 0x0018 Stream selection. Select it and click on the Next button.
5. Click on the next three Next buttons without making any changes and finish by clicking on the Finish button.
6. Drag the NHDLine.shp file to the map in GPSEdit, an import dialogue window will open. Scroll down until you see the 0x001f River selection. Select it and click on the Next button.
7. Click on the next three Next buttons without making any changes and finish by clicking on the Finish button.
8. Drag the NHDWaterbody.shp file to the map in GPSEdit, an import dialogue window will open. Scroll down until you see the 0x0029 Blue-Unknwown selection. Select it and click on the Next button.
9. Click on the next three Next buttons without making any changes and finish by clicking on the Finish button.
10. Repeate for all NHD Hydrology Extracts that cover the topographic region you are mapping.
NOTE: I found it easiest to create a new blank Polish Map with GPSMapEdit and drag in all Hydrologic Areas for the state I was mapping. Instead of repeating this process over and over again, I just dragged in the single Polish Map file. It does create a large file and may take your computer some time to process, but in the long run I found it more accurate and a time saver.

Adding the Road, Railroad, National Park, State Parks, and State Boundary Data

This process is almost the same as the Hydrological process and assumes you've already extracted (unzipped) the files.

1. Drag the National Park shapefile (.shp) to the map in GPSEdit, an import dialogue window will open. Scroll down until you see the 0x0014 National Park selection. Select it and click on the Next button.
2. Click on the next three Next buttons without making any changes and finish by clicking on the Finish button.
3. Drag the Railroad shapefile (.shp) to the map in GPSEdit, an import dialogue window will open. Scroll down until you see the 0x0014 Railroad selection. Select it and click on the Next button.
4. Click on the next three Next buttons without making any changes and finish by clicking on the Finish button.
5. Drag the State Boundary shapefile (.shp) to the map in GPSEdit, an import dialogue window will open. Scroll down until you see the 0x004a Map Selection Area selection. Select it and click on the Next button.
6. Click on the next three Next buttons without making any changes and finish by clicking on the Finish button.
7. Drag the State Park shapefile (.shp) to the map in GPSEdit, an import dialogue window will open. Scroll down until you see the 0x001e State Park selection. Select it and click on the Next button.
8. Click on the next three Next buttons without making any changes and finish by clicking on the Finish button.
9. Drag the Road shapefile (.shp) to the map in GPSEdit, an import dialogue window will open. Scroll down until you see the 0x0000 Road selection. Select it and click on the Next button.
10. Click on the next three Next buttons without making any changes and finish by clicking on the Finish button.

Trimming the Map

To ensure you have a nice clean map, you'll want to trim the map to meet the edges of the rendered topographic data.

1. Click on the Tools menu and select the Trim Map tool. Right click anywhere in the map and select the Properties option.
2. Change the values of the Rectangle Properties to match that of your rendered topographic data. Here's where naming your files with the top left corner helps out. The top value is the Latitude specified in your filename and the left value is the Longitude specified in your filename. The other two are just those same values minus the width and length of your map. If you followed all these directions precisely, it's 0.5 degrees. (ex. 42.50, -77.00, 42, -76.50)
3. Right click inside the box that was created by the Trim Map dialogue and click on the Trim Outside option.
4. Save the map by clicking on the File menu and clicking on the Save Map option.