I appreciate the work you have done introducing the drawing program of Open Office, Mark. This seems like a good way to start for anyone who is interested in Drawing maps. While it lacks what Jim calls a "multi-point line tool", it draws lines just fine, if less rounded than non-free programs. It is possible if maybe slightly tedious to round out the curves so they are as good as anything in Freehand, Illustrator, or Corel Draw. However, even this might become easy if you were using it regularly.
I started with Corel Draw because I got a free copy of an ancient version, plus a few pointers on getting started from Phil Quinn. I say with no purpose to brag or complain that the learning curve is steep for the self-taught user. This is the barrier to not only Corel but most of the other programs. If the day comes that PDFs are accepted as the final map file format, Open Office Draw could be used by most anyone who is willing to spend a few hours with Mark's tutorial. We should expect younger measurers to be more software-savvy, too.
One advantage of Corel is that it is possible to save maps in a format that is acceptable for posting on USATF.org as is. That is, as would have been scanned, but without the scanning process. This now poses the potential to post color maps. Duane believes that Illustrator does not yet have the same capability. Here is an example of a small color PNG that meets our specs - <400KB, 300 DPI 2550 x 3300 pixels PNG: https://picasaweb.google.com/1...er=0&feat=directlink.