MapPoint shows me North America, where's the personalization?

If you're an avid Microsoft MapPoint user like I am, you probably get sick of having to zoom in to your small driving area from the entire map of North America. Here's a little trick I learned, which will probably also work for Streets & Trips (although I've not tested it)

Zoom in to the selected area of the map you'd like to start MapPoint at. Choose File/Save As..., then navigate to c:\Program Files\Microsoft MapPoint\Templates>. Then change the Save As Type to Map Template (*.ptt). You should see a file called "New North American Map.ptt". Select this file and copy and paste it (for a backup) using CTRL+C then followed by CTRL+V, this will copy and paste it while in the browse window, creating the file "Copy of New North American Map.ptt".

Finally, reselect the "New North American Map.ptt" and choose Save. Choose Yes to replacing the file.

Now when you open MapPoint, it will start in your custom zoomed map, so you don't have to zoom in forever just to see where to turn left.

Makes driving safer too :o)