Note - this may only work if you have Acrobat Pro (which costs $$$s). Your milage may vary.

Try this (and yes, I'm a technical writer):

1. Open Adobe Acrobat.
2. File>Page>Printer Name Drop Down and select the right printer.
3. Click on the Properties button (right next to the printer name).
4. Go to the Paper/Quality tab and click on Advanced button.
5. Click on the paper size drop-down menu and select the correct paper size.
6. Click OK twice.
7. On the Print Options screen, select Page Scaling: Tile Large pages and then click print.

This is as close as you can get without doing lots of massaging of the image.

I'm using Acrobat Pro, your milage may vary I'm afraid. I should have checked on compatibility before posting all this.

Hmm, already gave you rep, then got worried 'cause this still wasn't working.

Then I realized I still have Adobe Acrobat 8. Getting 9 and hopefully both feeling like a fool and getting a new map.

I always am forgetting that the Pro tools give you lots more options (many of which should be standard) than the basic reader does.

Mea culpa.

The big issue I have right now is that if I can edit the picture into six 12" x 18" separate files, I can get it printed. Does anyone know how to just split the picture into even halves, then split those two halves into even thirds?

I do this: File > Print > Page Scaling

Then select none in the dropdown menu.
De-select auto-rotate and center.
print the upper left hand corner of the map.
now I want to print the next section over, and I cannot select or highlight that section.
How does one continue to print the rest of the map out?

Unless you can "Tile All Pages" in your dropdown menu, your only going to be able to print the Top Left corner at full scale. Unfortunately your going to need Acrobat 8 or 9 Pro to do this. I'm actively working on trying to solve everyone's page tiling problem but that may not happen until Wednesday.

I think I got it.

Choose Tools > Select & Zoom > Snapshot Tool.
Drag around the area you want to print.
Reader copies the selected area to the clipboard.

Choose File > Print to print the selection.

I got it to work. The file was so large that 90% of the time I tried to copy it to my clipboard, Acrobat shut down! I eventually got it copied and pasted it into Word (the .docx Word) and was able to crop it all down into the 6 separate pages I needed. In case anyone is trying this as well, this was my process:

1) Cut and past the whole picture into Word.

2) Set the Margins to 0 and page size to 6" (height) by 9" (width) for now (click ignore every time it tries to "fix" the format).

3) Right click on the picture and go to its settings (there are several tabs, and I think the one you are looking for is the 2nd tab). Set the picture to be 18" by 18" (at this point the picture should look like the top 1/3 of the left 1/2 of the map).

4) Copy the picture (it's a smaller size so you should have any problems) and past it 5 times (so you will have 6 identical looking pages, and you should have a 7th blank page at the moment).

5) Right click the first picture and go to its settings again. The default tab should have several boxes for cropping measurements. Set the 1st picture to Top:0", Left:0", Bottom:16", Right:12". Set the rest of the pictures to T:8", L:0", B:8", R:12"; T:16", L:0", B:0", R:12"; T:0", L:12", B:16", R:0"; T:8", L:12", B:8", R:0"; T:16", L:12", B:0", R:0" (sorry for the confision on this part, PM me if you are having trouble).

6) Go back to page layout and change the page sizes to 12" (height) by 18" (width).

7) Go back and change each picture size to 12" by 18" as well.

Now you should have 6 different 12x18 pictures that should fit to make the full 36x36 map. Also, my place here will print it all for $10 onto text weight glossy paper (which feels the same as a normal map). If I fold each piece in half, I could ship it for under $4 probably if anyone is interested. It isn't free, but it's half the price of Kinkos.

bestdecal.com will print it for you (as a "banner" -- specify no grommets) and it will be under $30 and printed on durable vinyl. It's actually only about $18 but shipping will be about $12 for something that big. If you print others or more than one, the shipping is flat so it gets cheaper per map.

I'm working on a pdf file of 20 7.2"x9" images that can be printed on regular computer paper. If anyone knows a good place to upload these files so i can share them, please help.

Edit: I posted files of both the 7.2"x9" pages and the 12"x18" pdf's. If you want to print it on regular paper, do the 7.2x9, if you have some place to print the larger file, send them my link.

http://www.scribd.com/chirocker