You can also use 'Explode Text' (Right click Explode) and then setting groups to unlocked (the button at the lower right of the screen). Now you can color individual letters. This may be easier than the text along a curve option, BUT the downside is that the text is no longer letters at all, but polygons, so it can no longer be changed using the text editing tools. Lock groups again when done.

Technically, there is little difference between these, they're all polygons in the exact same shape as the entity they're outlining

a) The advantage when creating them with the tool is that they have their own configuration, allowing the tool to put the landmass and the outline on different sheets if desired, and specifying the desired thickness and fill. While the tool can use any configuration, the polygon is usually turned into an outline instead of solid fill by setting the line width greater than zero. This means the line will be wider on screen as you zoom in on it.

Note that not all styles use an outline for their landmass drawing tool, but relies on effects instead.

b) When you use outline in black, the poly ends up on the same sheet as the original entity, so it won't be on the same sheet as the landmass's original outline. It is made an outline by using the "Hollow" fill style, which means it will always be just a thin line, no matter how far you zoom into it, it will always be just as thin on the screen. You can change properties on this one however, setting the fill style to solid and a non-zero line width, and change the sheet to the same sheet used by the original outline and it will be more similar to that one.

c) Same as b.

d) Same as b, but the outlines from the polygons in the multipoly are themselves multipolied, and multipolies cannot have a line width. Explode them to make them work like regular outlines.

@jmabbott the issue with that scheme is that it makes it easier IF you know exactly when the style was from, but if you are looking for a style by name, it is a huge unsortable mess making styles much harder to find. It may make sense as you are following along the current year, but whenever you wanted a style from an earlier annual, it would be much harder to find.

Personally, I usually never remember when I style came out, but I usually know the exact/approximate name of it.

Obviously, the new map dialog could be better, it was written at a time when we only had a handful of styles, but until we get a better one, my vote at least goes to sort it by the most important part, the actual name of the style and not some prefix. (I am not much a fan of the "Annual" prefix either)

When you outline a multipoly, the outline itself also becomes a multipoly. Amultipoly is always a filled entity, so you cannot set line width on it. That thin outline you initially get is the Hollow fill style, which is the only way to have an outline with a multipoly.

However, the main reason for having a multipoly in the first place is so you can have a hole in the poly. For the outline, this is kind of irrelevant because it isn't a solid surface you need a hole in. So you can explode the outline you get, and then use change properties on it (remember to pick all the entities that made up the outline multipoly), and set the fill style to solid, color to black, and a line width of your choice.

That scale does sound a bit weird when I look at the symbols on your map. Even the tiniest buildings I can find in your latest map would then be about 50'x50' and the trees fill almost an entire 200x200 square on their own.