First check that the file containing the polygons is in a format that the mapping facility in Recorder 6 will accept – see Map file formats in the Help: Contents – Tasks – Mapping. If the map icon is greyed out you will need to use Map – Map Options to set up a base map. Clicking F1 with the Map Options window in view will open the Help for this function. If you can see the map outline for your selected base map when you open the map window you have successfully set up a base map, e.g. if you selected the Great Britain outline base map you will see an outline map of GB. Add a polygon layer as described in the Help: Contents – Tasks – Mapping – Map browser – Add a map layer, then import the polygons onto it as described in Contents – Tasks – Mapping – Site boundaries – Importing polygons. You could use the ‘Polygon layer’ that is set up when you set up a base map but if anything goes wrong it isn’t so easy to rectify so I prefer to keep that for drawing polygons for ad hoc reports.

You may find the help in the User Guide easier to use – http://jncc.defra.gov.uk/page-4595 – although that was last updated for version 6.13 so it doesn’t include the changes to the mapping in v6.14 – see the list of significant changes on the opening page of the Help.