So I played a text game where the creator moved the map into being a custom UI pane instead of it being in the area of the screen where text appears.
Does anyone know who to do that?

I wrote a script to do that a while ago; it must be on the forum somewhere because I don't have a copy of it.

Try the search function (at the bottom of the forum list). I just did and got these (some more related to your question than others).

Showing the map in a different window.

Dynamic game panes
(scroll down and check K.V's posts)

Movable compass

External popup picture over the gamewindow

Adding graphics in a specific location

That search function... it's not the best but it works, sort of.

The last one of those contains a version of my code. I think there's a later version with more fancy features somewhere, but I can't remember if I fully debugged it.