If you're a Mac user and having problems with POI files . . .
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17 years
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Well, being new to this doesn't help, but, although I've had a Garmin for many years, my new Nuvi 660 is the first one I can upload the custom POI's.
I'm using my Mac to create the POI files using Google Earth for coordinates, or, just getting the coordinates out of the Nuvi, and then plugging them into Excel and saving as a CSV. I then transfer the file to my company's PC laptop to upload. (Will sure be glad when Garmin gets their Mac software done).
I've had several hours of frustration in that I would create a single CSV file with multiple POI's and then upload that to the Nuvi, only to find out that typically only one of the POI's would transfer, even though there might have been a half dozen in the file.
As it turns out, apparently there's something about the Mac Excel csv document that Garmin's POI uploader doesn't like. Maybe it's that Mac documents are tagged with a type and creator, I don't know, but all I ultimately had to do was simply open the document on the PC with Excel and re-save it with the same file name and all of the POI's transferred successfully.
I'm going to try Text Edit and save the file as a text file with a csv extension and see what happens. It might be something peculiar with the Mac version of Excel.
Anyway, I hope this saves someone else some time and frustration.
See also
tfford, I am trying
tfford,
I am trying desperately to create some POI files and am almost ready to give up. Would you be willing to send me a copy of one of your working mac excel csv documents so I can see what I am doing wrong? I might need directions as to what you are doing too. Basically I want to create a POI file of all the Disney stores in my state, for my wife.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
d_ganggreen@mac.com
some ideas
I can't help with any mac questions or problems but,
A couple of suggestions, that might help.
Do a search for mac on this site
you'll find this thread of interest
http://www.poi-factory.com/node/271
There a several posts with questions similar to yours, that you'll see. Maybe something there will help too.
........Garmin StreetPilot c550 / Nüvi 765...........
Converting .csv from a Mac
I may have an answer: A freeware Mac program called TextWrangler from www.barebonessoftware.com.
I spent a week with other members of the poi factory getting FM station antenna sites ready to upload. When I wanted to convert the resulting file for use in my TomTom, I found that I and my PowerBook, a 400mhz Pismo running OS 10.4.8, couldn't produce a file acceptable to an on-line file conversion site which was to convert from our output mode, .csv, to my TomTom's .ov2 format.
My tools were MS Excel and BBEdit, a text editor for Mac. It handles huge amounts of text, strips returns, spaces, tabs, puts them where you tell it -- it's a great tool, and it worked well with several thousand FM stations and their data. In fact, in a test, it worked well with a list of more than 900,000 radio amateur licensees.
After wrestling with it today, I found an answer:
BBEdit has a choice of saves: with Mac line endings, or DOS or Unix. It defaults to Mac. Today I chose DOS. It also offered another type of save: as BBEdit file, which I'd been using without a problem, or as a plain text file. I chose that too. It worked. It produced a .csv file which the on-line conversion tool could accept.
BareBones offers a stripped version of BBEdit which is freeware: TextWrangler. I downloaded and checked it just now. It doesn't offer the opportunity to save a file as plain text, but it does give the choice of line endings. I chose DOS again, and uploaded the file which resulted for conversion. It worked.
So the problem may be Mac-style line endings, and by opening and saving your file in TextWrangler, using DOS endings, you may solve the problem. Let me know.
Bob Ball
If I'd read all of the preceding...
If I'd bothered to read all of the posts above mine, including the link above to Simon Slavin's program, I would have saved a good deal of time and effort. Simon's a frequent and knowledgeable poster to the comp.sys.mac newsgroups.
By not reading the posts above mine and spending the time and effort, I learned a few things, so some good came out of it.
Bob Ball