My first POI......Please help!

Several chances for error in this process. Give us more details on the process of going from Excel to the Nuvi and exactly what you do to see the info in the Nuvi without the GO button,

You can cut and paste a line or two from your file into a forum post so we can look at your data format.

I used Google earth to find the items and saved all the files to "My favorites" file on Google Earth and saved the file as a .kml file. Then I opened the file in PoiEdit and saved the file as a .csv file.

I uploaded it into my Nuvi 200 and it worked fine but the listings were a little screwy. The items were listed as "FILENAME" and no other information.

So I opened the .csv file in Excel 2000 (this is the only working copy of Excel I have) and added aditional information (i.e. address's, phone numbers, and additional info) in column "D" in Excel for each waypoint. I saved it as a .csv file then I then used POI Loader to upload it to my Nuvi.

Now on my Nuvi I click "Where to?--> Extras--> Custom POIs--> The POI I made--> Then any one of the waypoints" And it has the waypoints name in big and the additional information I added at the bottom but

Alert Information:
Distance: 1319ft
Speed: 2mph

for each of the waypoints and no "GO" button. You actually have to click "Map--> then GO!" to make it work.

I know I am doing something wrong because I don't see this on any other POI's I downloaded from this site.

Poi-Verifier and GeePeeEx editor. The cost for both is less that $25; the time they save can be considerable; being able to post your poi on poi-factory priceless......

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/6678

My guess is that you have entered the co-ordinates incorrectly so the unit does not know where to go so no go button. I just use a text file and then save it as a csv file. Here is a sample you can try.Its of a Royal bank in Canada. See if this works for you and then copy the format.

-97.13916063308716,49.89536700549844,Main Branch, 220 Portage Ave

I get my co-ordinates from Goggle maps,not google earth. If you use the link to this page button or the send button you can copy out the co-ordinates for you csv file.

Be sure that the lon is in column A and the lat in column B and that for North America, the lon is preceeded by a minus sign.

Using Parjon's example,
-97.13916063308716,49.89536700549844,Main Branch, 220 Portage Ave

It is a good idea to enclose the name & description fields in Quotes:

-97.13916063308716,49.89536700549844,"Main Branch","220 Portage Ave"

Don't use the quotes in Excel, the program takes care of that for you, but if you use notepad, use the quotes.

Also, you don't need all those numbers after the decimal point. For what we do, 4 to 6 places after the decimal point is plenty.

It is simpler to use Google Earth to enter everything. Put your aditional info in the Description tab for each of your places then download the kml file and convert to csv.

I use this free utility http://dr5274.googlepages.com/poiconverter from POI-Factory member dr5274 to convert from kml to csv

Currently poiconverter errors out if the description is left blank, but David is working on that issue now.

I tried the GeePeeEx and felt no need to even try to use Excel. This little $18 program is WELL worth the money!!! I appreciate everyone else' help but I think I am getting it with this program (which is good cause I was getting lost with Excel....lol)

I am actually working on a POI for All the Ripley's Believe It or Not for the Entire world with phone numbers and hours and additional info.

Someone told me after I started that there is one on here somewhere, but I never tried it and this is a learning experience for me also....

I am done with the US and Canada and on to Denmark next.....

I'll let ya know how it turns out.

See my post above your last post for a free alternative.

Yes but thank you for trying to help.....lol

You wrote:

Alert Information:
Distance: 1319ft
Speed: 2mph

Do you have numerics in the POI name? If POIloader finds numbers in the file name, it uses them as speed information. Even if that is involved, I still can't quite see how that would prevent the "GO" from being displayed.

Here's my contribution (there's only one in the UK):
http://GeePeeEx.googlepages.com/RipleyUK.gpx
right-click "Save Target As..."

(Contains phone numbers, hours and additional info. )

No, none of the waypoints had numbers in the names, it was doing it to all the waypoints. Same displaying for all. But like I said, I downloaded GeePeeEx and used it to fix it all.

Yes sir, I have that one. I think there was only one or two in Thailand I think that I couldn't get the coordinates for.

Numbers in the description will do this, too. A description field of "Starbucks@35" will alert you if you are going more than 35 MPH when you approach the POI. Are you sure you don't have an @2 in the description field? That would account for the Speed: 2 in your example above. If you open the file in Notepad, your columns C & D should always have quotes around them. Otherwise, commas in the address will fool it into thinking there are more columns.

Honestly I don't know what I did. I looked but I think I overwrote the original file with the errors in it. The completed file with the fixes in it I uploaded to here but it doesn't show up but if you want to see it and give it a try, right click the below link and select "Save Link As" and check it out...

http://home.comcast.net/~wannaplay3995/Ripleys_Believe_It_or...

You need to rename this file from .xml to .gpx. Then it will load OK. I think when you loaded it into Excel, it converted to .xml. I just changed the file extension to .gpx and it loaded right up into GeePeeEx Editor.

Goto http://www.poi-factory.com/node/14637 to get file.....