How can you add a carriage return to a POI file?

Did you search for "line break"? Lots of discussion on this.

Within Excel, an "alt" return performs the function. Works for many GPSrs.

I thought carriage returns were a bad idea? I can never get a poi file with a carriage return to work for me. I always end up taking them out manually.

Yeah, I wish people would not enter carriage returns into the files they upload to the site.

I guess I need to understand this better. Is this the issue where different Garmin models handle carriage returns/line feeds/new lines differently?

I have created and uploaded several POI files to the site. They have all been made using the Alt-Enter character generated by MS Excel in the 4th column address field. I always load the file on my nuvi 660 to test it before uploading it to the site. When I look at the POI displayed on the 660, it has the POI name (column 3) displayed first in slightly larger font size, followed by the 3 lines of address (street, city/state, phone number).

Does doing it this way work for the majority of GPS units, or only a minority of units?

If I created the POI files without the Alt-Enter characters to break up the address lines, won't that mess up how its displayed on my 660?

I prefer line breaks (alt-enter) but am I in the minority? They can be easily removed with a find/replace command in Excel.

What is the preferred method?

I guess that is what I am asking, as well - what is the preferred method?

(uh, oh! If we get a reply that directs us to a "Getting Started" or "FAQ" topic, I'm going to feel very embarrased )

I just loaded the Best Buy file on my 660 since semi-colons were used in the 4th column address field. When I looked at it on my 660, the single line of information wraped to the next line at whatever point it ran out of space on the display. I had to visually search for the semi-colons in each line to see where one address field ended and the next one started. I really had to realign my vision/brain to understand what I was looking at.

Obviously, my aging brain has been conditioned over the years to expect the address information to break at certain, pre-defined points, like addressing an envelope for mailing. When they don't break that way, it messes me up.

EDIT: After posting this last comment, I went back through the Getting Started & FAQ sections. This topic (link below) and a couple more that it links to, were the closest I could find on the subject.

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/6679

No preferred method was ever stated. The discussions were all on how to convert a POI for your particular model GPS if it doesn't display correctly.

'Linebreaks' (linefeeds) and 'carriage returns' are two completely different animals. Carriage return is represented by ascii(13) and a linefeed is represented by ascii(10).

Carriage returns cause problems with csv POIs (at one time I modified 'POI Verifier' to change user-entered carriage returns to linebreaks). Very few, if any, POIs contain carriage returns.

Linebreaks are perfectly legal and can present the POI text in a much neater format. In fact, in 'POI Loader's' Help under 'Creating .csv files', one example shows the use of linebreaks.

In Garmin csv POIs, at least two different methods are used to create linebreaks. One is the standard linebreak created by 'ALT'-Enter with Excel or by simply using the Enter key with Notepad (keep in mind that Excel can and will format your POI in ways you don't want). The second method, which is required by nuvi 350 and nuvi 360, is using <br> where the linebreak is wanted.

Use Linebreaks; but use the method required by your GPS. If your POI has one method and you required the other, POI Verifier will convert the different linebreak for you.

RT

Hi All Mac users,

I use Tex-Edit Plus 4.9.8 on my Mac, to create all my poi.csv files...

All I do to create a line break, is press the return key. When I'm finished creating the file, I go to "Format" in the menubar and scroll down to "Show Hidden & Invisibles" and I can visually check all the carriage returns, at the end of every line.

Regards,

Tailspin

Nüvi 670
Mac User

All - Sounds like we need Miss POI to chime in on potentially adopting a standard POI format for uploaded files. Since this site is intended for all GPSrs, we should keep it as generic as possible. IMO: there are many tools available to implement the unit specific items to produce the desired display on our units.

Thoughts?

JRoz

As I was reading those older topics about this issue, I saw where you were heavily involved. Which, I guess, was a motivating factor in you adding the conversion function to PoiVerifier. Especially since you own a 350, one of the units that requires the <br> format.

Is the Zumo affected the same way? Is that why MM would prefer the POI files to not have the Alt-Enter characters?

EDIT:

I swear, I thought I remember reading a topic where Miss POI did set something like a minimum standard. If she did, I can't find it; or she didn't and I'm really losing my mind.

This was discussed months ago. The general consensus was "If you spent extra money to get a unit with special options, (one being standard linebreaks) and I bought the cut-rate model which doesn't support these options, why should your GPS capabilities be brought down to mine."

csv POI required formats are shown in the Help section of POI Loader.

RT

Gotcha!

We will be working hard this year to make this aspect of the site work more effectively for all.

Right now you can upload different formats and I can attach them to the files so that people have options. The way things are set up right now does not allow the Author of the file to update those attachments, so I have to do it manually.

I have started creating hidden pages with optional GPX formats so that the authors can edit both versions, but the file only shows up once in the alphabetical list.

This is one of those growing pains items that we will have to work through.

What we were trying to achieve with the newest version of the database within the system was a way that people could download each file in the format that they would like. See this page as an example http://www.poi-factory.com/poifile/30018/download

We just hit a glitch with programing and it didn't work the way we thought it would.

Miss POI

How far are you thinking of taking the different versions? What I mean by that is I see the potential for their being several sub-formats of CSV files for example - one with no carriage returns, another with carriage returns and yet another with <br> for the nuvi 350 & 360. There may be other formats that I don't know about and I have never even attempted a GPX file, so I know nothing about those.

Or am I getting too far ahead of myself?

We will be taking those into consideration.

The goal will be to have a set of files that everyone can use. I would also like to have Tom Tom formats as well.

Miss POI

Miss POI, at one time wasn't there a 'Sample Download Page' that included gpx, csv w/standard linebreaks, csv w/<br> linebreaks, and csv with no linebreaks? If my ancient mind isn't failing me, that's when I added 'Remove Linebreaks' to Poi Verifier????

RT

Gary,
I think MM voiced a preference against carriage returns, not linefeeds (Alt-Enter). RT confirmed that the CR causes problems in csv files.

Yes we do have a version of the database that is set up like this http://www.poi-factory.com/poidb/poitype/2794/download

We use this format for the Metro Area Project files. The problem with the databases that we tried to build is that you can't just dump and excel file into them. Each location had to be manually input and it was too time consuming, so we want to develop something a bit more user friendly.

Miss POI

I saw this on a couple of POI download pages. I like it.

Since the csv file can have various cr/lf formats, there should be a csv or cr/lf choice for this too. It could also be an admin nightmare too!

JRoz

One plausible solution is to utilize a .Net dynamic format conversion utility on the server end. This will allow the file to be stored in one basic format and will be dynamically converted to the user preference with their download selection type.

This provided a win/win from a server/client and admin/user perspective

JRoz

I guess I've never loaded a CSV file, made with carriage returns, onto my 660 to see how it displays. Using Notepad, I've never made CSV files with carriage returns. It looks real screwy and becomes very difficult visually, to read.

Personally, I don't see a problem with users uploading either linefeed or files, since I run them through POI Verifier when received and make the appropriate changes automatically. POI Verifier should be in everyones arsenal.

this seems difficult

This approach would happen from the site admin end and would be totally transparent to the user.

I've created a util that attempts to parse the address information out of a standard poi file so that city, state, zip, phone, and address lines can be stored in separate columns.
it does a pretty good job.

http://www.bradkent.com/?page=php/poi