Making CSV files with word, ecell, or FileMaker when you reach the max of your favorites

I have a garmin nuvi 260W which I found had a 500 max Favorites limit (which sucks because using Google Map’s send feature was sooooooo easy) and a Mac (powerbook pro running OSX 10.5). Now I’m stuck having to make csv files which I find a real pain.

I used Google earth to find longitude and latitude coordinates. In GE, you can select how they show up (Preferences). Though even in “digital degrees”, you still get one degree symbol at the end of the coordinate. You can simply select the numbers without the degree (which is only on the end) and drag it to word or excel). Otherwise, when you drag them into word, you get an infinity symbol where the degree symbol was.

I like word because well, excel sucks for formatting and dragging. I then paste my word table into excel. Also, it is easier to put quotations around the address and phone number so they show up on separate lines.

Street
City, ST, Zip
Phone

I make four columns
Longitude
Latitude
Name
Description

Description is fore the address, phone and contact etc.

Using a Database

This allows you to have all of you POI’s in one place, and to export them by category, (i.e. making a .csv file for each export).

I use file maker. I have a field for each of the 4 columns. It offers the ability to also have fields for category or starting area (i.e. if you have a group of POI’s that you plan to visit from a common place). I can also group them by whatever other filed I have such as product or state etc.

Perform a find based on one of your criteria.
Sect export (filmmaker will only export the found set).
Select CSV
Select the fields in the following order:

Longitude
Latitude
Name
Description

Than using POI loader, find the folder you exported.

That is it.

Some other tricks:

I also made some tool buttons (that you can also make using available macros on the web) to add quotation marks around words. This way, I just drag stuff into the description field and add quotes later.

If you are using filemaker, just make a script with clear, and insert word. I’m lazy, so I made two scripts.

1) Putting the quotes at the beginning and end of words, and
2) 2) For putting two quotes between words “”.

“Street””City, ST, Zip””Phone”

Script 1
Open script maker.
Click on clear
Unclick “select all”
Click on insert word
Click specify
Type “

Script 2
Open script maker.
Click on clear
Unclick “select all”
Click on insert word
Click specify
Type “”

Now in layout mode make two buttons.
Double click on each button
Select run script
And assign it a script with the specify button