Miscellaneous
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    17 years
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I have been playing around with POI files the last few days and I have a few random thoughts to share:
-adding a telephone number in some of the existing POI files that I have downloaded can be very helpful. Here is a pretty mundane example. I am driving around, decide I want to stop at a Best Buy, find the listing for the closest one, but, of course, I want to verify they are open. It is obviously very handy to have the telephone number right in the POI.
-verifying the coordinates. I have experimented with some POI files and have found some to be several miles off in terms of specific location or some established sites to be missing. I guess it almost goes without saying, but may bear repeating the files are as is. They may or may not be accurate and/or complete. I am not sayi8ng this as a criticism, but simply as a reminder.
-breaks in .csv files. I have read the hep files, but it isn't quite sinking in. What is the best way to enter the data so that it displays how I want it to look? Some files I see have quotation marks and others don't. I have played with that s little bit, but I am still looking for more information on this. How do I force the test to print on a new line?
-I have found that GPS and custom POI files dovetail very nicely with amateur radio and other hobby radio interests. For example, say I am a train buff and want to visit the Minnesota Zephyr. Having Garmins tag:
Minnesota Zephyr
601 N Maini st
Stillwater, MN 55082
651-430-3000
is great, but having:
Minnesota Zephyr
601 N Maini st
Stillwater, MN 55082
651-430-3000
160.290 mHz
is even better because it reminds me of the frequency to monitor while I am driving to the train.
Re: Miscellaneous
Jim1348
1. Adding phone numbers is easy in Excel, especially if your GPS handles the 4th column information. I put the name of the location in column 3 (after longitude and latitude) and put the address and phone number in the fourth column. You could even add your radio frequency in that data.
2. Adding line breaks in the fourth column is useful for clean viewing. The process is simple: As you enter the data in the fourth column, you add a linebreak by pressing the alt key along with the enter key. It will show up correctly in the formula entry box. The key point here is not to add any quotation marks. When you save the file as a .csv, Excel automatically enters quotation marks. (If you open the file in a text editor, you will see the quotes, but if you reopen it in Excel you will not.)
Note that if you use the line breaks and try to open the file in PoiEdit, it will not open, however it will work in your GPS.
Garmin StreetPilot c530, Mapsource