Excel 5th Column
Tue, 11/25/2008 - 11:19am
  15 years
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I use Excel to customize my few POIs. I use the 5th column for the State code and find that a sort by State makes it very easy for me to find a listing, or determine if I have it. A number of the files that I have d/l don't have the State included and I have no idea of where the POI is, short of doing a lat/long search. Before I travel I like to check my Excel files for what I might see and possibly plan ahead. Reminds me of reading an encyclopedia when I was a kid, a whole wish list full of interesting places!
Just thought I would pass it on.
Alex
POI Standards
I'm sure this will be one of the things Miss POI looks at as POI standards are adopted.
This discussion contains more info:
Tampa, FL - Garmin nüvi 660 (Software Ver 4.90), 2021.20 CN NA NT maps | Magellan Meridian Gold
Excel Column 3
I use Excel to customize my few POIs. I use the 5th column for the State code and find that a sort by State makes it very easy for me to find a listing, or determine if I have it. A number of the files that I have d/l don't have the State included and I have no idea of where the POI is, short of doing a lat/long search. Before I travel I like to check my Excel files for what I might see and possibly plan ahead. Reminds me of reading an encyclopedia when I was a kid, a whole wish list full of interesting places!
Just thought I would pass it on.
Alex
Dear Alex,
I used the third column to incorporate the state code in the Hess file (e.g., "Hess AL, Tuscaloosa"). This allowed me to sort the data by state.
david
nüvi 1490T, V1, Sanyo PRO-700a, maps, sunglasses, hot co-pilot, the open road
David, I guess I've found it
David,
I guess I've found it too challenging to sort on a field containing a lot of other data. How do you code your sort?
I've been using col 3 for the name/title, then col 4 for the address & phone #, then the 5th col for State code.
Alex
You do realize .... ??
David,
I guess I've found it too challenging to sort on a field containing a lot of other data. How do you code your sort?
I've been using col 3 for the name/title, then col 4 for the address & phone #, then the 5th col for State code.
Alex
You do realize that a 5th field (Excel column) is against Garmin's csv POI format requirements; and it will be removed when using many programs, including POI Loader and POI Verifier/II.
You can easily 'pull out' state files from a csv POI file using POI Verifier/II. It makes no difference what-is or what-isn't in field 3 and 4. The state file is based solely on the coordinates in field 1 and 2.
RT
"Internet: As Yogi Berra would say, "Don't believe 90% of what you read, and verify the other half."
RT, I do have POI
RT,
I do have POI Verifier/II and have used it once. I guess I'll have explore it more. Thanks for pointing it out.
Alex
Sorting POIs
Maybe all of the models don't work the same as my 2820, but when I'm traveling all I do is look at the POIs that are loaded in the GPS the same as I would my favorites and you might say the GPS does the sorting for me by showing me the closest ones.
I also include the state in the forth field of the POI files I create. I never have tried sorting by that field though, I'll have to try it and see what happens.
Anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there's a 90% probability you'll get it wrong.
Sorting POI's
I use Excel for a two column sort to sort on the A column highest to lowest and then the B column lowest to highest. Since the A column is all negative and the B column all positive this gives a reasonable sort by area with the A column the least negative and then the B column lower to higher within the A column sort.
ascending order
David,
I guess I've found it too challenging to sort on a field containing a lot of other data. How do you code your sort?
I've been using col 3 for the name/title, then col 4 for the address & phone #, then the 5th col for State code.
Alex
Dear Alex,
I just sort the entries in ascending order using Column Three. That way "Hess AL, Tuscaloosa" is the first entry and "Hess VA, Yorktown" is the last.
david
nüvi 1490T, V1, Sanyo PRO-700a, maps, sunglasses, hot co-pilot, the open road
.
Tried sorting column 4 and the find function in excel. I see asallwey's point its not user friendly to find specific groups like state abbrievation.
I've not needed to break out areas in poi files but would find MSaccess useful for this purpose. Those wanting to sort this way can perform these steps. Import table (poi.csv file, may have to change file ext to xls), go to column 4 and highlight state abbrievation, click sort by, all records with state abbrievation will display, check for misc records not matching state, copy those to excel spread sheet, repeat with another state abbrievation until file complete.
This may not be best but it will sort for you.
Sorting by States
The Red Light Camera File already has the state at the beginning of the 4th column so that it can easily be sorted in Excel. This way you can see where the red light cameras are in a particular state.
Happy Holidays to all
Clem - Garmin 2495LMT, 1450T & C530
Excel Plugin
If you intend to use Excel then I recommend installing ASAP utilities http://www.asap-utilities.com/. It will provide you some very nice tools to find dups, sort for values, remove excess blanks, merge columns, and many other useful features.
If you need specific how-to....LMK
Garmin Nüvi 650, 255WT