File Content?

 

I'm making my first attempt at creating a POI file and was wondering if there is some standard as to how the location is shown. i.e.

Long,Lat,restaurant name or
Long,Lat,Street address or
Long,Lat,"City State"

I know I have my own preferences, but was wondering about a standard way of doin' things.

Thanks,

Bill

Conversion?

There are a couple of Websites that will convert a street address to Lat/Long using either Google or Yahoo and I was wondering if anyone has used them, and if so, is their accuracy good enough for custom POI files.

Thanks,

Bill
Grayson, GA

POI file content

jcherepy wrote:

I'm making my first attempt at creating a POI file and was wondering if there is some standard as to how the location is shown. i.e.
Long,Lat,restaurant name or
Long,Lat,Street address or
Long,Lat,"City State"
I know I have my own preferences, but was wondering about a standard way of doin' things.

There isn't a standard, it does somewhat depend upon how the file is going to be used. I put a description in the third column i.e. restaurant name, and then add a full address and phone number in the fourth column if appropriate. Some people combine it all into the third column. If the person using the file is going to go to the site, then the street address and phone number are probably appropriate. Some like to cull out of the file just their state or a group of states, so having that data prominent may be helpful.

Correction: Ismonop is correct in stating that the Longitude must go first, then the latitude, then there is a description. My description above is in handling the description.

Regarding the sourcing of data for longitude and latitude, they all seem to be useable although slightly different. In order of preference, I use:
http://www.batchgeocode.com/
http://gpsvisualizer.com/geocoding.html
http://www.arcwebservices.com/v2006/livesamples/addressfinde...

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Garmin StreetPilot c530, Mapsource

yes

jcherepy wrote:

I'm making my first attempt at creating a POI file and was wondering if there is some standard as to how the location is shown. i.e.

Long,Lat,restaurant name or
Long,Lat,Street address or
Long,Lat,"City State"

I know I have my own preferences, but was wondering about a standard way of doin' things.

There is a standard, order of things. There are also many ways to create a poi file. You can use "notepad" and type it all in, with all the special characters(" ") in all the right places
Or you could use Excel and just type in the information without the special characters.
Or you could use something like MapSource to create Waypoints (which is also a "favorite" or "poi")
or poi edit or easyGPS or...try them all and use what suits you best.

There are excellent instructions if you click on the faq & help tab at the top of the page, Look for Creating POI files, then Garmin CSV file format

you'll find the correct order and helpful tips.

jcherepy wrote:

There are a couple of Websites that will convert a street address to Lat/Long using either Google or Yahoo and I was wondering if anyone has used them, and if so, is their accuracy good enough for custom POI files.

Accuracy is something we all strive for. I don't think there is any one best answer or place to find the most accurate conversion. I have personally used two or three different sources for one location before picking what I thought to be the most accurate.
I like to use, because it's a visual thing Google Earth sometimes just to verify a location.
some like to plug in coordinates into something like gps visualizer which can do a single address or multiple addresses.
http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/geocoding.html
or http://www.terraserver.com/tools/dms.asp
or http://stevemorse.org/jcal/latlonbatch.html
you can do a web search for latitude and longitude and conversion and there are many places.

The best thing to do is to read the faq & help, jump in and start creating some small poi's that you can check and verify around your neighborhood. Ask questions here, and you'll be a poi builder in no time.

Just Have fun !

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........Garmin StreetPilot c550 / Nüvi 765...........