Creating POIs

Most computers come with notepad.Click programs,accessories and you should see it listed. Put data in this order longitude,latitude,name and then address and phone number.Example.

-82.061624,29.060671,Sonny's ,5209 SE Abshier Blvd Belleview, FL (352) 347-5400

After you have all the data in go to top of screen and click file,save as and in file name type in for this example Sonny's.csv.What ever you name your file make sure to type name then add period csv after it.You now have a csv file you can load to your gps using poiloader.

You may want to check out an awesome program created by Phil Hornby. It is called GeePeeEx Editor and it makes custom POI files for your Garmin. The difference is it make a GPX file. GPX and CVS files can both be used for custom POI files.
I find it much easier to create POI files with this program. You can find it by doing a search right here. It does cost a small fee to use the full version but you can try the trial version first to see if you like it. I think many members here use it to make their files. I for one use it and can't say enough about it. Give it a try!

I'm guessing that since you paid extra money for the bluetooth capability of the 760, that you would like for the phone numbers to be dial-able. If so, you cannot use a csv file -- it must be a gpx file. My suggestion is to make your like much easier -- download GeePeeEx Editor and just fill in the blanks. Phil has a free trial version that will convince you:
http://geepeeex.googlepages.com/

As for not having excel, you might want to check out: http://why.openoffice.org/

Charles,
Since you have 4 commas (equating to 5 columns), won't POI Loader ignore the state and phone number in your example? Quotation marks maybe to signal that the last comma is not a delimiter?

I have a pretty good script for extracting POI from your Garmin GPX 'favorites' file, and storing it as a plain-text CSV file.

It's free. It works only on a Mac computer, using the program BBEdit, and a Garmin GPS device. However, it can probably be adapted to other programs.

Is there any interest in this? I'm certain that a GPX to CSV converter could be created in AWK with minimal effort, and with free copies of it available for almost any platform (particularly gawk), we could have a one-converter-suits-all program.

My understanding is that the GPX format is often used because the CSV format isn't rich enough to hold all of the data that some POIs wish to include. So it would be helpful to know what people are currently doing to convert GPX to CSV (that is, are they currently discarding data or are they trting to combine it into one large field?).

You are right I overlooked that last comma between the city and state. Should be -82.061624,29.060671,Sonny's ,5209 SE Abshier Blvd Belleview FL (352) 347-5400

Since you have bluetooth and if you want to use a gpx file you may want to try this.I found it to be the easiest way to make my files.

1. Go to Google maps http://maps.google.com/maps and click on sign in.Now create an account now.
2.Once signed in go to create new map on left. Fill in title and description. Under privacy settings mark public or unlisted. Then click done.
3.It will now show under my maps makes sure you have check mark in title. The map will always be there unless you delete it.
4.Now go to top and click on either search the map(single address) or find business(listing by name).I will use business search for my example.
5.Once you make the search you will see results on left
6.Click one marker on left you want. Popup will come up click save to my map. Next popup which map you want to save it to click on save. Next popup should show info click on save.
7.Now go back to search results on left and click on search again to get the listings again. You will have to repeat this each time you complete one.
8.Once all your locations are entered go to link to this page on right near top and click on it. The top highlighted paste link in email right click mouse and save it.
9.Now go to site http://www.takitwithme.com/ and paste in the url you copied where it says paste in your Google my maps url. Now click load my map.
10.You will have a choice to upload to garmin gps or download GPX. Select download GPX and save it to your computer. . If you want to convert GPX to CSV continue with step 11.
11.Go to http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/convert to convert the file to csv file. Under browse upload the gpx file you saved and under Plain text delimiter click on comma. Now click on convert top right. Once the data comes up right click and copy all the columns.
12.Now pull up your excel sheet and paste the info to it. You will have to switch longitude and latitude and delete column a. Now clean up what you don't need.
13.Now go to file on excel sheet at top and click save as then save as type find csv(comma delimited) and click save. You now have csv file

Thanks folks. I just downloaded the GeePeeeX trial version. I'm gonna give it a shot.

Like some others mentioned in this thread, I use GeePeeEx editor to create a GPX file (actually import an Excel CSV file), export as CSV, and use Excel to clean it up. In my case, no data is lost between GPX and CSV, just phone numbers can't be automatically dialed.

Tim

I liked the trial version, so I bought the full one. This is so much faster than using notepad. Many thanks to those who suggested it.