Best way to convert addresses off the web to csv

You could paste into notepad....delete the garbage.....add a pipe (|) as a delimiter, save as a CSV file and import into excel.

Have you thought about asking the company if they can supply you with a spreadsheet with coordinates? You could even offer to provide them with the POI file for posting on their site. Failing that, have you done a search for "geocoding"? There are multiple sites that can do batch geocoding.

You can find all answers here:

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/2115

Scroll down the page and find the post that describes the whole procedure using ASAP Utility (it is an Excel add-on and you can download it for free, just google for ASAP Utility). For me that is the easiest way and it is fast too.

You can go to Google maps at http://maps.google.com/maps and after creating free account use the my map feature.I done a search using Google maps and typed in Holiday Stationstores and a long listing came up.You can do the search without account.If you use my maps method you will need to check it against your list in case of some stores now being closed.Using my maps features once you have located all the locations and saved them all the coordinates will be on the finish product.

Your question is totally valid and asked often. The replies are also totally valid. Depending on the way chain store websites format their locator info, making a POI file out of it can be fairly easy or very difficult.

The first few I tried gave me a much greater appreciation for how much time and work the file authors and maintainers here at the POI Factory have put in to some of these files. One that I am working on now is not a chain, so there is no single website I can go to for an address list. Each location has to be individually Googled, visually identified on Google Earth and/or MapQuest and manually entered into the csv file. I have been working on it (off and on) for weeks and I'm still not done.

I know now why folks like ScottK received a Contributor of the Year (COY) award. Personally, I don't know how he has managed to do what he has done, for so long. My hat is off to all of the POI file authors and maintainers.

You can say that again.I like to use Google my maps so you can see the location on the map when you click on the marker.I use two screens at a time .The Google my maps and the other screen for the name and address.That way I can paste the name of the business in my maps and look at other screen to make sure it matches.I found my maps a lot faster then using excel.Using the excel you still have to go back and get the coordinates.Google maps saves all at one time.

Probably look for the one that's already done.

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/19542#comment-111415

I'm still a newb and I haven't cranked up to speed (yet) with POI creations or looked at this ASAP, but..

I LOVE using Excel and I made a rough file for these stores in about 5 minutes just now after reading your post. It's not ready for prime time POIism, but for now I'll tell you:

1. MS Excel
2. Find out about "web queries" (in Excel help file)
3. Get familiar with some of the Excel function formulas (click & pick easy)

I would download the asap utilities the first chance you get.Lots of extras but one of the main ones is searching for duplicates.

Doh! Told you I was a newb! The previous metion of using the list that's already created is probably the BEST one!

But.. web queries & Excel function formulas ROCK anyway!

WOW. I just tried it with one quick read through of the excel help files. That was actually pretty easy.

TUPDEGROVE has already posted the CSV with all the locations. It was one of the files that earned him his COW.

Indeed, it is. I already adopted this procedure.

Missed this thread. Here is the link. www.poi-factory.com/node/19613