Extra_POI_Editor - A tool to View/Edit/Convert POI/TourGuides (Part 1)

Map preview window feature is really nice and handy. The program just keeps getting better with every release. Thanks for your work.

Thanks for the work.

I will download and give it a whirl!

Once again, thanks for all the hard work!

Thank you for your good words.

I like what I have done with this one. I load lots of POI just for fun and I save as a KML file. Then I double click on the KML file I created and load it in Google Earth. You can see all the POIs on the map and you can click on them. I added the full description as found on the "More" window. So complete information is available in Google Earth.

Like I already wrote in another forum, Extra_POI_Editor is a great tool. It is a very practical tool, showing all relevant POI information in one screen.

Note for people who haven't tried it yet, in addition to its Tour Guide features, the Extra_POI_Editor is a good tool to:

1. Convert a csv file into a gpx file.
2. Edit/adjust the Favorites in the Garmin itself ("Open" the Current.gpx file in the Garmin folder, "Save" after the edit is complete). I didn't have to make any additional adjustment on the unit after that, a welcome improvement over other solutions that sometimes create copies of edited Favorites.

I'll give it a shot. Haven't tried this yet!

That only begins to describe you and your work.
Thanks!

NICE! Excellent job! worked well on some projects I am working on. One suggestion, the screen is not re sizable so I have to scoot the screen up manually to click OK, if you could make it scroll it would be nice. But by far this is an excellent program.

Hi firenutts,

Which window do you want to scroll?
What is your screen resolution?

I will see what I can do.

I open a location to edit(POI Edit on the blue bar) and the screen with all the edit data opened up. I'm not sure how to describe it any better. I tried to maximize and minimize it I can not see the bottom on the screen. I hope that helps

Firenutts,

You graphic card is probably configure in a resolution lower than 1024 x 768. Probably 1280 x 720 pixels. You need at least 768 pixels of vertical resolution to see the OK button.

To change the resolution of your graphic card, just right click on your desktop and select Properties. Then, click on the Steeings tab and change the scree resolutino to something like 1280 by 768 pixels or above. Click Ok to accept the new resolution.

If you cannot go to a higher resolution, this may be because you graphic card or monitor does not support it. I will see if I can add a scroll bar to the window.

turboccc.Been playing around with the new release very impressed.Found it is nice to pull your favorites from gps unit and edit them.Some programs will lose some of the information when you transfer but not yours.

I'm set at 1024 x 768 if I change it it makes it difficult to read.... getting old..LOL thank you anyway.

Firenutts,

Once in the Settings tab, you can also click on the Advanced button and select "Large Fonts". It will make characters bigger. This is what I do.

Thanks for all your efforts!

turboccc

I look forward to spending some time with it.

In v2.72, I added a vertical scroll bar for the POI Edit window when the window is downsized or when the window is larger than the actual vertical resolution of the graphic card.

This should help people that are using a resolution lower than 768 vertical pixels to reach the OK button at the bottom of the dialog.

Hi,

Version 2.72 - Reproducible crash - I double clicked on an entry in a .gpx file to edit it, and then tried to maximize the opened edit window by clicking on the maximize icon in the top right corner of the window. Crashed with the message:

Run Time Error 384

"A form can't be moved or sized while minimized or maximized"

Using WinXP SP2, Screen res: 1024x768 - 32 bit colour

Not complaining, just feedback. It's a great little proggie.

Thanks so much.

Bug corrected in v2.73. I shall post it soon.

Excellent work. Thank you!!

v2.73 posted. Minimized/maximized bug issue.

Just for feedback.

Maximize, restore, minimize now work as expected on my system.

Thanks.

P.S. Pretty prompt service - any way to persuade you to work for Garmin or Mickey$oft?

Turboccc Thank You for the hard work you put into the poi editor!

Great job!

Thanks!

but I have noticed a problem with making a TourGuide. I made a one poi TourGuide and I loaded in both a mp3 and a jpg file. It looked and worked great in your program. I then saved it as a gpx file.

When I reloaded the gpx file into your program, it no longer was a TourGuide. I had to reconnect the mp3 and jpg files. It appears that your program doesn't save it properly. Minor correction, I'm sure. But I wanted to tell you about it.

Thanks again for all your hard progamming work. It will be an excellent program when done.
Tom

I just installed Extra_POI_Editor and went to import a large cvs file. The file had errors in it starting near the beginning (Invalid Lattitudes. I had to hit the cancel button about 400 times to end the operation as all the following lines were in error too.

Would it be possible to add a "Global" cancel button that would stop the entire operation?

Thanks, ssbn610

Thanks for your contribution!

Hi tomkovacic,

How did you "reconnect" the MP3 & JPG file?

Normally, the link file can only contain one file (and path). If you want to link an MP3 & JPG file, you have to put them in a directory and put the directory path in the Link field. Is it what you did?

If so, what happened the next time you opened this POI? Was the Link field empty?

Hi ssbn610,

I hear you! LOL! 400 times... Looks like your field assignment was not good... I will see what I can do. It should not be very difficult to do.

Yes, I have a dir path in the link field that holds both the mp3 and jpg files.

The next time I reopened the gpx file, the link field wasn't empty. It had the correct dir path in it but the jpg didn't show up nor the little arrow button to run the TourGuide mp3 file. I had to click on the same link field and then everything worked as it should.

I resaved the gpx file, reloaded it, and the same thing repeated. I've repeated the situation several times now.

Hi tomkovacic,

You explanation was very clear. I did exactly the same, but it works for me.

Please post here the exact link from the Link field. I want to see if there is something strange. I assume also that if you changed the link you used the "Ok" button (and not Cancel!) to confirm and save the new POI information.

Otherwise, you will have to mail me your GPX file so I can have a look.

Turbo

Edit: there may be a "strange" character in the link field. Avoid funny stuff.

C:\Garmin\POI Basilicas & Shrines\Holy Hill

this is my exact link. Yes, I click on OK.

In addition, you also made a comment earlier today about the screen size. I have mine at 1280x768 and don't see the three buttons on the bottom, delete/cancel/ok. It's because of the one line of Windows icons on the bottom of my screen. If you could shorten up that screen (poi edit screen)just a bit, it would work better. Otherwise you could save the screen size to what we set it at. Now I shrink the screen size so that I can use the slider on the right, but the screen size isn't saved, so that the next time I use it, I have to resize it again.

added a minute later:
I do see in the link field that there are some strange characters after the & sign. It's "amp;"
But the above was copy/pasted from the link field and the "amp;" doesn't show up. ??????

All is solved w/ v2.74:

* Scroll bar in 1280x768
* & character in the link field
* Cancel button when bad Lon/Lat in CSV file
* Bug when parsing CSV file with only a space in the field
* Added Time column in CSV field assignment

edit: v2.764 is posted!
Turbo

I used is some more today and I'm still happy with it. Thank you so much for that program.

For some reason, I edited my Favorites and ended up having to remove duplicates in the unit afterward. I did not have to do that last time. Later today, I did some more editing and that time, the program did not create duplicates. So that is a bit of a mystery. No big deal though.

Now for suggestions for future release:
- Add the capability to sort the POI by name or, one can dream, by location.
- Add the option to save as csv file (with the understanding that some info might get lost). That would make it a universal tool for csv, gpx, and tourguide.

Hi Jale,

Yes, there is a mistery about the Favorites... I think that if you edit the location without chnaging the names, it will create a duplicate. Not quite sure, but I experienced similar issues. As you may know, deleting en entry in the Favorites file does not delete it from the gps. It must be deleted manually.

Yes, sorting will be coming. Good feature.
Yes, I will provide CVS output soon.

Thank you for your feedback.

nice

**Changes from v2.74 to v2.80**

* Added basic 4-column CSV save in "Save As". 4th column contains more or less all the "Contact Info" found in the POI Edit window separated by commas (Let me know if you prefer to have a (CRLF) instead of commas)

* Added Tools->Sort by Name and Location. Sort by Location will sort all POIs based on the distance to the currently selected POI.

Thank you again for everything you have done for the GPS community. It is amazing how responsive you are to requests.

If only Garmin were 1/100000 as responsive.....

The pleasure is all mine!

I started this project many months ago because I wanted more stuff in my POIs. Now I find it so cool that sometimes I load POIs in it just to see them on the map or to play with the new features.

Up to now, I probably invested a couple hundreds of hours in it. It is a bit more than what I would have expected, but the result is worth the effort.

Enjoy!

and you saved $17.99 into the bargain ...

LOL! I learned VB6 in the process too!

This is just what I was looking for as I wanted more from my POIs. Thanks for all your hard work.

Ouch!

I love 'em both, btw.

I was just looking at this and it looks great. One question if I download the lastes version do I lneed to keep any of the older versions for any reason. also do I need to download the istaller that was listed at the bottom of the page. Good job

I think this is a great (easy to use) tool and I appreciate ALL your hard work.
I have one question.
I use a TourGuide like a proximity alert for say Starbucks (ie when I get within a 1/2 mile radius it lets me know there is one nearby). Is there a way to select all the locations within the poi and give thenm the same proximity distance?

I loaded v2.80 this morning and both the & character TourGuide and scroll bar problems are working well. Thanks for the upgrades.