POI's vs Favorites vs Address Book vs Waypoints?

You probably can get some answers by looking around this Garmin forum. As a brief overview;

Favorites are an easy way to add destinations either as literally a favorite that you want to be able to get back to again, or for a brief time such as on a trip to enter your hotel location, a surrounding restaurant, etc..... But more than just a few becomes somewhat hard to go thru and keep organizied, and does nothing more than guide you to that destination.

A POI (Point of Interest) is either the built in ones that come with the map on the Garmin, that you cannot change but lets you find nearby items of interest to you. Or, a POI is what you download, from a forum such as this or make your own, that not only can be picked as a destination, but can be programmed to notify you when you are in the area of it automaticlly. It can be a destination, or a speed trap or speed camera area, or a speed limit you want to be notified of. You can have hundreds of any type you want downloaded, and organized, each set to notify - or notify - as you wish.

A waypoint is generally an additional destination or stop along the way on a route. Point A to Point C is the route - you add a point B on the way as a waypoint. It could be a turn along the route to make sure the GPS sends you the way you want if you have a route in mind.

It would take too long to describe procedures, but they are discussed at this site and others with good detail.

Just an FYI, I have had a better experience using the GeePeeEX editing program or Turboccc's Extra POI editor program.

Check out Gary Hayman's site: http://home.comcast.net/~ghayman3/garmin.gps/index.html#page... . You'll probably be surprised at all the things you can do.

I have to 2nd bentbiker's suggestion. There's a wealth of info on Gary's site, just don't try to take it all in at one time.

To muddy the waters a bit. On your nuvi, The POI that came preloaded with your map software are found under POI... Those that you get here and move to your GPSr with the POI Loader program are found under Extras and are called Custom POI...

Some older Garmin units label Favorites as Waypoints. It probably makes more sense to some to think of a Waypoint and a Via as the same thing, a layover en route to your final destination.

The preloaded POI cannot be altered or removed. They may get updated when you get a newer version of the maps. They can be out of date and are often less accurate than those found here.

Favorites are often created by touching the screen when you pass a place you may want to return to, and then save it, giving it a name. A typical GPSr may allow you to save 500 Favorites, but they can become a lot to work with unless you devise a naming system to help organize them. If you have a copy of MapSource, this is one way to manipulate Favorites. This is a great place to put Uncle Fred's Fishing Cabin... If you use Google Earth or Geocaching.com to send a location to your nuvi, it will show up as a Favorite. On my 750, the icons for Favorites will show up on the 3D screen a few miles ahead. POI and Custom POI do not show up like that.

Custom POIs like those found here are probably the way to go. In most cases you'll have a better database containing POI that are of interest to you. They can be readilly updated with Excel, NotePad, and several other applications. Once you get your feet wet, it is a snap to make a personal POI file and then you could put Uncle Fred's cabin and other places you want to keep up with that are not part of Walmart, Cracker Barrel, or Mom & Pop Hot Dog stands... The handy thing about making such a file such as Mystuff.csv is that you will have an identical copy on your PC to fall back on if needed.

POI, Custom POI, or Favorites can all be set as destinations and Waypoints (or Vias) independant of each other. With some practice and familiarity, this should become as easy as falling of a rock.

Bookmark Gary's webstite; he usually adds something new every month or so. As much as I think I've learned about my nuvi, I can go a back to his site and find something new, or something that makes a lot more sense after I've had some hands-on time with it.

I have been using GeePex and it's map and associated satellite map view is about four times the size of maps in other programs. As a result, if you want to set in your customer sites, it is easier to go to the satellite view and drag the pointer to the preferred entrance that you use for the client. a large plant could have 5-20 entrance gates.

It's worth the $18 US to get it. http://geepeeex.googlepages.com/geepeeex_2 for a sample of the manual and then scroll to bottom to get the download site. The latest version has some nice features added.

You might want to create multiple POI files that reflect the key geographic regions, or customer types that you deal with. Since, the GPS will sort by distance, if you want to make a cold call near the end or beginning of the day, it makes it easier to find someone close. GeePex will allow you to enter phone numbers in a way that will work with the Bluetooth option, if you have it.

You will likely be staying in a number of hotles/motels, so create a file with your preferred hotels. Again, the GeePex Bluetooth phone link will make it easier to call them.

I used to visit some very large sites, like steel plants and it was difficult to remember exactly where a particular person resided. Take a photo of the entranceway or building, with your cell, but be very discrete, since many companies have very strict policies of taking photos on site. Save the picture in a separate subdirectory and use the word TourGuide in the name of the file, such as TourGuide Hot Strip.jpg and you can set a proximity alert in GeePex and link the file to the picture. If you have trouble finding the entrance touch the icon on the screen that pops up when get within the proximity distance and the picture will show.

Other than that, I wish I had GPS before I retired from sales.

Not sure if this the right place but I loaded some POI files from the site and,not thinking (I guess) I put them right to my Nuvi 850. Now they are all favorites!!!
I removed them from Custom POI's but they are in my favorites folder and all over my screen - there are literally hundreds.
Is there anything I can do other than remove them individually?

on the 850 its pretty easy.
there is a icon called my data in the tools section. click on delete favorites and they will all be gone

Thanks so much!! I should have known that I guess - and now I do, thanks to you!

Any idea how to stop all the local parks from showing up on my map? I have tried to HIDE them but there is no option - I have POI's disabled - and when I click on it I get the list - Under Recreation Park/Garden it says "show" and I can't seem to change it to HIDE...

I'd also recommend GeePeeEx. Great support.

i also am newbe, sorry if I`am in the WRONG forum as well.From what i have been reading so far ghaman3 site is a good place to start.Got it booked marked and going to read it later.Thanks for pointing me in his direction bentbiker.Have a Good DAY

The inability to HIDE some things is an issue with the 850 I guess. Received word from Garmin that they are working on it.

Don't know if you discovered it yet but your unit has the ability to assign categories for favorites.A nice feature for organizing your favorites.Doing it manual just edit the favorite and select change categories.Touch new to make one yourself.You can also use mapsource to work on them.

1. Hook gps up to computer using usb cable.
2. Bring up map source.
3. Click on transfer and select receive from device.
4. Put checkmark in waypoints only. Click receive.
5. Click on edit, preferences and click the waypoint categories.
6. Change the 1-16 as needed for the categories you want listed on the gps. Not necessary to change all of them. Hit ok after each one you select until you complete.
7. Go back to view at top and click show user data tabs
8. Now click on the waypoint and put check mark in the category you want for that favorite. Complete all waypoints.
9. Select transfer, send to device and put check mark in waypoints only. Click send.