New to GPS, Ordered Garmin Nuvi 255w

Welcome to owning a GPS unit.

They are handy instruments and can be fun too.

I suggest that you read your manuel and play around with the unit for a while and then test it out in your hometown area. Change the voice to whichever one(s) you can understand.

Random funny fact:
My family has a habit of naming our units. I think it started when my brother had to change his tom tom's voice to a female voice and decided it should be a tammy. Then my sister got a Nuvi and named it Natasha(respectably with a female voice). I decided to follow their lead and when I got my Magellan RoadMate I named it Mallisa.

Hook gps up to computer using usb cable and run webupdater. http://www8.garmin.com/products/webupdater/

Welcome to the site. As CharlesD stated, hook the GPS up to the computer and use the updater from Garmin. It will let you reload any missing files.

There are really 3 pieces of software you need to download from the Garmin site, POILoader to install custom POI, Web Updater to keep your unit updated, and the Garmin Communicator so some web pages can transfer information to your unit.

I strongly recommend you read the FAQs on this website as they will answer a lot of your new user questions.

Thank you. It worked well.
I'm reading through the FAQ's too.

I also downloaded some POI's and I found where to view them on this nuvi 200. I got the super wal-mart and rest area files. I noticed that it is missing some wal-mart's and sam's locations in my area. Nonetheless, this is real neat tool.

Now that you are beginning to find the advantages in using custom POI, you will probably want to play with alerts as well.

The 200 series will not play an MP3 file, so you have to use a WAV file for your alerts. But the 200 series won't play a WAV file without an additional piece of software.

If you do a search through these forums you will find reference to a program called SOX.EXE. This program will allow the 200 series units to play a WAV alert sound.

Once you download the file, unzip it if needed, it must be placed in the same folder as the POILoader.exe file. You don't need to do anything else with it, just copy it to the folder.

Along with alert sounds you can have the unit display icons on the map showing where an POI is in relation to your current position. These are BMP or small bit map files.

The most common problem with getting icons to display and alert sounds to play is the file has a double extension. When using Windoze, be certain you have the computer set to display file extensions and not hide common extensions. If you have done this, then you are ready for the next step.

The POI file name, icon file name, and alert sound file name must all match with the exception of the file extension. In Windows, anytime a file name contains a period, it assumes everything after the period is the file extension. If you have a file named Good_Places_to_eat(ver. J).csv it will load as a POI file, but the icon and sound file may or may not play or display. That's because Windows may see the period after ver and assume everything else is an extension.

The cure would be to have:
Good_Places_to_eat.csv
Good_Places_to_eat.bmp
Good_Places_to_eat.wav
as the 3 file names. This way your file should load along with the icon and sound file.

Also, note that POI must be within 50 - 75 feet of your route of travel before an icon will show or a sound file play.

With the exception of camera files, you must run POI loader in manual mode to set an alert distance. I strongly caution against setting an alert for every POI file you load, the constant alerts are both distracting and may cause you to miss directions. Out of the 30 or more custom files I load, I have alerts only set on about 5.

Good luck, as you play with your unit you will learn to customize it more to your liking. It won't be long before you are offering advice to those newer to GPS units than yourself.

For the Sam and Walmart stores.Report the new locations to the author of the file see http://www.poi-factory.com/user/79409 .Use the contact tab.

While you are looking at poi material you may want to check this site out http://turboccc.wikispaces.com/Extra_POI_Editor .Nice for downloading files to and adding extra info for gpx file.Lots of features that come in handy for making files etc.