-120.3456 ,38.8976, OR- 120.34.32,98.25.45, POI format

Coordinates can be expressed in several different formats. They are most commonly Degrees Minutes Seconds (DDD MM SS), Decimal Degrees (DDD.DDDD), or Degrees Decimal Minutes (DDD MM.MMM).

The last format is the most common in current GPS models.

The second one is the one we use in Custom POI files.

Degrees, Minutes and Seconds
DDD° MM' SS.S"
N 32° 18' 23.1" W 122° 36' 52.5"

Decimal Degrees
DDD.DDDDD°
N 32.30642° W 122.61458°

Degrees and Decimal Minutes
DDD° MM.MMM'
N 32° 18.385' W 122° 36.875'

I assume you are using csv files and loading them into your GPSr via POI Loader.

POI loader works correctly only if you have the coordinates in decimal degrees format.

If you put coordinates in what you think is DMS format by putting in the csv file coordinates of the form:

-120.20.44,38.53.51,testd.m.s

then POI Loader will assume that is decimal degrees and will interpret the coordinates as this:

–120.2000,38.5300 (decimal degrees)

Note that the intended seconds were ignored and the intended minutes were interpreted as a fractional part of a degree.

For example it you put these equivalent coordinates in a csv file, you will find that they will be about five miles apart as loaded into a garmin via POI Loader.

-120.3456,38.8976,testdd.dddd
-120.20.44,38.53.51,testd.m.s

BTW as I mentioned before, when you write coordinates in DMS for others to read and you do not use the standard symbols (° ' "), you should use either a colon or a space for the separator for example:

-120:20:44 or –120 20 44 instead of -120.20.44

yes i rember,i had a number block .is there a way to convert more than 1 lat/long at atime.

I don’t know what you mean by “i had a number block” . Please give more details.

There are a number of batch converters some free, some you have to pay for. Google “batch coordinate converter” and you will find a number of them (I have not tried any of them.)

I see this free one that looks interesting but it sounds a bit complicated to use in the batch convert mode: http://earth-info.nga.mil/GandG/geotrans/

See a brief description of how to use it here: http://freegeographytools.com/2007/coordinate-converters-ii-...

If you know Micrsoft Excel or other spread sheet software it would be fairly easy to put the degrees minutes seconds in separate columns, then make a formula to convert those to decimal degrees and put the result into a new column. You could get fancier by writing a macro to parse a single column with, say, space separated D M S and do the conversion.

But if you have no experience with spreadsheets , there would be a fairly steep learning curve to get to the point where you could do it.

number block (JOKE)Between learning the keyboard and the computer,gps, web site,.... its tuff.10 min to type just this, exel ,tried for the last three days,(i dont think so)went back to note book.i found a program called ectrans for batch files.but it will not install.i will look at the links you provided.i sent pic. to miss poi for my tower files but they did not show up with them on the site,any ideas

numnum, here is another converter (LOTE) that is capable of batch conversion and a lot smaller download than the other one I mentioned above:

http://freegeographytools.com/2007/coordinate-converters-iii...

Note the statement “Two previous posts talked about the coordinate converters CorpsCon and GeoTrans. Both are very good, but are large in filesize, and not necessarily user-friendly.”

But note this in the description of LOTE:

“For data files, you’ll need to have them in either tab-delimited or comma-separated value formats. The first data column need to be either blank or unneeded, as LOTE has an annoying habit of overwriting that first data column on conversion with some unidentifiable parameter. And you will also need to have blank data columns in your text file for the converted coordinates as well. Open the files using the File - Open menu; the results will be saved in tab-delimited format. Overall, as big a pain to deal with as GeoTrans’ batch conversions."

I am afraid that it does not sound like batch conversion is very user-friendly for any of these.

i have been saving pages off the net.(save as)... then i open them using exel then i remove stuff i dont want like colunms ... then i copy /past it all to note pad,this has allowed the format to stay the same.then i put the converter next to notepad and do one at a time.then remove data that i dont need then save the page.this allows me less typing, bit of a pain.am looking into what you said.

Since you are already using excel maybe Ectrans will work for you. It is excel file with macros in it so you have to enable macros on your computer. It is a very small download. I have not tried it yet.

http://www.zonums.com/ectrans.html

tried to get it to work but it comes back with error ,licienc is expired.i emailed them no 3 4 days ago i have not heard from them i found the macros in excel what do they do.

I just now downloaded ectrans and also get the license expired note - bummer!

The basic definition of a macro from Microsoft is: “A macro is a series of commands and functions that are stored in a Microsoft Visual Basic module and can be run whenever you need to perform the task.”

You can read more about them here: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/HP052012011033.aspx?...

Also by Googling “excel macro” you can read a lot of stuff about them. Note that macros can also be used in other type documents such as Microsoft Word.

You will find that just about any thing you can do manually on a computer, you can do with a macro. For example you could create a macro that would delete most of the files on a computer. Also they could go to the internet and bring back viruses. Because of that it is dangerous to run macros from unknown sources.