Cannot Find Custom POI after installing it.

Are you searching the preloaded Points of Interest?

Or are you searching the Custom POIs under Extras?

You must search the databases separately. The Custom POIs cannot be searched under the preloaded points of interest.

I'm a newbe myself and learning how to use my 1450 but I think they all work about the the same. Touch "Where To" then scrol down to "Extras" touch "Extras" to find your "Custom POIs"
Hope that works for you.

And remember to touch "Custom POIs" to go one more level down to see them. Forgetting this last step (assuming they're missing because they're not below Custom POIs on the same screen but rather one layer deeper) has fooled more than an occasional new nuvi user.

You guys are lifesavers! Until you said something I didn't even realize that there was a second screen that had an "extras" tab. I'd just assumed they would mix in with the pre-loaded.

For frequent Garmin users, does anyone know how good they are about updating things like this on their maps. It took me several days to choose between a Garmin and a TomTom, but the features of the Garmin won out. This hotel is right around a year old... any ideas on how quickly they update things like this? Is TomTom any better? I'd like to figure this out before I purchase the lifetime maps for North America and Europe. I only got this because we are moving go a completely new state, and then to Europe by the end of next year. I forsee being fairly reliant on it.

Some items get updated rather quickly while others take years. Its really hit or miss.

Even if you report updates to Navteq, the map provider, it can still take a year for the updates to appear.

That is why POI Factory has so many members!!

Lol, I understand now. At least I've figured out how to use it. Now let's just hope that the coordinates are fairly accurate. I got those from Google Earth. I compared it to Google Maps and it seems okay. At least I should be able to get in the right general area.

You'd think a fairly popular brand of hotel in a fairly well travelled city would be updated by now, but I guess that's why I don't run things.

One of the reasons for being a member of POI Factory is to have access to the most up-to-date POI files. Of course, another reason is for all the good advice and excellent tips that are posted here.

If various enterprises were smart, they would assign someone on their Information Technology staff to making sure that the various purveyors of GPS iformation were given the additions and changes to the locations of their stores/hotels/ etc.

However, that is not the case so someone has to complain before a change is made to most databases.

In today's economic times, I'll bet a greater problem has been navigating to some point of interest only to find that it is no longer in operation.

If someone connected to any company like Marriot Hotels is reading this, maybe you could earn some brownie points by suggesting they submit a list of their locations. Websites with store locators are everywhere but that is only one store at a time. How about somthing we can put in a GPS?

The stores want you to use their website - as if you are going to have access to it while driving. Stupid IT Guy running the business instead of a true manager looking to build traffic at the store rather than a website.

So now my question is, can I get the custom POI to show up on the maps as I'm driving without having to go through all of the screens? One of the POI I loaded is for Speedway and I would like to have that showing on the map whenever I am getting close to one. I have a nuvi 1300 and have the extra's loaded onto a SD card.

Keep in mind that the info found in these poi's is created by people like you and I. The data comes from web sites, files, and updates from users.
If something is wrong in the file please let the maintainer of the file know so it can be corrected. That way the files become more accurate.

Getting custom poi to display normally means you need to be zoomed in pretty close (~300 feet). It's much easier if you set a proximity alert when you load the file. This way your 1300 will notify you as you approach one. You must load your POI using the manual mode to set a proximity alert if you use a CSV file.

Note that in addition to downloading the POI file, you will also need to download the bmp image following this procedure:

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/4359

you would like to load POI files and have some "icon" for those locations appear on your screen when you are close to any one of them.

Assuming that you have associated an icon file with each of your poi files, you will have to be zoomed in very close and you will have to have alerts turned on.

I did not read that you wanted to have an audible alert and most of us would agree that having audible alerts on will drive you crazy.

Am I right in my assumption that you are looking for visual indication only?

YEP. Only looking for visual indication. I loaded the icon file with the POI and will double check but pretty sure that I did it right following the instructions. Not sure if I have the alerts turned on. Will double check that also.

It would be really nice if Garmin include any added custom POIs into the 'normal' scheme of things, allowing them to be included in any 'basic' search.

"normal" and "basic" in your thinking? Rather than use, say "intesection" I scroll to Extras and search my custom POIs

An intersection is not a waypoint, nor is it a POI - it is a map co-ordinate.

However, if I add a POI or a waypoint it ought to included in any POI search if I don't select a specific category, such as 'fuel', 'food' or 'lodging', but rather just 'spell name'.

In fact, it would be even better if we could categorise the waypoints and POIs we define using the same criteria as the navigator does - that way, if I search for 'food', it could include the custom waypoints I installed for DDD, hotels or for gas stations I've added that were missing from the 'base' POIs.

The reason I used "intersection" (even though I misspelled the word) was that I was trying to call attention to "Extras" rather than "Points of Interest" (on my 765T).

If I add a custom POI, I do not expect to be able to touch Where To > Points of Interest and then use Spell Name to find that custom POI.

I can however touch Where To > Extras > Custom POIs and use then touch Spell to enter my POI name.