Problem creating a .csv file.

Any particular reason you're using Notepad to create the POI file? If not, I'd recommend using Extra POI Editor. Its a free program created by a member on this site. It makes creating/editing POI files a breeze.

http://turboccc.wikispaces.com/Extra_POI_Editor

Try using <br> or a | (pipe) instead of a carriage return to seperate your sentences.

I agree that Extra POI Editor does make file creation easier, but at the same time I think for .CSV files it's a bit overkill.

GadgetGuy2008,
Thanks for the info.
I tried EPE and had a problem with the install. Win 7-64. When I get some time to explore, then I will try to install again. The website had mucho info.

I am getting some of what I want in Notepad and maybe that will suffice.

Al

Why do you say Calc isn't cutting it?

I personally think you should be using EPE & gpx format because it gives you more unit display options, but I use both Calc & Excel on a regular basis for 'bulk' edits because sometimes it's better to act on groups of records or columns all at one time.

One of the other benefits is that both Calc & Excel automatically wrap column text in double quotes and use consistent & proper comma separators between 'fields'.

Can you explain a little better why you think Calc 'isn't cutting it'? Calc v3.2.1 works ok for me.

EDIT- I'm going to take a guess here that you're having issues with the Lon/Lat numbers in the final csv file..??

If so, at some point Calc started defaulting to 'save cell content as shown', so unless you have selected cols A & B (by clicking on the top to highlight the entire column) and changed the number format to no leading zeros and 5 or 6 decimal places then your saved csv numbers are probably being truncated to exactly what you see in the cell (not good, only two decimal places probably). One solution is to format both columns like I describe, then what you see is what you save (and it also adds double quotes for cols C & D in the saved file).

The other way to fix it is to check the 'Edit Filter Settings' box at the bottom of the 'Save As' dialog. Then you'll get a couple more prompts after it warns you that you might lose some data by not saving as an .ods file (you loose the other empty sheets and any bold, italic etc text formats). The important next item to look for is to un-check 'Save cell content as shown'. Then your number formats should save with as many decimal places as you originally typed in.

Hope I guessed right.. that was a bunch of typing!

I have used OO Calc 3.3.0 without any problems. As previously suggested, it may be one of the settings and we are assuming you are saving as a .csv Also be sure you aren't putting anything like column names in the first row.

You might try to open a known good .csv file with Calc, make a minor modification (change the spelling of a street name) and then "Save as..." to a .csv and see if that file is okay. If not, it is like that one of your settings as described in the previous post is set incorrectly.

In my opinion EPE is pretty much a foolproof way of creating either .csv or .gpx files.

Your Zippy's _ Hawaii csv file is a train wreck! Here is a typical record:

"-157.847185,21.291366,Oahu";"""1450";"Ala";"Moana";"Blvd";"Honolulu";"Ala";"Moana";"Center";"inside";"Sears"","

Here is what it should look like:

-157.847185,21.291366,Oahu,"1450 Ala Moana Blvd Honolulu Ala Moana Center inside Sears"

Is there an Error in this one too ?

I think it S/B

-157.847185,21.291366,"Oahu","1450 Ala Moana Blvd Honolulu Ala Moana Center inside Sears"

At least that's the way all of mine are structured and I have no problems.

Actually none of the quotes are necessary in this specific example since there are no special characters in the name or comment fields. But it is OK to put them on if you want to.

I used the quotes the way I did to be similar to the instructions given on "How do I create custom pois using notepad" in the FAQ section:

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/25752

Note that the name field should be fairly simple, without special characters, and thus does not usually need quotes. The comment field often has some special characers such as commas and line breaks so it is not a bad idea to always have that field in quotes - and to simplify the rules for beginners.

Thanks, I agree, but train wreck is too mild.
So your "Here is what it should look like" used -157.xxxxxx in colm A, 21.xxxxxx in colm B, Oahu in C and then a column for each additional word (D-M). I'm I correct. I will try a test tonight.

Oh and please bury "Zippy's_Hawaii csv file very, very deep.

Al

I probably should have said "I" am not cutting it and not blamed the software.

Just upload a new file over top of it, fortunately they do not display a history of previous versions

We do appreciate the effort though!

I wish I had this POI when I visited Hawaii back in January, it was recommended to us to go to Zippy's. I liked eating there, nice place.

No, all the rest of the "words" are put in a single column D.

The structure of a Garmin csv file has four fields (aka columns) separated by commas.

You need to read the ""How do I create custom pois using notepad" link I posted above, and repeated here:

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/25752

The four columns are as follows:

A - -157.847185
B - 21.291366
C - Oahu
D - 1450 Ala Moana Blvd Honolulu Ala Moana Center inside Sears

JD4X4,
Thanks for the help.
One problem I am having is this.
I am using the Open Office Calc v.3.3, I can build the spreadsheet, but when I try to load it with PoiLoader
I get a error message. "No data found in specified folder, therfore no data was written". Now the file in the folder is the spreadsheet with .csv.
When I save the file all that is offered is one .csv (text) offered. I believe this is the problem.

When I ave the .csv file this message comes up.
"Warning saving the document (spreadsheet) test.csv only active sheet was saved".

What file extension is used in OO calc that will work. Do I need to save the file with one extension and then renmae it later. I also have the Character Set as follows: Western Europe (ISO-8859-15/EURO). I had noticed this setting on another POI that I downloaded.

Again Mahalo
Aloha,
Al

Can you think of any other POI's needed for Oahu?
I would be happy to research it.
Mahalo
Al

Are you certain you are telling POI Loader to look in a FOLDER and not pointing to the file itself? The error message is typically generated when the loader is pointed to the file rather than the folder containing the file.

There is no way in POI Loader to "point to a file" so I don't think that is the problem. More likely the file does not have the correct csv extension or the records in the file are not in Garmin standard format.

Al:

Make sure your data is in four columns, and are in this order:

Longitude Latitude Name Comment

Do not type any quotation marks in any of the columns while you are editing the file with OO calc.

The TextCSV(.csv) is the correct "Save as type" to use.
Make sure there is a check mark in the box beside "Automatic file name extension".

In the next box that pops up:

I think the character set Western Europe (ISO-8859-15/EURO) will work OK but I choose Western Europe (Windows 1252/WinLatin 1). Probably makes no difference either way since it winds up being saved as "plain text" anyway.

The 'Field delimiter" needs to be a comma.

The "Text delimiter" should be the double quotation mark

When you continue the save process, ignore the "only active sheet ..." warning.

If you still have trouble, open your csv file with notepad, and copy/paste one of the records (lines) into a reply here.

It sounds like the file name is correct.. .csv is the right extension (although I think Mac's might do something hinkey with viewing extensions? I don't have a Mac but I've heard this). Maybe double check that the only extension is '.csv'. If you run POILoader in manual mode and point it to the directory, it will present you with every valid input filename it sees and you can check off if you want to use it or not, as well as giving you other options. I'd run it that way just to see if POILoader 'sees' your file or not.

I usually use the UTF-8 or Western Europe (Windows1252/WinLatin 1), but I tried Western Europe (ISO-8859-15/EURO) just now and there was no problem when using POILoader v2.6.1, so that's not it.

I'm thinking that the only other issue might be the file's 'internal' formatting, like Evert mentions. Go through his suggestions & see if you find anything there. Don't forget the earlier advice that you can't have column header names etc. The first line has to have a valid Lon number, valid Lat number, and at least a valid 3rd column (name).

And yes, ignore the 'only the active sheet' stuff. That means only Sheet1 is saved. Could be an issue though if for some reason you are putting your data only in Sheet2 or Sheet3 though! Looking at the .csv file in Notepad should confirm what you've actually saved.

Try Evert's suggestions and let us know what turns up.

I see you have posted Train Wreck II.

A sample line in your csv file:
"-157.847185,21.291366,Oahu";"""1450";"Ala";"Moana";"Blvd";
"Honolulu";"Ala";"Moana";"Center";"inside";"Sears"","

It looks to me like your OO Calc view of the data has 12 columns and you saved it as a SEMI COLON separated value file even though it has a csv suffix.

In OO Calc, your column A apparently has this:
-157.847185,21.291366,Oahu

Note: While editing in OO Calc do not try to use commas to separate the values within a column, you must put the values in their own columns.

You put in commas to separate the values only when you are editing the csv file with notepad.

Thus the first three columns should look look like this in OO Calc:

Column A: -157.847185
Column B: 21.291366
Column C: Oahu

You have the comments scattered over several columns and one column has just a comma in it. And you apparently have some quotation marks in some of the columns.

You must consolidate the remaining text and put it in column D like this:

Column D: 1450 Ala Moana Blvd Honolulu Ala Moana Center inside Sears

Make sure there is no text of any kind in any of the rest of the columns.

Do not put any quotation marks in any of the columns in OO Calc. (You use the quotation marks only when editing the csv file with notepad.)

When you save the file, make sure you choose a comma as the delimiter.

Then when you open the csv file with notepad you should see lines like this:

-157.847185,21.291366,"Oahu","1450 Ala Moana Blvd Honolulu Ala Moana Center inside Sears"

It is my opinion that it would be easier for you to just edit the csv file in notepad to start with.

No offence intended but you are becoming a poster child for my contention that using spread sheets is not an easier way for beginners to create csv files.

Ok, enough train wrecks.
I am now sucessfully using EPE! This is the "mother" of POI editing.
Thanks again for the help.

Al

Glad to hear that there are clear tracks ahead.

EPE is a great tool, but be careful, there are some sharp edges you can get cut on.

Yes, I was pointing to a Folder.

I have now switched to EPE.

thanks for your help.

EPE is the better way to go. I create mine that way.

EPE is the better way to go. I create mine that way.

Will Finnegan have to change his report?

I use Microsoft Word's table to create the data and then copy and past that table as a four column data set into Microsoft Excel. I save the Microsoft Excel in a .csv format. (Actually, I originally downloaded someone else's .csv POI in Excel and have been using copies of that file ever since to ensure I have something that works).

Microsoft Excel .csv format sometimes seems to have issues with certain machine characters (such as quotes and perhaps others).

As I posted at http://www.poi-factory.com/node/32458

.csv files normally use four columns. If the .csv file descriptions contain quote marks (") and the file is uploaded into a Markdown input format (as opposed to a Filtered HTML format) and the quote marks (") in the .csv (comma separated value) file are followed by commas, those commas seem to cause the text in the description in the file to be place in columns 5, 6, 7, etc in the .csv format file after the file is uploaded. As a result, the downloaded file will incorrectly employ columns 5, 6, 7, etc, even though the .csv files should use only the first four columns. A reason for this might be that quote marks (") have meaning in Markdown input formats.

Regarding

"-157.847185,21.291366,Oahu";"""1450";"Ala";"Moana";"Blvd";
"Honolulu";"Ala";"Moana";"Center";"inside";"Sears"","

The quote marks and semi-colons may be causing problems. You might try the following:

-157.847185,21.291366,Sears inside Ala Moana Center,1450 Ala Moana Blvd<br>Honolulu HI 96814<br><br>(from Ala Moana Center POI)

The three commas separate the text into four columns and the br - breaks - will show up on a new line when displayed on your gps window.

All of the extra quote marks were added to my work on "notepad", when I saved the files as a .CSV

No more "notepad" for this old man. I will continue to us "Extra POI Editor"

Again, mahalo to all who gave me sage advice. I have seen the errors of my ways, at least on this subject.