Word Processor that will read/open downloaded CSV and GPX files.

Have you tried the Google Documents spreadsheet and word processor applications? I'm pretty sure one of them will open a .csv file.

Most Word Processor should open both of these file types. Even Windows 'Word Pad' does the trick. Sometimes Windows NotePad is the best to use as it doesn't modify the file like Excel will sometimes do.

RT

I use OpenOffice Calc to open CSV file. It's essentially the same as MS Excel.

Alternatively, if you rename CSV or GPX file extension to TXT, you can open and edit with any free word processor out there, even the notepad that came with MS Windows. Just to make sure you rename the extension back to CSV or GPX after you are done, or your Garmin will not recognize the file.

....

Okay! Thanks a bunch!! I'll try it.

One way to use your AbiWord program is to change the extension to .txt, open it with AbiWord, and change the extension back when you're through.

RT

You might want to check out LibreOffice as well, I think it's a bit nicer than OpenOffice at the moment.

- Phil

TheProf,

I'm curious is Google Documents spreadsheet and word processor applications a download? If so I'm not seeing it. If not, how do you use it to open a CSX or GPS file?

Give Notepad++ a try. I've had that one for such a long time now, it opens so many file types, and it also displays the [TAB], [CR] and [LF] that may be included in the file. I use it for my work, and it's saved our Team very often when the original Notepad or Wordpad would hide those characters - and wreak havoc with the file ?

For Linux users, there's few contenders to Geany, it even includes HTML characters replacement on the fly, and many other nifty tricks

You shouldn't have to change the extension. Just right click and select 'Open with', then drill down to your editor of choice.

No it's not a program that is resident on your machine, rather you are using the app online, but you can save the work as a .doc or .xls etc to a file on your machine or leave it on Googles site. They have several programs that you can use, even one that emulates Powerpoint. BUT, the other folks here are correct, you can use Notepad to open the .csv files as well and that's on most Windows machines.

Google Docs: http://tinyurl.com/6swzzh5

Notepad++: http://tinyurl.com/28va737

As has been noted, there are several ways to get word processing programs to open/read both .csv and .gpx files.

However, another alternative is to use a piece of software written by one of our own members - Extra POI Editor (EPE). You can get it at
http://turboccc.wikispaces.com/Extra_POI_Editor
(and be sure to go back and download the Help files also).

I have set EPE to be the program that opens all of my .csv and .gpx files when I double click on one of them. I did this by using the right-click, then "Open with" technique referenced in a post above. Once I browsed to "Extra_POI_Editor.exe" and selected it, I checked the option at the bottom of the "Open With" dialog to always use that program to open such files.

If you have never used EPE, I strongly encourage you to look at it.

Probably the most stupid idea to edit csv files is to use word processors like MS Word, LibreOffice Writer or AbiWord. If you do so, usually next step is topic about how "my brand new csv file doesn't work".

In short: csv file is used as extremely simple database format. It must be plain text and nothing else. And values must be separated with tab, coma, semicolon or similar symbol to be properly recognized when readed. As most word processors can save files as plain text format it doesn't mean that they will separate values properly.

To edit csv files you have two ways: use plain text editor (like Notepad Windows - but NOT a WordPad! - or Notepad++, or something of this type). Other way is to use spreadsheet program (like MS Excel, Libre Office Calc or similar). Using of spreadsheet makes easier to edit or manipulate data but you have to pay attention when you import and export data. Wrong settings during importing or exporting of csv file will corrupt data in cvs file often making it unreadable. It doesn't mean that data will be destroyed in file but that reading program will not be able to properly recognize data fields from file and will show garbage or nothing (example: POI file sent to GPS with POI Loader will show errors and transfer nothing or data will be totally messed up in gpx file). We had quite few post with this problem here.

I always use EPE. It's great. The only fault I could find is, if you enter in your own POI's, and have a typo with the Lat or Long, it may not be as obvious as I wanted. This happened to me. I was cut&pasting in L&L's from Google Maps and accidently got some spaces or comma's in front of the numbers. It would not load with POI Loader.

I used EPE to convert it to a csv file and looked at it under Excel. The errors were obvious there.

I then used EPE to correct them and all was fine.

I'd like to recommend my favorite plain text editor, EditPad Lite. I have it set to open all .txt files, and it handles .csv and other plain text formats as well as HTML code. Give it a try - it's great!

http://www.editpadlite.com/

I use Editpad Classic. It's a heavier version of the lite. I still program HTML with that plain old word processor. A blast from the past...

You can use OpenOffice.

For opening up CSV files, probably the "best of breed" for manipulating files that aren't in an odd format would be EPE; if for some reason you need to edit the CSV file or troubleshoot why EPE may not be importing it correctly, LibreOffice (for an actual spreadsheet tool) and/or Notepad++ (for a GOOD, basic text editor) are my preferred choices and have been for some time.

For GPX files...it gets a bit more complex, because (as it turns out) there seem to be a few different flavours of GPX, with Garmin in particular using an "extended GPX" format (which is actually the most likely format you'll run into here).

EPE is freeware and--in my experience--has been by far the best behaved of the GPX editors out there--others seem to not play well with "extended GPX", or have other issues that mangle some of the data. (IMHO it's not really recommended to use a text editor with GPX--whilst it is a form of XML file, it's *very* easy to accidentally munge something.)

Another vote for Open Office. It's free to download and does pretty much anything MS Office does. It's extremely highly rated and used by a LOT of people.

The ability to break columns up using Regular Expressions (PERL Regex) is a PLUS!!!! Can't beat that price either.

Although this may hold true in some word processors, it doesn't appear to in AbiWord. Have you tried it?

I downloaded the most recent version of AbiWordPortable and tried to open both csv and gpx (neither are listed in its list of extensions). Doing as you suggested produced an error message. The way I could get AbiWord to open csv or gpx files was to change the extension to .txt

Using a text editor is the only way to be sure the file doesn't unexpectedly get modified. Excel will sometimes modify the file; a word processor will sometime modify the file; a text editor won't.

RT

Just went to the appropriate page, downloaded the EXE and the CHM - and I believe I'll be using it indeed for any GPS-related edit.

For all other edits, I'll stick with my trusty Notepad++

Those are a bit different... Yes, you may need to change the extensions...

AbiWord 'Portable' version has the same 'Open' options as the Full Version. I just installed the latest Full Version of AbiWord 2.8.6 and attempting to open gpx or csv files give the same 'open error' as the Portable version, unless the extensions are changed.

I use a lot of Portable programs and most have the same 'open' options as the Full versions. This is definitely the case with AbiWord.

But ......

RT

Have you tried open office
http://download.openoffice.fm/free/

It might work for you and its free

Mark

Notepad++ is seconded here for CSV file creation and basic maintanence. EPE is great for ensuring there are no duplicates in a CSV file. However, for some maintanence functions only a spreadsheet program will work.

For example, I edit Rest Areas Combined to fit my needs, which requires me to delete the mile markers as well as ensuring only the first letter of every word in the "Name" field (Column C) is capitalized. To do that, I have no choice but to use Excel with ASAP Utilities, since it has the option to change the case of every word in the file.

I say no choice not just because I do not know if the freeware alternatives have functions like what ASAP Utilities offers built in, but also because I have no need to use any of them. The company I work for offers Office 2010 Professional Plus to its employees for the princely sum of $10, $25 if wanting a physical disc. Needless to say, I went that route and thus use Excel.

Open note pad put your coordinates with coma in between each section that makes each column.

Ex: -80-43677,45-9826,rcl,Detroit

Saves As
Where to Save you save to desktop or any other place you want.
On file name line type what name you want at the end put .csv Ex: Redlight.csv

on Save as Type choose All Files and after you only need to press save.

Test and see if you can do it. I did before I posted and worked.