Lat and Long

http://brillharts.com/GarminAlerts/

specifically, this text from the above link:

"The key here is that the LONGITUDE goes first (generally a negative number in the US), followed by the LATITUDE, then a Name, and finally an optional description."

I appreciate that!

Do you know how I should go about uploading the Aldi file with the new store in it? Do I need to contact the original file creator and just wait to hear from him/her?

You need to contact the orignal owner of the update to their POI file. They will then update it. If you you don't get a reply the contact john or angela and they will update the file. Good Luck.

dkeane is maintainer of the file. You can contact him with the update by going to http://www.poi-factory.com/user/32160

Welcome to the site.

There is a Getting Started button in the upper right of this page right under POI Files. It is worthwhile visiting this page.

To make navigation easy, most browsers provide the following option. When you want to follow a link - but still keep your current page open - you can hold down the "Ctrl" key as you left-click on a link. That action will open a new "Tab" in your browser up on the "Tab" bar. When you then left-click on that new "Tab", you will follow the link - leaving the "Tab" you are now reading open and available to click on and return here.

So, using the "Getting Started" link, you might try the "Ctrl" - left-click sequence and then return here. You can return by either "X-ing" out of the "Getting Started" page (using the "X" on the "Tab" itself) or just left-clicking on the "Tab" for the page you are on right now.

Since you are new here, I encourage you to go through a couple of the Beginner Education FAQs.

The first link makes sure the settings on your computer are such that you can do more advanced POI loading.
http://www.poi-factory.com/node/30393

The next link helps you make a backup of your GPS by attaching it to your computer. (NEVER do anything to your GPS until you have a backup)
http://www.poi-factory.com/node/30394

Let us know how we can help you enjoy your GPS.

1) "In-a-perfect-world" method:

When an existing POI file has updates you've identified, the first approach is to contact the maintainer of the file. Assuming you're referring to:

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/8051

you see at the top that it's maintained by dkeane. Tap the dkeane and you'll go to their account:

http://www.poi-factory.com/user/32160

where you can tap the Contact:

http://www.poi-factory.com/user/32160/contact

In your email, let them know of your revision with an added/deleted location, etc. If the POI file also has info on things like address, hours of operation, phone, these will also save time for the maintainer in making the revision if you want to offer them as well.

2) "In-a-less-than-perfect-world" method:

If the maintainer has no way to be contacted--or doesn't make the correction or reply to you, then your choice is to contact either JM or GlobeTurtle stating that you have a correction for xxxx POI file and that you can't get through to the maintainer. In this case, JM or GlobeTurtle will make the revision. An easy way to contact JM or GlobeTurtle is through:

http://www.poi-factory.com/contact

In any event, we all will thank you for your efforts. Member updates to existing POI files is why the files here stay current.

thanks everyone for all your help and the links! I'm off to do a lot more reading now.

When I started making POIs I would look up the coordinates and then swap them manually as I pasted them into the file I was making. It didn't take me long to realize that that could lead to errors and was just extra work. I started processing the data that I was collecting with a very simple script written in AWK. It builds the final POI file for me. The Lat and Long "problem" became a simple one line "fix". (Actually it reduced 3 lines of the old script to 1.) This line of AWK examines the cut and pasted input to find the comma, then it sets the lat and log variables to whatever was before and after the comma. Faster and far less error prone than swapping them manually.

/LAT&LON:/ { c=index($2,","); lat=substr($2,1,(c-1)); lon=substr($2,c+1,length($2));}

I'm using Open Office instead of Excel - will have to see if it will work with that.

I hate to keep starting new threads, so will post this here - anyone else have trouble with the Cici's Pizza file? I am trying to open it in Extra POI Editor, but it keeps telling me it doesn't have enough columns.

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/7371

Here is a sample from the csv file.

-106.777367,32.302811,"CiCi's Pizza","815 El Paseo
Las Cruces, NM 88001

Got a script to fix that? From what I can tell, POI editor has problems because the info lined up properly. As in, the "Las" above is in column A under the Lat and Long, instead of being out in column E after "Paseo"

Or should I just install it and see what happens? I wanted to delete a few POI's that I know are closed before I installed it to my Garmin.

I just downloaded the file as a .csv and opened it in EPE v5.32 and it worked.

Maybe someone else will try it.

If I open it in Notepad++, I see

Looks like your file is truncated. Did you do something before trying it in EPE?

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/33782

Well I did find that the file was truncated by downloading a fresh copy, thanks. Weird that Open Office seems to have truncated that one, but not the others. Glad it only did it to that one file and I'm sure it's a case of operator error.

I haven't used OpenOffice in a while, so I used the portable version I carry on a USB bug in my pocket and fired it up. Opened OK for me.

As a matter of interest, why did you pick that particular Las Cruces entry to use as an illustration? Maybe that entry or the one just before it had something odd associated with it.

Glad it is working now for you.