Sorting POIs On My Garmin 5000

POI Loader pays no attention to any "sorting" that you might have done on your computer.

What you need to do is to create categories by putting the files into folders on your computer under your main POI folder.

POI Loader will use the folder names as categories on the GPS unit.

Take a look that this from the FAQs.
http://www.poi-factory.com/node/25721

You state you are loading 100 files using POI Loader. Try grouping the files and put them into folders within the folder POI Loader loads. This will create categories and, even though those are alphabetical when loaded, you will have fewer touches to get to the desired POI. There is a limit of 32 folders however.

Garmin First Sorts In Order Of Folder Creation. It then sorts individual POI Files within that folder Alphabetically.

First create folders on your computer with the same names as the ones you plan to use on the Garmin.

Then decide the Viewing Order that you want for each folder. For example, Rest areas, Red Light Cameras are files that you rarely would ever try to hunt down. You want them only as Proximity Alerts. If you're a Vet that deals only with Zoos and you use the GPS primarily for finding the zoos, you might want your list of Zoos to show up first.

Now that you know the Viewing Order, then when you create those same folders on your Garmin's SD Card, create the folders in order of your View Order. In my previous example, Zoos folder would be created first and Rest Areas and Red Light folders created last.

Now when you go to find your POI Files, you will find your Zoos Folder first. The Zoos will be shown alphabetically, which means that Atlanta Zoo first, then Cincinnati, then St Louis Zoo etc. If you created a file called Family and Friends after after Zoos, but before Rest Areas and Red Lights, then Family and Friends will show after Zoos, but before Rest Areas and Red Lights.

Give thought to the order, because if you suddenly decide that you want Family and Friends first, instead of Zoos, you have to delete everything and start again.

In my case, I want my POIs for vacations to show up first, ONLY WHEN I am actually going on a trip. Any other time, I don't need these POIs. The Vacation folder was created first, but I simply go in and delete vacation.gpi that is found within the Vacation Folder and the result is that the display simply skips completely past the Vacation folder, to whichever folder was created next assuming it has a POI file in it.

Creating Folders also make it easier to load file, because you only have to reload POI folders that have changed, instead of loading all 100 at once.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the info but I dont want to deal with folders. I am going to number the POIs with a numerical prefix to put them in the order I want. That should work, right? Phil Swanson

Adding a numeral to the csv or gpx filename will cause the GPS to consider the file to be a speed zone alert and you will lose the green Go button to create a route to one of the numeral-ed custom POIs. If you want to pursue this method, use the alphabet rather than numerals.

Try grouping by the order you want then simply prefix the file names using the alphabet because that is how they will be sorted. I always use double letters e.g.: aa, ab, ac, ad,..... then ba, bb, bc, bd..... This gives you almost endless sort within each group. Do not use numerals because they could cause unwanted reading through the GPS.

Folders is the best way to go, and isn't all that hard. But......

If you don't want that, the only other way is an alphabetic prefix. With 100 files, you'll need something like "aa" , "ab" etc. like trippin08 said.

If you add a file, you might have to reset all your prefixes. You'll also have to reload ALL your files anytime one changes, or if you have to add or remove some files.

Good luck.

That way you only reload the folder who's files you have changed.

We sometimes assume that everyone knows how to set up folders on their SD card and if you haven't done it before, it might seem to be too much of a challenge. With that in mind, here is how to set these up.

If you haven't done thios before, may I suggest that you make a very basic system at first where you create only a couple of folders and then load the POI files to them and see how it works. Remember that the GPS sorts folders in order of creation.

Suggestion: I would suggest that you put your POIs on your computer in categories, such as Rest Areas, Red Light, Business, Restaurants, or whatever categories seem appropriate. Then create subdirectories in your computer’s POIs file location and name them Rest Area, Red Light, Business, etc.
Create subdirectories on your SD card that are the same.
F:/Garmin/POI/Business
F:/Garmin/POI/Restaurants
F:/Garmin/POI/Rest Areas
F:/Garmin/POI/Red Light

Loading POIs follows the same procedure, except you will choose the Business sub on your SD card and the Business sub for you computer when using POI Loader.
The advantage is that you may only need to update 2 or 3 files if updating Rest Areas, rather than reloading all 50 of your POIs, whcih would normally have a wide range of different categories.

In addition, your POI files will list as Business.gpi, Restaurant.gpi, Red Light.gpi, etc.
Instead of search through a mixed up group of files, all will follow a logical sequence.