Subdirectories: Creating and Using

A: Why Make Subdirectories:

You want the files that you use as waypoints to show up near the top of your list. If you’re visiting places as part of your job you might want your customers, and your favourite hotels near the top. You will also have other categories located at the top for easy access.
Files such as Rest Areas and Red Light Cameras are only set as Proximity Alerts and are meant to simply give you an alert. These will not be used as a waypoint, so they can go to the bottom.

Subdirectories make it easier to update files, because you will only have to choose or ignore files that are in a specific subdirectory, instead of going through 30 or 40 or more files and clicking Ignore for a bunch of them, you may only have to deal 10 files or less.
Subdirectories also provide a means of ensuring the files, that you want at the top of your list of POIs are actually at the top.

B: Understanding Garmin Sort Order of Subdirectories: (I Believe that all Garmins operate this way, but it’s possible that some may differ)

1. Assume, you have set up the following subdirectories on your SD card and have matching subdirectories, on your PC, where you store your POI files.

2. Name the Subdirectories on your PC the same as what you want on your SD Card. When you load the files, POI Loader will create file names based on the name of the Subdirectory on your PC.
a. Example subdirectories: Rest Areas, Red Light Cameras, Vacation Trip, Hotels, Restaurants, Businesses, Family & Friends. Put your various POIs in their appropriate directories on your computer.
b. How Many POIs: Subdirectories can have as many or as few POI files as you think is necessary, but too many will defeat the purpose.
c. Sort Order: The Subdirectories will be in the Sub’s Creation Order. The POI File in each sub will be in Alphabetic order. (Note: Creation Order only applies to your SD Card. You can create subdirectories on your PC in any order and it will not affect how things display on the GPS)
Assume the following “Creation Order”. (Example Time & Date in Brackets)
d. Creation Order Example: Vacation Trip ( 3:12 PM, Mar 3); Hotels (3:15 PM Mar 3); Restaurants (3:20 PM Mar 3); Businesses (3:25 PM Mar 3) Rest Areas (3:30 PM Mar 3); Red Light Cameras (3:35 PM Mar 3). p.s. I’ve shown all were created the same day, but they can be months or years apart. It’s still sorted in Creation Order.
e. How POIs Display On GPS: I have included the subdirectory names for clarity only. The GPS will display the POI names only. Subdirectory names WILL NOT be shown.

i. Vacation Trip: Charleston Attractions, Myrtle Beach NB,
Myrtle Beach SB, Wilmington Attractions. (Note: If you want to
totally force waypoint POIs like Myrtle Beach NB & SB to the top,
name them something like A-Myrtle Beach NB & A-Myrtle Beach SB.
Do Not use a number in front.)
ii. Hotels: Best Western; Choice Hotels, Holiday Inn; Wyndham
Resorts
iii. Restaurants: Bob Evans; Chick-Fil-A; Pot Belly Sandwich
Works
iv. Businesses: Cheverolet_USA; Factory Outlets Combined ; Jo-Ann
Fabric & Craft;
v. Rest Areas: Rest Areas Ontario; Rest Areas USA
vi. Red Light Cameras: Red Light Cameras Canada; Red Light
Cameras USA.
f. POI Loader file name “Vacation Trips.gpi”, will be created in
that subdirectory. Since Vacation POIs are only used during a
Vacation, I delete “Vacation Trips.gpi” when the vacation is
over, but I leave the Vacation Trip subdirectory intact.
g. Continue loading the files for the other subdirectories. The
order that you load to the subdirectories does not matter. You
will get additional files created in each subdirectory, such as
“Hotels.gpi”, “Restaurants.gpi”, etc.
h. Updating Subdirectories, on the SD Card. You only need to
update subs that have changed. If it hasn’t changed skip it.
When you load any updated POI file, POI Loader will ask if it c
an overwrite the file. Say “Yes”

3. Naming the subdirectories and the sort order are things that you must give a fair amount of thought to. I have shown the typical subdirectories that I have on my GPS as well as a brief explanation of why I chose these and how I use them.
a. I primarily use my GPS for my 2 day a week retirement job and for vacation trips. No matter what, I ALWAYS WANT Rest Areas and Red Light Cameras at the very bottom of the list. These are strictly Proximity Alerts. I will never use them for waypoints.
b. When I go on vacation, I create files such as Myrtle Beach NB, Myrtle Beach SB, using Extra POI Editor to produce waypoints that force the GPS to route along the roads that I want, for the leaving and return trips. I want waypoint files at the most convenient spot on the top of the list.
I also create other files such as Charleston Attractions, Myrtle Beach Attractions, etc.. These are all loaded into Vacation Trips subdirectory and become “Vacation Trips.gpi”.
c. I also load Hotels, Restaurants, and Businesses, as well as Rest Areas, for my vacation trip.
d. The files I want to quickly access now show up at the very top of the GPS POI List in the order I showed in C:1:d & e. It means, that I don’t have to scroll through several pages to find the POI file that I want for my vacation. They will be on the first or second page in most cases.
e. When I load the files, I ignore files that aren’t applicable for the trip and as noted above, POI Loader will ask to overwrite the old file on the SD Card.
f. Important Note: When I'm back from my vacation, I delete the “Vacation Trips.gpi” and “Hotels.gpi”, etc. files from their respective subdirectories. That way, they don’t keep appearing at the top of the POI list, when I'm no longer on vacation.
g. DO NOT DELETE THE SUBDIRECTORIES!!!. ONLY THE .gpi FILES THAT YOU DON’T NEED.

4. Getting Started: Make a list of subdirectory names that fit your GPS usage. As you can see, from my examples, consider the likelihood that you may add and delete files for things like vacations trips, etc. Even if only take one or two vacation trips a year, you should still create a “Vacation Trip” subdirectory as your first sub.
a. Perfecting The List: After you create and use some files that are loaded in the subdirectories, you may find that you need more or fewer subdirectories, or the order may not suit. Unfortunately, if you want to insert a sub, at the beginning or in the middle, you will have to delete all the subs that come after the place where you want the new file and recreate all the others in the right order. That's why I advise you to think this through ahead of time. Write out what you want. Walk away and come back several times, until you are reasonably sure that it's correct. Then create.
b. Experiment: Create 3 or 4 subdirectories, at first, but create them on the SD card, in any order other than the alphabetic order that they show on your PC. Load some POI files and see how it looks on your GPS. That will give you a better understanding, before you create a larger group of subdirectories.