When I manually input a Pushpin (POI) it will typically have a Name on the first line, then on the second line (directly below the Name in the Pushpin Information window) I'll enter the address, the next line will be city, and so on.

When you export this set of Pushpin's to a GPX file all this information will be in the GPX file.

Here's an example:
<wpt lat="31.838445287678" lon="-99.576849796374"><name>Lakeside Park (COE)</name><desc>230 Friendship Park Rd
325-625-2322</desc></wpt>

And this is what I want. However, if you have imported a .csv, or .txt, file and maybe you make some additions or changes, then try exporting these Pushpin's/POI's to a .GPX file the only thing that gets exported are the Lat/Long coordinates and the Name. None of the Address, City, state, etc. will be exported.

Can anyone tell me why this happens? And if there's a correct way to export it so this data will be in the .GPX file?

It sounds like the problem is in the import, not the export. Is there some way to tell how the data was stored in the pushpin when it's imported? eg. Properties, or something similar, that will give you a clue if the "<desc>" information is in the second line after import like it is when you enter it manually?

I haven't done an import for awhile so I don't recall ... can you specify in the import wizard where the various bits of information go when they are imported? I've only imported Excel files, never CSV or TXT, so I'm kind of clueless about what Streets might do with them.

...ken...

Thanks for responding Ken.
I noticed when you import a .txt file via the Import Data Wizard all the POI's have a blank line following the Name title. See Photo:

<edit>Expired link removed</edit>

However when you create your own Pushpin to represent a POI and enter the data by hand, you typically fill in the second line, the one just below the Name (top part of the information section) and so on. See the following photo:

<edit>Expired link removed</edit>

every thing is just fine when you export.

So I'm wondering why does Importing a .TXT file via Import Data Wizard always leave the second line blank?

By the way Ken, I still haven't been able to get the Location and Scale Toolbar to not come up everytime S&T starts. Weird.

I created a .TXT file with the following line in it (except it had a real address):

In the import data wizard I set the fields to:

When I clicked Finish it imported the data and placed the pushpin in the correct location on the map.

There was no blank line in the information balloon.

When I exported the data to GPX the description was there.

It looks like you just need to set the fields properly in the import data wizard and it will work fine.

I don't know what to say about the Location & Scale toolbar. All I have to do is make sure it's turned off when I exit and when I run it the next time it's still off. Messing with the settings doesn't make any difference if I don't have it turned off when I exit.

I can't remember if I said it last time but I'm just running the program with the default map. If you're doing something different to run the program I can't say whether my experience will apply or not.

...ken...

Thanks for the info... I don't know what's happening. I'm not new to this at all. I've been using Streets and Trips since 2001 and importing all kinds of .txt files for years. I've never noticed this before, but then I've never exported this way. Meaning I've noticed it now because of S&T 2010's ability to export to a .GPX which I like, not only for the actual .GPX file but it's easy to edit the file and convert it to a .TXT file. I've created and uploaded some of these .txt files to Discovery Owners and the POI Factory Web site's for others to use. Mostly related to RV'ers.

I did go back and try S&T 2009 on my laptop and noticed the same thing with respect to the blank line. Again getting the blank line when importing. I also tried it on a old desktop I still have that has S&T 2007 on it. S&T 2007 did NOT add the blank line.

As far as the Location & Scale toolbar I've tried it with the default map and it's still the same, always comes up turned on.

By the way, are you running Windows XP or Vista? I'm running Windows XP SP3. Maybe this has something to do with it.

Thanks again for your efforts.

I just very quickly tested the import of .txt in the new 2010 version of Streets & Trips, and I didn't experience any issue. See the attached two screen shots.

Could you attach the .txt file you are unable to import successfully?

Attached Images

import-test-1-20091014.gif (25.0 KB)

import-test-2-20091014.gif (8.8 KB)

Yes, that's my experience, too.

It seems that the new S&T2010 feature (Tools|Options|Map|Save) doesn't save everything. It saves the map position, but it doesn't save the user's choice of pane. To accomplish that we still have to do it the old way, "Save as Template": How to Customize the Default Map Template - Windows Live

Marvin, I see the difference. It's what is used to match. Meaning when matching the location from the address as you did it works.

So it appears when the matching information is the Latitude,Longitude this is when it adds the blank line. And apparently the blank line is what causes it to drop the other information when exporting to .GPX

Normally this wouldn't be a problem except a lot of times you can't use addresses as the matching information because there are many times S&T can't find a particular address. The only alternative is to use lat/long.

I guess this isn't that much of a problem unless when you export to .GPX, if you want all the data, not just the location and name, you're out of luck.

Thanks I was beginning to think I was going bat's. Are you running XP or Vista?

It should work fine even when lat/long is used:

Attached Images

import-test-3-20091014.gif (21.3 KB)

import-test-4-20091014.gif (1.8 KB)

XP

Running XP Pro SP3.

What are you doing in the import wizard? Are you matching the screenshots that Marvin posted and making sure that you use the correct field names for each field? That's what I did and works just like it did for Marvin; it never shows a blank line.

Are you trying to use a file with a mixture of addresses and lat/long coordinates?

...ken...

Ken... Yes, I'm using the lat/long as the matching component. Here's a sample of one record out of one of the files. Have no choice but to use lat/long coordinates because many of the street addresses don't exist in S&T, as is the case with this sample record.

Golden Hassan Casino,32.22238,-112.51311,HWY 8,Ajo AZ

I'm not sure what you mean by using a file with a mixture of addresses and lat/long coordinates. It doesn't matter because when you import the file you chose which set of data will be the matching component. The default is Street Address, but when you set the F's for Lat, and Long, this changes the matching component to lat/long and ignores the Street Address.

Marvin... on the sample you did you didn't have any data after the lat/long. Try the sample I included here and see if you get the blank line between the lat/long and the Street Address which is Hwy 8. This blank line that I always get seems to be what deletes all but lat/long and Name fields when exporting to .GPX

It still appears to work just fine, even with your data:

Attached Images

import-test-5-20091014.gif (17.7 KB)

import-test-6-20091014.gif (1.7 KB)

I guess I'm not explaining myself very well.

A mixture of records... some lines in the file have lat/long and other lines have addresses, eg.

Name One, 49.xxxxxxxx, -130.xxxxxxxx, Other Stuff, More other stuff
Name Two, 123 Main Street, Ajo, AZ
Name Three, 50.xxxxxxx, -131.xxxxxxxx, 456 Railway Ave, Gold Canyon, AZ

Is this the sort of thing you are doing? Or does every line in the data file have the exact same layout of the data?

It does matter in solving your problem. The import data wizard might be wizardly in figuring out what to use in each data line to match to a location on the map. But if you don't tell it correctly what the data fields are you get the problem you are having.

I can reproduce your problem every time by not having the fields set correctly in the data import wizard. But I can also resolve it, exactly as in Marvin's examples, by having the fields set properly in the data import wizard.

To help you resolve the problem we need to see a few lines of sample data exactly as you have them in your data file. You can change some of the details to make them anonymous if you need to. It's the layout of lat/long versus other data from one line to the next that matters.

...ken...

Okay, I misunderstood. Every line in the data file is the exact same layout, eg.

Name One, 49.xxxxxxxx, -104.xxxxxxxx, Other Stuff, More other stuff
Name Two, 52.xxxxxxxx, -105.xxxxxxxx, Other Stuff, More other stuff
Name Three, 38.xxxxxxxx, -103.xxxxxxxx, Other Stuff, More other stuff

<edit>Expired link removed</edit>

After the import you can see what I'm referring to. There is a blank line.

<edit>Expired link removed</edit>

The above shows my import criteria. As you mentioned I'm including a short file with 15 records. This file is pretty much the same layout as any of the files we RV'ers tend to download and use by importing to S&T.

Ken... I really appreciate you and Marvin hanging in here with me on this. It appears it could be my particular setup. Maybe a combination of my desktop,Windows and the way I have S&T setup. Although as I mentioned before I found this same thing happened on one of my laptops running S&T 2009 (meaning it ends up with the blank line).

Attached Files

CWTest.txt (1,007 Bytes)

Thanks for supplying the test file. That's what I needed so I could test with it. Saves a whole mess of typing back and forth at each other.

It looks like it can't be done. I tried every combination I could think of and it looks like if you are going to have BOTH the lat/long AND the address you can't do it. That is, Streets is quite happy to import the data and create the pushpin for you.

I can get it in in one of two ways. Either I can make sure all the field headings are correct for the data they contain (as you did) and it has the blank line after the lat/long and then the other three fields listed as F4, F5 and F6. OR I can set the address fields to <Other Data> and it's just completely blank after the lat/long.

So it's very usable in Streets no matter what order I put things in in the data file. But, as you already know, with that blank line in there it won't export anything but the waypoint name and location into the GPX file.

I can't find any way to get it in so that Streets will export it with all of the data included in the <desc>. Once it's imported Streets will only export the waypoint name and location but no description.

I even tried doing a major edit on the data file to move the latitude and longitude fields to the end of each line so it was Name, Address, City, State, Lat, Long. Still no joy. In this case it still lists the Name and the lat/long in the info balloon followed by a blank line. If I do the field names correctly in the import wizard the Address, City and State show up as F2, F3 and F4 with this configuration.

That last item tells me the key to this is that Streets will ALWAYS key on the location data if it's included. If the actual latitude and longitude of the pushpin location is included, Streets is not matching. It's just using the location data you supply. And it appears that if you use location data you will always get the location data and the name and any other information will be fielded (F4, F5, F6) and included but ignored or if it's designated as "Other Data" it will simply be dropped on import.

So, it looks like the only way to get Streets to include the address data in the info balloon in a way that it will export into a GPX file is to use the address and don't include the location data.

I know that's not what you wanted to hear but I think I've tried every possible way to import it through the import data wizard. I would be happy if someone can find some way to do it that I've overlooked.

...ken...

Okay, I tried another way that does get the addresses into the pushpins so they will export properly but I'm not sure it's useful.

In the import data wizard I lied. I designated the Name, Address 1, City and State properly but I called both the latitude and longitude "<Other Data>".

Without the latitude and longitude fields labelled properly, Streets doesn't know that there is location data to use so it is forced to match on addresses. Once it has gone through the match routine and got confirmation from you on each address it creates the pushpins with the Name and address information displayed with no blank line so it will export into the GPX file properly.

The only problem with this approach is that you could get bad matches and some or many of the POIs could end up in the wrong locations. Or at least not in the exact locations in the file.

So, if you want to share the file with someone you are probably better off to just share the original data file with them. Or if they need GPX you could use a file converter to convert it to GPX for them.

...ken...

I wonder if this could be helped a bit by selecting the "Name 2" heading for the address (or any other important column) while importing the .csv file to Streets & Trips.

The "Other Data" columns will be imported, they will just not appear, by default, in the balloons. However, it is possible to control which fields will be shown in the info balloons by settings in Lagend & Overview pane => right-click your imported pushpin set => Balloon => add/remove check mark to control what shows in balloons.

Thanks a lot for the assistance. I certainly didn't expect to tie you guys up on this for two or three days.

Yes, it's definitely the blank line that does it. I noticed when you have the information balloon opened you can type data into this blank line. Just for the heck of it after importing the CWTest.txt file I entered data into one of the blank records and when I exported it the information I'd entered did indeed export into the .GPX file.

<edit>Expired link removed</edit>

I noticed on an earlier 2007 version of S&T after importing a .txt or .csv, S&T still added a blank line, but it was placed after all the imported fields, instead of before as it's been in S&T 2008,2009 & now 2010. The lack of the blank line being before the fields is apparently why the earlier versions would have worked okay. Microsoft for some reason changed the code and placed the blank line at the beginning. I wonder if the blank line is there so users can add additional data if the want?

Something else interesting. If you import a .GPX file, I had one directly from a Garmin unit, there is no blank line added. Plus, on the POI's of this imported file I can add data to an existing balloon (make a change, add new line, etc.) and then export it to .GPX and the new data is included in the saved file. It seems Microsoft has changed or at least S&T isn't standardized. Maybe we can put this in the wish list, Marvin.

Well again, thanks for the help.

This is consistent with some of the other problems that have been reported in other threads here about GPX. It seems the sub-application that processes GPX exports massages the data (whether or nor desired by the user) before it finalizes a file. This seems to be principally editing out information based upon certain cues in the text, like blank lines. The possible rationale for doing this might be to keep the files small, a dubious objective in view of the havoc it causes.

This should be a useful thread to other users and to Microsoft. The question and the answers have really contributed to our product knowledge; good going guys!

But did the data after the blank line also export? That is, did the new data you typed in AND the following three fields all export this time?

Or just the lat/long and the stuff you typed in the blank line?

...ken...

No Ken... it did not. Only the data I typed in exported into the .GPX file.

Darn!!

...ken...

I know, Is there a way to notify the S&T folks? I'd call this a bug in the program and not necessarily something to go into a wish list. Hopefully this information will get to someone at Microsoft and correct it.

I think Wish List for Microsoft Streets and Trips is a perfect place for reporting issues, not just requesting new features. I think issues of existing features may get even much more attention than requests for new features.