Today no matter where I am on the map in Microsoft Streets and Trips 2006, clicking "Show in MSN Virtual Earth" always shows me a view centered on the Plymouth Playground in Tampa, FL. This also happens with S&T 2006 and S&T 2010 trial version installed on my laptop computer. Is anyone else experiencing this problem?

It's not just you. Sorry for the inconvenience - investigation is underway.

[update: New version of Bing Maps was release yesterday and apparently there are a few wrinkles to be ironed out. Thanks for your patience. ]

[new update: The fix for this will be rolled out tonight or tomorrow (depending on your timezone).
Until it is fixed here is a work around:
1. examine the URL in your browser and find where it has ...%7c...
2. highlight just the 'c' and change it to an 'e'. ]

While the service is affected, the simple work around solution that seems to work for me is the following:

When I right-click a point on the map in Streets & Trips, and then select "Show in Bing Maps", my default web browser opens a URL that may look like the one bellow:

I substitute the pipe character "|" with a tilde "~" in the URL between the latitude and longitude so the URL looks as follows:

I was about to report the same problem to Msoft - but figured I'd check on LaptopGPSWorld first - and as I suspected - I found the issue reported here. This is a great site Marvin! And to have Larry tell us it's being worked on - just too cool!

FYI - Exhibits behavior in '09 too.

UPDATE: Fix is live!

Give the "show in Bing maps" feature a try and enjoy the aerial photographic goodness . Don't forget to check out the Bird's Eye view if it is available in your neck of the woods.

Larry, the apple tree my daughter and I planted in our backyard a couple of months ago is still missing on the map. What's up with that!

We photoshopped that out.

That would be 'digitally altered'. We don't use the term 'photoshopped' in Canada as it may affect sales of Corel PhotoPaint!

Terry

It even works in the UK, now. The long arm of MSFT...

Now if I could only figure out how to get rid of the "Get Directions" box on the left so I could see the aerial photo using the full width of the screen, it would be just like it used to be.

Good point RMCDO -

When you click Maps (1), then hover over area shown in 2, cursor becomes a hand, and 'X' appears. Then a 'close' dialog shows (3). I'm running IE7. Unfortunately, clicking does not close - so I assume this is currently a bug - and that we will be able to close the directions box in the near future(?)

Attached Images

bing cant close.png (389.4 KB)

Hey RMCDO -

Was looking a little closer and found that there is in fact an arrow that closes the directions box / expands map to full page width. You have to look close though - depending on what map you're in, it can be camouglaged pretty well. See arrow circled in red below. Clicking the arrow will expand map to full page width. Clicking it again (it's now far left screen) will return the 'get directions' box.

Attached Images

found the arrow.jpg (67.9 KB)

Thank you, thank you, thank you!! That's one thing that has been keeping me from using Bing Maps for some stuff. I hated that I couldn't figure out how to use the whole window for the map for some things.

...ken...

Yeah, Keith, how did you ever notice the almost invisible button??? I bet 99.99% of people will never notice it by themselves!

The button that expands the map to full screen stands out now that I know where to look, but I sure didn't notice it before. I also though that the bird's eye view was missing until I found it after placing my cursor over the small down arrow to the right of the Aerial button. Now if I could only get around the licensing error message I get when trying to run my new copy of S&T 2010, I'd be in business, but that's another story.

Clicking a pushpin and then select 'show in Live Maps' (2008) or 'Show in Bing Maps' doesn't work... is this 'hook' not compatible with IE8?

There was a temporary issue with this feature a couple weeks ago but it has been resolved. It appears to be working for me today with IE8.

I JUST tried it a moment ago - clicked on a pushpin I had on Highmore, SD and Bing Maps only zoomed in as far as the state level.

If you are zoomed in to state level in S&T when you click the "show in Bing Maps" button that is the approximate zoom level you should expect to see in Bing Maps.

Go back to S&T and zoom into 1 mile then click the "show in Bing Maps" button again. Now Bing maps should also display the map zoomed in.

Hope that helps.