Is there any way of saving your route options so you do not have to change it when you make a new trip. By this I mean driving speed, start and end of day, cost of fuel and fuel usage. I would like to open and plan a trip without have to re-due these settings all the time.

Create a Template: choose your options and whatever and save as a Template. Do a search in Help for "Template" for better advice.

Yep, I have created several templates for certian preferences and save them with unique name.

Same thing using POI Mega file download. I have made several templates with unique POI spots and save them as templates.

To save as template click save as and change file type too MAP TEMPLATE with your special file name

Then open that template and you can create a route just the way you want and save it as Street / Trips est file with a special name as well. you can modify the est file any time

I have spent the last two hours trying to create a template, with no success. This is the procedure I have been using: Create a sample route with at least two stops. Get driving directions. Click on "More options". On "segments" (I want all of my maps to use the "Preferred roads" rather than "Quickest") I chose "Preferred roads", and select the types of roads with my desired level of like or dislike. Click on OK and return to the Route Planner window. I click on "Save as", and select "template" under file type. Then to determine if my goal has been accomplished I close S&T then reopen S&T using the saved file name I used for the template. In the Route Planner the original sample route stops are deleted, and a new set of stops and driving directions are again created. When I click on other options and go to segments, each segment is given as "Quickest" rather than "Preferred roads". What am I doing wrong? Please help.

Yes, but where are you saving it to? In other words, which folder? I'll bet it is not "Templates".

You are right! I failed to observe the destination of the file, and did not realize that if you select the file type to be "templates" the file is by default sent to a "templates" folder. This morning I went back to try it again and changed the destination to be desktop. I also began to think that maybe I need to create the template with the first two stops of a real trip, rather than a sample set of stops which I will delete when setting up the real trip. Will this also effect the setting?

I am not sure STT files are saved in the Templates folder by default; that is not the case for me. I take care to save STT files in the Templates folder, which is under "My Documents" on my hard drive.

When I want to use any particular STT file to construct a route, I go to File>New which then pops up a box with all the STT files in my Templates folder. Then, I select the STT I want as my map template and proceed.

I do not understand what you are trying to accomplish with the use of your sample stops or why you feel you need them. You do not need to have any stops at all although my favorite STT file for home-and-back expeditions has Start and End map points already selected. Even with just these Start and End route points all Route options, including Segment choices, is preserved. Why have sample stops in an STT file and then delete them as soon as you open the STT file?

P. S. I do not understand why you change the destination save-to folder to the Desktop; please explain.

It probably doesn't save me much time, but I feel that if the template is on my desk top I will access it more quickly than if I have to open my documents folder, then open my subfolder templates. Am I mistaken? I am just getting used to Windows 7, and it appears that any templates I create are defaulted to some place in drive C that I have never opened using Vista or XP. It definitely is not stored in the documents folder. I had to search like crazy the first time before I found the correct path. As far as your first point, I didn't know how to change the default settings under "preferred roads" without at least two stops. Since I wasn't ready to enter any "real" stops for our next trip, I just made some up. Could I have done something else?

Ron, the Help file lays out what to do pretty well. I think you are a bit of course.When you Do File>Save as, you have a choice of saving as an EST or an STT file, no? If you select STT, it defaults to a folder named "Templates" that already has "New North America Map.sst" in it. It is a low-level folder that was created during the installation process. This is where S&T saves STT files and where S&T looks for STT files when you set about creating a new map file and is, therefore it seems to me, the best place for them. So, I still do not understand why you want to make things more complicated for yourself by storing STT files anywhere else.

Then, when you want to create a new route using any particular STT template, you go to File>New and you will get a pop-up box asking you which template you want to use, "New North America Map" or something else you might have created. It seems to me that is much easier than retrieving a file from your Desktop or somewhere else on your disk. You do not have to looking for STT (or other files) on you Desktop or elsewhere on your computer. I do not see how it could be easier. You are correct that you must have a route, which requires two stops to enable selecting Segment types under Route Options but they can both be in your driveway or wherever you are; I do not think there is any minimum distance, just a Start and an End. Of course, if your route does not involve either of these Stops, you would need to erase them at some point but your Segment preference would survive that erasure.

I apologize for being so dense, but I just performed the following: Opened S&T from "all programs". Clicked on "file-new" and a small box opened which contained North American Map and Import Data Wizard as two options. I clicked on North American Map. Entered two stops and got directions. Opened more options window, and changed the settings for preferred roads. Clicked on "save as" and changed the file type to Stt. The destination folder was called template by default(?). I closed the map. I then again opened S&T, clicked on file-new. The newly created template did not appear in the small box, only the original two choices--North American Map, or Data Wizard. However, if I click on file-open, the template file contains the newly created "template". But after I open it and add another stop, and check on the settings under preferred roads, the default settings are back. I give up. I will just change the settings for each segment one at a time.

OK, let's go through this step by step.OKOKOKOKOKDid you save it to this default "Template" folder? Or did you change the folder to where the STT file was saved?

Saved to this folder. Thanks for your patients, but I am not sure this issue is worth any more of your time. I do have one different question. Can a location (a nearby campground for example) be copy and pasted from the map (control c) to the "route from current location to" box (control v) and use f3 on the GPS pane to be routed directly to that campground?

Did you put in a new name when you did the "Save as"? If you don't it will make up a name and save it somewhere else.

I am not going to quit on this until you are fully sorted out.

On your location copy question, there may be a couple of answers.

First, if you click on a location (anywhere) and then right-click, you will get a context box pop up which has in it a line called "Route". Click on that and then "Add as stop" and it will drop that location into the box on the GPS pane where it says "Recalculate route from current location to:". Then, all you have to do is go back to the route planner pane and calculate a route.

Second, you can add a Pushpin to the map at the desired location and then pull up that pushpin for incorporation into a route at any time. You can even copy that pushpin from one map to another with [ctrl]-v.

OK, so you won't let me quit on the template? Bummer! I will try again because I think I did not change the name.

On the other, let me see if I am clear. After I locate a place (in the past it has almost always been a campground) that is not already on my route, but want to go to as the next stop, I need to get that location on the route planner pane as the "start" and calculate driving directions. Then just do f3? While on the road last month I did this but was confused where to locate this stop (start, end, or stop) because in the route planner pane there always was a stop marked "current location". What do I do with that, just leave it there and put the new location as the start?

The Template feature is so useful and my sense is that you are so close to solving it that it should be worth the perserverance.

On the other topic, my understanding of what you are trying to do is drifting.

If it is a location you want to visit in the future, it is not a "Start". Start is your initial location at the top of the Route planner list of stops. So, it is either "Stop" or "End", your choice. End is the last location on the list and you can have any number of Stops between Start and End. F3 basically creates a Stop at your current location derived from received GPS data. If you recalculate your route after hitting F3, you will see your current locaton in the list of the Route planner.

So, I think the answer to your question is "just leave it there" and also leave the new location where it is as a Stop.

I apologize for giving you incomplete information regarding the "campground" issue. The context is: We are traveling using a pre-planned trip of approximately 125 stops. We are finished with stop 43, and it is time to find a nearby campground (no visited stops have been deleted). Is the following sequence of key strokes an efficient way to accomplish the goal. Locate a campground using "find nearby places" feature. Right click on the location, and click on route-add as start. Open "route planner" feature and click on "get directions", then simply click on f3 (I am not using "keys"). I forgot, what about stopping and restarting the navigation feature?

I will try creating a template and get back to you if I still am unable to get that done.

Thanks for your help,
Ron

Do NOT add your newly-found campground as "Start."

Just add it as a Stop. Recalculate using Get directions. It should be stop #44 or some higher number. If you are already at stop 43, there is no need to click F3. I only use F3 if I have strayed massively off-route. It is probably better to be doing the above with GPS Navigation suspended, but I am not sure about that.

Wow, that procedure is so logical and efficient. I feel so stupid not recognizing how to get that done with out all the help. I have been trying to find the keyboard short cut to suspend navigation during our entire trip, and since we got home. Is there one. I know if I use "keys" it is <pause>, but what about without? I looked throughout the help index for keyboard shortcuts but didn't find that specific command.