Show date in Microsoft Streets and Trips, instead of just Day 1, Day 2, Day 3

cornwallsteve said:
I don't know what version of S&T you are using, but for the 2009 version, there is a new release of a free tool S&T Keys 2009 that implement a calendar mode while navigating, based on this idea.

See for yourself if it is usefull for you (Follow the link in my signature for 2009 version)

This feature of displaying date/time (called S&T Keys "calendar option") is now also available to S&T 2010 and Autoroute 2010 (English version) user's as well.

So if this is interesting to you, you may download this free addon and give it a try (see links in my signature)...

MisterMoonlight,

No, this is not what I want. I want to be able to "plan" with a date so it will be easier to make reservations at campgrounds. Day 28 means nothing to me. The software allows you to stay x number of nights on many stops, so with a "start date" in the options area, one could see the dates in the Directions pane.

If you owned Trailer Life Campground Navigator software, you would see what I am referring to. That software has a start date in the options section of the program, then when you print out the directions or look at it on the screen, it shows the actual calendar dates, i.e. May 1, 2010. Other than that feature, however, it is not a very good software option.

Tom

Tom said:
I am not trying to say that this is the complete solution to allow using date in S&T. You don't have to convince me of anything. Having complete calendar planning support in direction pane and while navigating would be a great new feature in S&T.

I am just telling that in the meantime, there is a partial solution with existing products that is doing part of the job. For many people like me, most of the trip i am planning are fitting inside 1 calendar month. So the propose manual tip to add a dummy stop to match Day 16, at 10 hr AM can easily match for me current month (whatever it is), date 16 of this month at 10 hr am. I don't have to see that the month is april in the calendar to help me schedule an hotel on april 20, even if S&T shows me that this is day 20 (i can figure out that this is april myself).

At plannig time, a dummy stop can be added to manually fit the calendar date/time to the expected departure date/time (and all other stops to the end will match a pseudo calendar date). This helps to do the planning, hotel resevation, activity reservations, etc. When ready to start the trip and navigates, this dummy stop can be remove in 10 secs, and you may continue to use S&T Keys to match direction pane Day xx/ Time xx indication matching current month Date/time (using calendar mode option in S&T Keys). This way, your trip in S&T (direction pane) can continue showing you on what date you would be at which hotel, etc, etc. As long as your trip does not last more than 31 days, this workaround seems to me interesting, a better than nothing solution. This is the reason of calendar mode option in S&T Keys.

And i know it is not perfect all the time, cause it may show at month wrap around (Day 30 or 31) that we would be at the hotel at day 32 (but when navigating in the first day of the next month, the display in direction pane would readjust to Day 1 at one moment or the other, and all the other stops in the planning)!!

And yes you are free to use it or not, anyway it is a free solution available for all S&T 2009, S&T 2010 and Autoroute 2010 users.

And yes it would be very usefull if Microsoft adds a complete calendar support while planning/navigating in S&T. I am giving my vote for this also

This suggestion, which was made a quite a while ago, is worth bumping up again.

Streets & Trips is being marketed to RVers, and other frequent travelers. These folks love to pre-plan quite a bit, and a built-in calendar feature would make for a much better user experience.

Marvin,

First, as you know, I'm an avid planner with MS S&T for my RV trips, but initial reviews on the 2011 S&T version tells me that the design team either got cut back or MS is happy with their product "as is".

So, I upgraded my old 2007 version of Trailer Life Campground Navigator to the 2011 version. The Microsoft development team could learn a lot from this new version. It not only still has the calendar feature, but also has elevation calculations and gives you grade warnings along your route. They are not as sophisticated with POI / pushpin treatment yet - it's all of them or none of them, and CSV format with strict column structure - but it does allow you to chose several different scaling options for pushpins, i.e. when to show them, so you don't end up with a map full of icons at the USA level.

Just saying that they need to check the "competition" because for us RVers, this software is slowly but surely becoming a better choice - still some ways to go. Their extensive campground information database is also a valuable tool.

I can add these items to the "Wish List" if you want with screen shots, etc., but for $40, the design team needs to get a copy and look at it - seriously.

Tom

I cannot see the point of pushing a wishlist without some indication that there is a receptive audience. On the evidence of S&T2011, how can we conclude there is?

As a new RVer, I cannot believe that MS would not have this option. I have S&T 2011. From looking over past posts, this has been asked for for MANY years. What will it take to get MS to listen????

New here, and hoping that someone who cares, and can DO something about that, will see it.

That the calendar function does not already exist is stupid.

Here's my cumbersome but workable solution: Simply export the "Directions" to a spread sheet, add a new column ("A") and put the start date of your trip in cells A2 and, to save formatting later, A3. Then overwrite A3 with:
=IF(LEFT(C2,3)="DAY",$A$2+RIGHT(C2,2),"")
(Cell A1 is for the header word, "DATE")
Now, copy cell A3 and paste it into ALL the "A" cells down as far as you like - say, twice the number off cells as you plan to be on your trip.

Now, every time S&T directions show a day, the date will appear beside it - Yeah, it's a new window - but you can close the directions window in S&T and use the space for your map (how often do you look at that anyway). Want to make a change? Simply copy and paste the new directions into cell B1 - the new dates will adjust themselves.

The only limitation is that S&T only uses one space between "DAY" and the number, which limits the above to 99 days. A clever spread sheet designer could probably get around THAT, as well. (I may have to figure that out - the wife wants to go 180 days on our next retirement trip).

BTW (off topic -sorry) - I gave up on S&T 2009 & 2010 - never even LOOKED at 2011 and don't plan to look at 2012 - "If it ain't broke, DON'T FIX IT!" - As well as some of the issues shown in other forums, the additional "overhead" so clobbered my CPU that I'd PASS an intersection before S&T (audio directions) told me it was time to turn!

Good luck to all -

Hi Gabby Jim, welcome to the forums, and thanks for sharing! To make the column A calculate the dates, I had to modify your formula by pointing it to column B instead of C (my column C contained distances, not day numbers and time). So my formula then was as follows:

=IF(LEFT(B2,3)="DAY",$A$2+RIGHT(B2,2),"")

How do you transfer the data from your spreadsheet to Streets & Trips so the dates appear in the Directions pane or elsewhere in the program?