ALK CoPilot address entry question.

Does any version of CoPilot have the ability to enter addresses the way they are used in the USA? (I have it on a portable GPS unit.)

For example, a typical US address is like this;

185 Blimey Street
Georgetown, WA 12345

yet most GPS software I've had a chance to use demands the search parameters be entered in this order;

State = Washington
City = Georgetown
Street = Blimey
Number = 185

It's completely backwards! Haven't they heard of localizing software for the way things are done in the country it's intended to be sold in?

I'd like to have it where I could just enter 185 Blimey St. Georgetown, WA on a line then poke a Search button. Would be much faster than having to go step by step, one element of data at a time, in backwards order- waiting for the software to spend time searching at each step instead of being able to give it all the required data in one shot.

Hmm, it's GPS software, so why can't it be made 'smart' enough to at least make an initial assumption that the user might want to enter a destination in the same State that it currently finds itself in? Have that already entered, then automatically insert the surrounding States or cities (if the location is nowhere near a border) into a drop list for the first entry box.

If the user is wanting a destination *way over there* then the user could simply start entering it instead of poking Next or choosing one of the pre-selections from the drop list.

That's one thing I liked about Mapopolis, the user could search by Address (entered just like you'd put on a letter), Street, City, Place or from the PDA's Address Book.

I've over 26 years of experience using and servicing/repairing/upgrading computers and have seen pretty much everything there is in annoying user interface design. It's especially irritating when a couple of small changes could improve things quite a bit, very much so when the design forces the user to make many extra inputs (clicks, taps, key-presses) and/or demands the user do things backwards from how the same input is done in non-electronic usage.

Ie, Americans are happier when they can enter dates and addresses the way they use them all the time, Europeans are happier entering them the way they use them all the time. If an American company was selling GPS software for the European market, would you expect the target customers to be happy poking in address info in an order completely backwards from how they'd write it on a letter, or having to enter the month before the day?

This makes sense from the point of view of the software, though. By letting the software know your state, the software can now limit the search to a much smaller geographical area. If you start by entering a house number, you force the software to unnecessarily search the whole of USA and Canada, which may take much longer time.

Try Microsoft Streets and Trips software. It will let you type 185 Blimey St, Georgetown, WA on one line.

Unfortunately there's no Palm OS version of that. :P

I didn't even know ALK CoPilot worked on that OS . Here at this forum we focus on GPS software that works on PC.

What I'm hunting is a replacement for Mapopolis. Doesn't even need to have GPS capability. Mapopolis is SMALL and FAST, unlike all other Palm OS map/gps software I've found. The problem is the company never updated their maps after 2002/2003 and has gone out of business.

I got DeLorme Street Atlas 2009, it's Windows program works OK though finding where to enter an address to look for takes some effort. At least it can find where they are.

The SA2009 Palm app is useless, at least without GPS. It'll only look for addresses that are in the Palm's contacts, takes forever to "locate" them and then it only tells which city they're in.

What'd be PERFECT is a program to take data from OpenStreetMap.org and convert it to Mapopolis 4 format, which for the USA is chunked up by counties. I only need the five counties covering the area from Boise, ID to Ontario, OR. If the conversion also did Mapopolis Navigator format, that'd be great but Navigator doesn't like most Palms with NVRAM, like my Tungsten E2.

Mapopolis used to be a popular application, but the developer saw no future in the PDA market and the product was discontinued. Perhaps get a nice little UMPC that runs Microsoft Windows, then you will have a plathora of GPS (and other) programs to play with.