"Find" complicated to use?

Ok, I'm on a Mac and using a very old map CNNA 2009 but I can find it if I use a two step process. First I open the search options and start to type Fletcher into the field and I am rewarded with a highly populated drop down list containing most of the Fletchers in the U.S. and I double click on the one in NC which causes my map window to zoom there. (Don't try actually completing the word Fletch, just do part of it otherwise this doesn't work) Step 2: enter 125 st johns road into the option search box and it finds it.

Thanks for the help Jack. Unfortunately, here's the only way I have found so far to find that address: Open find, choose options, choose points of interest, then under more options, choose cities. Whew, that gives me a search box, and from that I get the list of Fletchers everywhere. When I choose the right one and click search, the map centers on Fletcher and a search automatically begins, which I cancel, because it runs a long time if I dont. I then click options again, and select addresses and type the address, then SUCCESS All attempts by me to shorten up this process have failed.

Someone please tell me there is an easier way to search for an address. If this is it, then it's quite insane.

Insane is rather an understatement......:mad:

I turned off the automatic updates and am still on 4.05 and I don't plan on updating anytime soon......maybe 6.3.0, when someone finally decides to revert to the earlier search function.....:(

Have you tried using commas? Separating the street address from the town/city works far better and I get results pretty much first time when I search for addresses in the UK. In your example I'd type '125 Johns Road, Fletcher' directly in the search box and see what comes up. Note it's always best to leave out stuff if you can that could be misinterpreted like st which could be in the database as st or saint or st.

Have you tried using commas? Separating the street address from the town/city works far better and I get results pretty much first time when I search for addresses in the UK. In your example I'd type '125 Johns Road, Fletcher' directly in the search box and see what comes up. Note it's always best to leave out stuff if you can that could be misinterpreted like st which could be in the database as st or saint or st.

I shouldn't have to try and guess what this search function likes and what to leave out in order to find an address. Give me a place to type in the complete address and give me the result in one step. Also, don't give me a whole long list of results to choose from.

Maybe I've been mistaken in thinking that Basecamp is a replacement for Mapsource, because it surely isn't!

Maybe I've been mistaken in thinking that BaseCamp is a replacement for Mapsource, because it surely isn't!

You're joining a huge cadre of people who feel that Basecamp is a poor replacement for MapSource. I'm among them. The explanation that made the most sense to me, offered up on another thread, was that BaseCamp was originally intended to serve the needs of off-road, hiking, mountain climbing types, much as HomePort is meant to support the marine devices using BlueChart data. It was never meant to be a Nuvi/highway tool, but has morphed into one, sort of. In a better world a fourth software application would have been developed that optimizes road and highway travel needs, but that ship has sailed, to mix metaphors.

Then there's the vast array of Nuvis, mostly operated by people who couldn't care less about interfacing with a computer for route planning or track filing.

I shouldn't have to try and guess what this search function likes and what to leave out in order to find an address. Give me a place to type in the complete address and give me the result in one step. Also, don't give me a whole long list of results to choose from.

Maybe I've been mistaken in thinking that Basecamp is a replacement for Mapsource, because it surely isn't!

Well yes, in a way it is the replacement, since Mapsource is now discontinued and Basecamp is the 'new kid on the block'. However should you wish to you can still use Mapsource, just like you can still use Win 98 or even earlier should you wish. I know Basecamp takes some getting used to, especially if you've been wedded to Mapsource for many years. It took me a while, but now I am used to it I prefer Basecamp, even though I still use Mapsource occasionally.

The explanation that made the most sense to me, offered up on another thread, was that BaseCamp was originally intended to serve the needs of off-road, hiking, mountain climbing types...

Not sure if you're referring to a post I wrote but I said that some time ago ( I can't find it) but to re-iterate BaseCamp only supported Topo maps at first. It wouldn't even use road maps.

Introducing BaseCamp: Garmin’s New Tool For Planning and Reviewing All of Your Outdoor Adventures

“BaseCamp brings a whole new set of features to hikers, hunters, geocachers, and anyone else who wants to maximize their experience with their Garmin GPS,” said Dan Bartel, Garmin’s vice president of worldwide sales. “This new utility lets users view, organize, and transfer their data more quickly and efficiently – allowing them to make the most of their time exploring the great outdoors.”

BaseCamp lets users view both 24K and 100K topo maps in 2D or 3D renderings. Users no longer are confined with a “north up” map – it can be rotated to any orientation. Another convenient window depicts the elevation profile currently displayed. And with Track Draw, users can trace a fluid track and get an immediate elevation profile to determine the difficulty of their hike.

Garmin BaseCamp v. 2.0.4

* BaseCamp will only recognize MapSource products that contain digital elevation model (DEM) data. Some examples of products that contain elevation data are Topo U.S. 24K, Topo U.S. 24K National Parks (version 3), Topo U.S. 100K (version 4 and later), Topo U.S. 2008, Topo Australia, Topo Canada (version 4), Topo Deutschland, Topo Great Britain, and Topo products produced by many Garmin distributors.

I shouldn't have to try and guess what this search function likes and what to leave out in order to find an address...

True, as long as your input follows the guidelines here: http://pe.usps.com/text/pub28/28apa_001.htm it should just work for U.S addresses. My guess is that it doesn't. For addresses in other countries the proper formatting would be different. There is another publication covering international addressing standards for computer input but I can't find it today.

If you have ever gone to a UPS store and manually input your package's address into their computer you know that it instantly checks the input against the USPS specifications, corrects what's wrong and presents it to you for you approval. Garmin might investigate purchasing that code and incorporating it into BaseCamp. IOW just normalize the input to the specified or appropriate standard.

Then, of course, you need to convince the map makers to follow the same standards. But, the problem still isn't solved because you need the hardware teams to also comply with the same standard. None of this is trivial, nor, in my opinion did MapSource adequately solve this address parsing problem.

Please, don't read this as an excuse for the present state of search in BaseCamp, its not meant that way. For whatever unknown good reasons the BaseCamp developers chose not to use the MapSource find code. Now they need to give us something that at a minimum measures up at least to the utility of the MapSource search function. Hopefully, that will occur sooner than later.

Will in 4.2 though :)