Tips & Tricks for MS S&T:
1. Customize how Streets & Trips opens
You can customize how MS Streets & Trips or MS AutoRoute opens. For example you may prefer that it opens zoomed into a specific map area, shows Route Planner pane, uses larger font size, etc.
Create a new map or modify an existing map with the features you'd like to see whenever you open a new map.
On the File menu, click Save As.
In the Save in box, browse to Program Files\Microsoft Streets & Trips \Templates, and click New North American Map.stt.
Click the arrow next to the Save as type box, and then choose Map Template from the list.
Click Save
When prompted about replacing New North American Map.stt, click Yes.
Your map replaces the Streets & Trips default template.
Save location for MS AutoRoute is Program Files\Microsoft AutoRoute\Templates\New European Map.axt
2. Useful keyboard shotcuts
(Use the following 2 shortcuts while map pane is in focus. Click on map, if it isn? in focus)
(-) Zoom out
(+) Zoom in
(Hold down Ctrl key, then press the second key.)
Ctrl+F toggles Find dialog box
Ctrl+A toggles GPS task pane
Ctrl+R toggles Route Planner pane
Ctrl+U toggles Directions pane
Ctrl+D toggles Find Nearby Places
(Press the following 4 keys in sequence.)
Alt+T+G+T toggles Track Position
Alt+T+G+K toggles Keep Position Centred
Alt+T+G+A toggles Allow Map to Rotate
Alt+T+G+R toggles Reroute from Current Point
Alt+T+G+G toggles Create GPS Trail
F6 Move focus among all the panes in the active window.
3. Single-key shortcuts configured for MS Streets & Trips
S&Tkeys is a FREE small add-on for Microsoft Streets & Trips which enables users to control S&T with single-key shortcuts. S&Tkeys lets you perform the following actions by using F-keys of your keyboard:
F1 - (Help) displays a list of functions for 10 seconds or till Esc or Enter is pressed
F2 - starts S&T or brings it to your desktop if minimized
F3 - toggles Track Position
F4 - toggles Keep Position Centered
F5 - toggles Rotate Map to follow travel direction
F6 - recalculates route from current location
F7 - toggles Route Planner
F8 - toggles Find Nearby Places
F9 - clears route
F10 - zooms-out
F11 - zooms-in
F12 - toggles Create GPS Trail
Find out more: >>click here<<
5. Recalculate on-the-fly
Beside the obvious (keyboard shortcuts and recalculate route button) users may achieve the same by clicking once on the green route, and after it turns blue click and drag it to your current position or slightly ahead.
6. Night glare ?how to avoid it
"Road Map" style is too bright for night driving. Choose "Terrain Map" instead. Go to Menu bar > View > Map Style > Terrain Map
An even better solution may be to set the map background to a darker color by using S&T's drawing tools. Follow these steps:
Zoom out to see your route or even the whole world
Select Rectangle tool on the Drawing toolbar
Click and drag a rectangle on the map to cover an area larger than your route (you may even cover the whole world)
Click on the arrow beside Fill Color tool on the Drawing toolbar and select your desired color for your night view scheme (grey, blue, brown are nice choices)
Right-click the rectangle and select Order > Send Behind Roads
Read more on page 2 and see picture on page 3
7. Cannot find roads of the following types: Crescent, Square, Terrace, Place
When searching for 123 Paul Street you only need to type 123 Paul. There is no need to specify the road type, e.g. Street, Avenue, Drive, Road, Boulevard, etc. However, when searching for Crescent, Square, Terrace, Place, unless you at least type the first letter of the road type, S&T will not locate it. To locate e.g. 123 Guillaume Place, type at least: 123 Guillaume P
8. How to search for intersections
To find an intersection, type two street names, separated by an ampersand (&), in the Street address box. For example, to find an intersection of Yonge Street and Finch Avenue, type Yonge ST & Finch Ave. To do it even simpler, all you need to do is type: yonge&finch.
9. Set Canada as the default country of the Find feature
If you wish the default country setting of the Find feature to be Canada rather than United States, you may need to change the default language settings of your Windows operating system:
Microsoft Windows XP > Start > Settings > Control Panel > Regional and Language Options icon > set your location to Canada and language settings to either English (Canada) or French (Canada) > click OK
Microsoft Windows 2000 > Start > Settings > Control Panel > Regional Options icon > General tab > in the ?our locale (location)?list, select either English (Canada) or French (Canada) > click OK
Microsoft Windows 95/98/ME > Start > Settings > Control Panel > Regional Settings icon > Regional Settings tab > In the Language list, select English. In the Country/Region list select Canada > Click OK > restart computer
10. Different ways to zoom in or out
Double-click a name of a place on the map to zoom in on that area.
Drag your mouse pointer diagonally on the map to select an area. Click inside the selected area to zoom in.
Use the wheel button to zoom in or out. Roll the wheel button forward to zoom in. Roll the wheel button backward to zoom out. If you need to change the zoom level in smaller increments, first click on the Zoom Slider on the Navigation toolbar, then use the mouse wheel. see picture on page 2
To move the map, hold the wheel button down and drag the mouse pointer in the direction you want.
Use (+) and (-) key to change the zoom level. If you need to change the zoom level in smaller increments, first click on the Zoom Slider on the Navigation toolbar, then use the left or right arrow keys to change the zoom level.
11. How to search for highway exit numbers
To search for highway exit numbers in Canada: open Find (Ctrl+F), under Country select Canada, in the Street Address field enter the highway exit number you wish to search, select province, and then hit Find button. In the results list, select the place you want.
I know of no reliable way to search for highway exit numbers in the USA.
12. Force MS Streets & Trips into full screen mode
There is a third party software application that lets users "force" any software into full screen mode. Read about it here
13. Streets & Trips 2005 crashes when running on Win98/98SE/ME
MS Streets & Trips 2005 crashes (in some configurations) when running under Windows 98, Windows 98SE, or Windows ME. The simplest and quickest solution is this: Do NOT open GPS Task pane while using S&T, but instead use S&Tkeys to control GPS and other functions. Other solutions would include experimenting with printer drivers on your computer. Read about it here
14. How to set Night Stops in a long distance trip spanning several days
If you plan a long distance trip that spans over several days, S&T automatically generates "Night Stops" for you. They appear as yellow moons inside blue squares along your route.
Yes, you can "customize" where and when you stop for the night. The initial "Night Stops" are generated based on your time set in: Menu bar > Route > More Options > Profile > End driving at. You may change the Start, End, and Flexibility time values. For maximum flexibility you may want to set the Flexibility value to 2 hours. When you are happy with your settings, follow these steps:
Enter all your stops including start and end in the Route Planner
In the Route Planner right-click the Stop you want to be the last one for the day, click "Schedule Stop", put checkmark in front of "Stop for", then instead of "Hrs:Mins" select "Nights". Do the same with all Stop locations at which you plan to spend the night
Click "Get Directions" to generate your route.
If you still see some blue/yellow night-stop icons, you may want to increase the "Flexibility" value or set your Start/End time values to allow for more hours of driving in a day
15. Voice Driving Instructions
Are you interested to add Voice Driving Instructions functionality to your MS Streets & Trips? Read more on the top of page 4
16. Detour around an area
By drawing Avoid Area rectangles we can modify our route with extreme speed. A task that could quite often take a long time to complete using other software, can be done in MS Streets & Trips with ease and only in just few seconds. Read more in the middle of page 4
17. Driving among tall buildings
Most of our GPS receivers these days are not yet sensitive enough to work properly in some environments. You may notice temporary loss of signal when driving in the midst of tall buildings. Or you may have only few satellites in view with very weak signal. Occasionally your position may jump from one street on the map to another street.
In such situations I find it very helpful to disable "Rotate map to follow travel direction" feature, and just view the map the "normal way", which is: "north-up".
18. Share one GPS between several applications
GpsGate lets you share one GPS receiver between several applications. If you would like to run more then one GPS program simultaneously, this little utility software will make it possible for you without having to buy another GPS receiver. You may even open Streets & Trips twice on your desktop and watch your position on two maps in different zoom levels. You may set one instance of S&T to rotate map in the direction of travel and the second instance of S&T may display the map north-up. Read more here
19. How to estimate time of arrival while driving
Whenever you need to know your ETA just hit the "Go" button of the "Recalculate..." function in the GPS Task pane. The first line in the Directions pane will display your current distance-to-destination and also the time-to-destination information. See it on this picture
20. Map errors and what to do with them
While we cannot edit the underlying map properties, we may let the map makers know about the errors we find. There is more than one way to do that. Read about it here
21. How to fine-tune ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival)
I noticed that the default settings in MS Streets & Trips 2005 generate a bit more optimistic ETA in comparison to S&T? previous versions. You may change Speed settings in Menu bar > Route > More Options > Driving Speeds. To find out what the Slower, Average, Faster, and all the settings in-between mean read on the bottom of page 4
22. Garmin USB GPS receivers & how to use them
If you cannot get your Garmin USB GPS receiver working with MS Streets & Trips, it may be because your Garmin likely doesn? use NMEA protocol. Now there is a solution: Read about it on the bottom of page 4
23. Construction Update feature not working
If the built-in feature doesn't work for some reason, you may still update construction information manually. Follow the instructions outlined >>here<<
24. My computer thinks my GPS receiver is a mouse
If your Windows 2000 computer recognizes your USB GPS receiver as a computer mouse you may need to unplug the GPS device from the USB port during boot-up and only re-insert after boot-up is completed.
25. How to export pushpins
Yes, it is possible to export pushpins from AutoRoute, and even from Streets & Trips, into other formats, for example MS Excel file format. Find out how in this thread:
http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/t...TOPIC_ID=26964
26. Why are house numbers sometimes located far from their actual position?
In applications based on map data provided by NavTeq you may notice that streets usually end with numbers 99. For example if the highest number on your street is 12345, maps based on NavTeq data will likely allow you to search the street up to the number of 12399. Some non NavTeq software products try to use actual street number ranges, but in my experience that is a much worse alternative as often times I have been unable to successfully search for a street number which did exist, but was not in the map because the street number might have belonged to a newer building. A NavTeq solution does allow for a new house to be built at the end of a street tomorrow, and still be searchable with a map product purchased yesterday. The only disadvantage (not really a big one, though) is that accuracy at the end of a street may be affected. You may notice this if you live at a very short street which has only a handful of houses on it and numbers really range only from e.g. 1 to 20. If your house is e.g. #20, the map will not show your house as being at the very end of your street because the very end is reserved for number 99. Not a perfect solution, but it is the best there is today in comparison to other alternatives ;-)
27. How to plan a group bicycle ride or a walk-a-thon, etc
The route generating function of S&T may not be appropriate to use when planning an event like a group bicycle ride or a walk-a-thon, etc. You may try drawing the desired path using the Scribble tool located on the Drawing toolbar of your MS Streets & Trips. Fill Color should be set to No Fill and you may choose your own line color (use Line Color button) and also the line thickness (use Line Style button).
If you wish to print the map you may experiment with different map background colors: 1. Zoom out to see your entire route, 2. Select Rectangle tool on the Drawing toolbar, 3. Click and drag a rectangle on the map to cover an area larger than your route, 4. Click on the arrow beside Fill Color tool on the Drawing toolbar and select your desired color for the map background (white may be one good choice), 5. Right-click the rectangle and select Order > Send Behind Roads
28. Solution for GPS receivers not supporting 4,800 baud rate
If your GPS receiver does not communicate at 4800 bps baud rate, MS Streets & Trips will give you the following error message: "The GPS receiver is sending messages, but they are not being recognized as NMEA 2.0-compatible. Make sure the GPS receiver input/output format is set to deliver NMEA 2.0-compatible messages at the correct baud (4800 bps)."
GPS Gate solves this problem.