Features

• Address-to-address directions on-the-go
• Over 1 million business listings with address and phone number
• Real-time GPS support including audio prompts and one-touch rerouting
• Generate clear directions with highlighted route lines
• A wealth of new navigation features for GPS

Reviews (8)

Not worth even one star!
i bought this program after the salesman told me it was the best one he had. What a joke. The search engine is the worst! When you print out a map, it prints it in a color that doesn't allow you to see the streets. b What good is that. I emailed the company and they said you cannot change the default color of the map in this version. What a screw up that is! I am so disappointed that I uninstalled it and just use mapquest now. I can't belive Rand McNally allowed a program this bad to be released. Someone must have been snoozin'

Way out of date, incompetent, incoherent
I have been using streets & trips 2001 for a few years, but found it getting incresingly out of date, with the new construction going on around my locale, so I went out and bought this product. Unbelievably, though I bought it at least three years after microsoft streets & trips, it was even MORE out of date -- and the interface looks more dated. Worst of all, the very street I live on -- which has been here at least 10 years now, probably more -- was shown incorrectly, it is a through street, this program shows it as a dead end!

In short - a way out of date competitors product you can buy on ebay for $3 is better than this piece of ####. It isn't even worth the time spent installing it (I had to swap the same CD in and out at least 5 times -- what's with THAT?), let alone what3ever money you pay. I'm deleting it off my drive & going back to S&T 2001 for now.

Waste Of Money
I had been using Microsoft Streets & Trips 2002 and wanted to upgrade to something more current. After hearing that streets & trips 2004 was not an improvement over 2002, I decided to give Steetfinder & Tripmaker a try. What a waste ! I can't believe that Rand Mcnally would allow their name to be put on this thing. terriable interface, can't find streets that are shown on the programs map, map is cartoonish compared to the Microsoft product. In fairness I don't use the gps feature so it could have some redeeming value in that area.

I did not see these complaints
While I have not used the GPS, streetfinder works well at locating and mapping the addresses that I need. The real bonus is TripMaker which has allowed us to map out and plan long trips through several states and make reservations along the way. I would not leave home without it.

Really Really Bad Product!!!
Can find a lot of places. Can't find my work, school (University of North Florida!). Although GPS capabilities were okay. But what can I do with GPS if it can't find where I want to go!!! ... Read more

Features

• Total coverage of 6.5 million towns, cities & streets --as well as 4 million points of interest
• Add your own addresses to any map -- just add a symbol and you've marked an important point of interest
• The interactive legend modifies your maps to suit your personal needs or tastes
• Identify which roads you should take when avoiding roadblocks -- the built-in route calculator handles it for you
• Fully GPS compatible - connect your GPS to your serial port and always know exactly where you are

Amazon.com Review

Business users seeking the shortest route between two points-of-purchase should examine Microsoft MapPoint 2002. It has all the standard features a business map user would expect--place finder, route planner, mileage calculator, and so on--but also permits extensive data manipulation throughout the United States and Canada.

Installation is a breeze, and setting up the program to any user's specifications should take only a few minutes to a few hours, depending on the nature of imported data. Once it's running, MapPoint will pay for itself quickly with improved sales and marketing reports, trip planning, and projections. The interface will be intimately familiar to Office users, so importing and exporting files and data is painless. The look and feel of other Office-suite programs is preserved--the learning curve of nonstandard tools and features is quite gentle.

One extremely powerful new feature is territory creation, which allows user-defined, overlaying boundaries that are simple to create manually or compose from pre-existing data. Combining territorial categories with the vast reams of census and demographic data contained within MapPoint should yield plenty of fresh business ideas. Nonbusiness users should pick up some much cheaper trip planning software; the most expensive features of MapPoint will offer little of value to them. --Rob Lightner ... Read more

Reviews (21)

Microsoft helps you find your way!
I am very impressed with Microsoft's newest MapPoint edition. We have been able to illustrate office locations, insert maps onto our website, and send directions/maps as attachments via e-mail.

A terrific product for the consumer market.

Only worth it for the business features
This product has all the same features as Microsoft Streets and Trips 2001. And for the average home user, that is all you need as the price is significantly lower. What you're paying for with MapPoint is all the data features. It analyzes business info and puts them on a map (usually through an Excel spreadsheet). It also has some more web collaboration features than the standard version.

Unless you are going to seriously use a program to analyze business needs (e.g. where customers are coming from, where you should put a store, etc.), it's not worth it. (It does make some pretty maps and graphs, though.) I would have never bought the program in the first place, but I got it as a promotional sample from Microsoft. I like it, but I will probably never use most of the data tools.

On the mapping side, it's great. Read some of the reviews over for streets and trips and you'll see what a great program it is. MapPoint does all the same things.

(For those who care, this product does not use the controversial product activation sequence as other office 2002/xp programs do.)

Could be better
Very flashy but falls short in several areas. You can't define specific villages or cities for display. You can get around it by cobbling together small areas within the town (blocks) but why should you have to? I'd like to be able to say draw me X, Y and Z village. Then draw my county, etc. The maps are in a comic quality making it hard to use for presentation purposes. Really just good for checking out areas, not for real business needs. I miss the more [costly] packages.

I suppose it's okay.....
If it's what you need, it may work well. Unfortunately, it was a waste of money for my company and our needs. We need to be able to define worldwide territories as well as a few within the US, and it wouldn't do both. Importing from an Excel file would not work for both the US and other international regions. Further, it took up nearly a full gigabyte of hard drive.

Excellent mapping product but... with one exception.
I have used MapPoint for about three years now and I just upgraded. Overall, it is an excellent, full-featured product that is very intuitive and easy to use.

I use MapPoint along with a full-blown professional ArcView-based GIS system. I find that MapPoint allows me to perform "quick and dirty" and relatively simple GIS tasks without having to get into the more complicated and time consuming - albeit more capable - ArcView GIS system.

Truth is, I could probably rely completely on MapPoint except for one shortfall in the program. You can only create customized boundaries based on the pre-existing included boundaries (Census Tracts, Zip Code areas, etc.).

For example, rather than being able to go in and create a boundary around a neighborhood, I have to conform this "custom" boundary to something like Zip code boundaries or census tracts, etc. that are inluded in MapPoint.

Microsoft, include this feature in MapPoint 2003 and you will get 10-stars! ... Read more

Features

• Multimedia encyclopedia and feature-rich reference tools
• New Encarta search bar; New online Math Center
• Kids section; video content from Discovery Channel
• Visual browser facilitates easier navigation among articles
• Complete learning resource for students aged 7 and older

Amazon.com Review

Look up obscure country lanes, view 3-D topographical maps of national landmarks like the Hoover Dam or Mount Saint Helen's, and navigate the complicated roadways of America's biggest cities with Topo USA 4.0, a seven CD-set that puts the whole country at your fingertips.

Designed to be compatible with GPS devices and handheld computers like the PalmPilot, Topo USA 4.0 can work out routes for road trips, locate obscure locales within the U.S., and even find hiking trails before you embark on a walking tour. For those with fewer gadgets, the program is still useful--you can build your own maps, customize them to an extraordinary degree, and print them out for trips and outings.

It takes a bit of work to learn the ropes with Topo USA 4.0, and some of its GPS features are available only as extras from the software manufacturer, Delorme. With a bit of practice, however, users will find the program runs smoothly and without glitches, providing topographical and two-dimensional maps of every portion of the United States, at a high level of detail. Add to this the ability to filter out any information that isn't of interest, and the updates to the map database that are available on the Web, and the result is a powerful interactive atlas, a thoroughly useful guide for getting around the USA. --Alyx Dellamonica ... Read more

Reviews (17)

Fun software
I used my friends 2.0 version and liked it, but it had problems downloading from my Garmin e-trex unit.

Good things: 3D, profile building, different zoom levels and covers the whole U.S. The funnest software package I have. I can go out and map a mountain or road bike course and get an idea of mileage and elevation gain and loss before I go. I print out the maps to take with me.

Bad things: Don't expect it to give you the detail of a 7.5 minute Topo map. For life and death dependancy on a map then buy a more detailed map before you head out. Also don't depend on a GPS because it's batteries may die on you.
My Garmin downloads but it doubles up on my tracks. I have called Delorme about it and they are suppose to look into it.

Bottom line: For $100 to get this much information on the whole US with all of it's features, I am amazed. Sure this is not a perfect program but in my opinion it is a great one. Great for area overviews and in most cases it will get you there and back.

powerful program for the money
I found this software to be a great buy. I had no problems with the 3D features. I was worried because I installed it on a computer that was about 2yrs old but it worked fine. I did have to read the manual that comes on the disc to get to know all the features and how to use them to full advantage. (it would have been nice if it came with a hard copy but you can print it out). This program is very powerful for the money. For a quick example, by just clicking on the screen you can get distances or even acreage computed. Considering the cost and features of this program I would give it 5 stars. To get better software you would have to spend many times the cost of this program.

Not as up-to-date as one would hope
Just purchased Topo USA 4.0 Mountain States Region for $39.98. This is a good product, but the maps are way out of date. For example, I live in an area that is over 6 years old and still does not show up in the maps -- period. In fact, I'm amazed how out of date these maps appear. My little old Microsoft Streets & Trips 2004 is much more up to date. That's a shame because Topo USA 4.0 gives me the layout of the land, elevation, etc. It believe it also will update it's screen about once a second from my Garmin GPS while Streets and Trips updates about once every 15-30 seconds.

If Topo USA 4.0 had maps as up to date as Streets and Trips, It would be 100% better IMHO. As it is now, I have to continue using Streets and Trips because I do need to locate streets that have been built within the last 6 years. I am quite disappointed actually. I have already spend more than $300 on DeLORME mapping products over the last 3 years and each time I find some problem that makes the product half as useful as it should be. They should tell me on the cover of the CD how old the maps are because this is silly to have such old maps.

Far from what it is billed to be
If you are interested in seeing 3D renditions of terrain then this has something to offer. The problem comes when you want to try and navigate the wilderness in any way. The trails, while routable, are extremely far from comlpete, and Mapquest is much better at creating street routes. Also, the interface gives you the option to make certain points of interest visible, but the program will NOT show them no matter what. You can search for specific campgrounds, and most can be found, but none are visible. This is true of many POIs. They are there in the database but can not be seen. I talked to Delorme about this, they said "TopoUSA is for terrain and not POIs, that is what Street Atlas USA is for." If a program is billed as "Great for Camping...", and it has the campground information then it should display it!

Because of the lack of secondary trials and useful POIs this program is hard to bill as more than an expensive toy to look at terrain in 3D. While it rounds many formations that are rather sharp, it is pretty decent at 3D. Otherwise it is fairly useless.

Doesn't Work on New Systems
I bought an earlier version of Topo on DVD. I was satisfied with it but then I upgraded to Windows XP and my DVD will no longer work. Delorme doesn't support the older version and suggests I buy a new one at full price. They didn't offer a lower cost upgrade. So beware if you buy this software. It may not work with Microsoft's next OS upgrade! ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

Create address-to-address routes anywhere in the U.S. on Pocket PC andPalm OS handheld computers using XMap Street Atlas USA: Handheld Edition. Thismust-have map collection includes street-level maps for the entire U.S., fromrural roads to detailed city streets. Sync all the maps and software you'll needfor your next trip, or, depending on your PDA's storage capacity, bring theentire database with you. Quickly find address book contacts on detailed maps,plus locate 4 million points of interest--including restaurants, hotels,attractions, and more. Connect to DeLorme's Earthmate GPS receiver (availableseparately) and track yourself in real time on street-level maps anywhere in theU.S. You can even bring topographic maps with you using DeLorme's Topo USA 4.0software (also available separately), so you'll never get lost again. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Buyer Beware
I liked the PC version, but the handheld version is expensive, hard to use and not that much value. When compared to MS Streets and Maps it is not even in the same league. The Bluetooth feature is problematic and the tech support is poor. In both versions there seems to be a bug that introduces a position error of about 200 feet. This seems to be problem for both the hand held and PC editions. If this keeps up I expect DeLorme to be out of business within 2 years. Too bad---It has the potential to be world class.

If you are computer literate at all you'll love it.
This program is awesome!!! You install the software on your PC and choose how much you want to sync to your PDA. You can sync detailed maps or just highways and interstates. My wife works at a flower shop and sometimes delivers. Type in the address and it will take you their.
Syncing the the maps can be a little difficult the first time but I didn't even need to look at the instructions. I highly recomend this product.

Looking for a PDA map program???? Keep looking.
Xmap version 1.3 keeps causing 'Fatal Errors' and 'Memory Chunk' errors on my m125 running PalmOS 4.0.1. Delorme states this may happen with routes but I'm only using it to see their 'Sample' map that came with the product. I loaded their downloadable fixed version 1.4 but it has the same result.
I live in the Dallas, Texas area and would like a map of Dallas and Fort Worth. Unfortunately, the program locks up my computer every time I try to create a map of that area. I then followed the procedure Delorme recommends to prevent so called 'other background software' from halting their product. Guess what? That procedure made no difference. The program usually locks up at more than 50% of creating the map. Once it got all the way to 84% before it halted. At that time, the file was well over 9 MB!!! I'm not sure I need THAT much data. I just want the streets. Rand McNally's Streetfinder does this same area in about 2MB but it has MAJOR DEFECTS also and I definitely don't recommend it (see my other review).
I have been using Mapopolis with some maps I downloaded a couple of years ago, but the price now is a little prohibitive since I need maps for spur of the moment travel somewhat infrequently and don't always have time or access to the web to download them. I can't afford to download maps for all places I MIGHT go. Mapopolis works perfectly, even with memory cards, and I recommend it if you can afford the maps. I guess I will continue to use my laptop until something better comes along. I write software. It is a shame I don't know more about map databases so I could develop my own program and tell these guys where to go.

Not User Friendly
I have used the regular PC Versions of Street Atlas for years and love it. This software for a PDA need to be pulled from the market by Delorm before it gives all their software a bad name. They are trying to load too much secondary travel info into the PDA and not what is really needed. Which is easy to use maps or areas that can be easly loaded and navigated. Something like their Street Atlas for PC's Ver. 01. Who needs the names of hotels, places of interest, and eating establishments on a PDA. All you want to do is find out where you are and where you are going.

Lots of info but hard to get to
The handheld app is apparently aimed mainly at GPS users, and I can't comment on that part. I bought it as a simple roadmap and location-searching tool. It does have an amazing database, covering every square inch of the U.S. and containing many thousands of "points of interest" including businesses with phone numbers.

As others have noted, if you want to put an entire metropolitan area on your PDA, it pretty much has to go on the memory card, which slows performance to a crawl. The search function is powerful, but there are a few gotchas. Any match of three or more letters is displayed, so if you search on "Eagle" you also get "Seagull", and a search on a name that contains a common string can result in hundreds of hits (but they are sorted by best match). You can search for any address in your address book just by entering the name associated with the entry; but unless the address is in your book in the expected form (e.g. 123 12 St, not 123-12th St.), the app won't find it. It also doesn't seem to know much about house numbers, and generally won't resolve the address to the correct position on the street.

The maps are pretty good, but there's no support for hi-res. Street names are displayed only sporadically, so it's difficult to orient yourself without touching the map for more information (displayed at the bottom of the clunky interface).

I don't regret buying the app if only because it does give me a handy "pocket yellow pages" for my area, but it's certainly no substitute for a paper map. For better-labeled maps that look better on the hi-res Clie screen, Mapopolis is an alternative; but the one "enhanced" Mapopolis map I have purchased contains very few points of interest, not even labels for most parks and malls, and has a few other problems of its own. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

We were initially skeptical of the necessity of a program like this, given the availability of free online maps. But we soon realized that, along with the ability to take it with you in the car and to scroll and zoom much more quickly than with online maps, DeLorme's Street Atlas USA 2003 has numerous advantages over any sort of mapping solutions found on the Internet.

It can show local businesses and points of interest in any given neighborhood, which can be very useful when navigating around a city--the program can show that you should turn right when you pass the hardware store, for example, rather than relying on street names. The maps are revamped for 2003, but since city roadscapes are constantly changing, the program offers a variety of tools to let you add and name your own points of interest and even new roads.

We found the trip-panning features to be especially useful--you can calculate where you'll need to stop for gas based on your car's fuel efficiency, estimate overnight stops, and more. But for short trips within a city, we found that the directions often took us on zigzagging routes on side streets.

The program's interface takes some getting used to. It doesn't appear to use standard Windows commands, so there is a learning curve, but once you get past that, you can enjoy access to all the tools you need to plan your next trip efficiently and accurately. --Peter Moksha ... Read more

Reviews (38)

Avoid SA2003 & 4 & Read other One Star reviews - all true.
I - like all but 2 of the 38 others who have written reviews - completely agree that this is the most unfriendly SA version ever. They told me via their Support email that there is no way to eliminate the Splash Screen (which on my PIII/500 takes a full minute to go away). I just want to say this.. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE read all the negative feedback - I have used SA6 & 7 - and without any doubt - all of the negative comments are unquestionably valid. If I could give this product a negative rank - so that it brought the ranking to ZERO stars - I would.

Worst ... Upgrade ... Ever
I'm a long-time user of Street Atlas (5, 6, & 7), and was tempted to upgrade to 2003 by some of the new features (e.g., road editing) and other improvements. I use Delorme's Earthmate GPS.

The road editing feature in 2003 does work as promised, and 2003 is much, much faster at initializing the GPS than is version 7, particularly in a moving vehicle. Beyond that, I find little to like.

I've used 2003 regularly for several months now, hoping I might get used to quirky interface, but I've come to the conclusion that it is just a horribly designed program. Version 7 certainly was not perfect, but this is a major step backwards in usability. Program interaction is just not well thought out, it is difficult to discover how to perform certain tasks (just one example: disabling voice navigation requires clicking Route, Advanced, Route Prefs), and the new features that allows you to mix multiple routes and different drawing layers is maddening.

Don't buy this program. If you just want mapping, go with Trips and Streets. If you want GPS support, try to find a used copy of Street Atlas 9, 8, or 7. (You can't have mine -- I'm reinstalling it.)

Horrible, horrrible, ....
I bought the whole bundle including the GPS reveiver, USB adapter, and the software. It was very freaky. I just got it to work less than three times. Every time, it worked and stopped without reason. The most error messages are something like "Can not initialize Find tab!". I had contacted Delorme customer service, searched all the useful information online, done all I was told, and finally it just simply does't work any more.

Look like Delorme's qulity control is really poor. The same is the knowlegde of their customer support. Stay away if you can.

Used by the real "James Bond"
Yes, its true. I am a licensed private investigator in Tennessee and California and my real birth name is James Bond. I recently purchased Street Atlas 2003 along with the Delorme Earthmate GPS receiver. I have been using it for my surveillance work (both urban and rural areas of Tennessee)and it has been an incredible help. By using the "Route" feature, the built-in voice navigation takes me right to the location of my case first thing in the morning. Poor lighting is no longer a factor! Missing street signs, no problem! I have found that addressing is fairly accurate (slight error factor is expected) along most streets. I've also found the majority of the landmarks to be accurate. While I am tailing my "subject," I get a bird's eye view of the entire area, upcoming intersections, landmarks, potential congested areas, etc. I make a wrong turn, get turned around trying to catch my "subject," whatever - all I have to say is "Where am I?" and the computer spits out my exact location, direction and speed. I've also used the routing feature while serving legal documents. This product saves so much time - its paid for itself many times over in just a few weeks. Before I used paper maps or an online mapping program to print localized maps out...all very tedious, time consuming and expensive. Not anymore! For anyone who drives frequently for a living, I'd highly recommend this product!

Delorme, what have you done???!!!!
First off, I have to say, I have been a huge Street Atlas USA fan since version 1.0. Yes, I've been using this program for over 10 years and I used it almost every day and loved it. The last version I used was version 7.0 and the maps were starting to get out of date, so I upgraded to the 2003 version.

It is awful!! Downright awful! First off, the interface is confusing and doesn't follow standard Windows applications. I've gotton use to it, but the user interface is really bad. The help files aren't that good either. Second, the maps look horrible! The detail settings are way off. There is either not enough detail or too much detail. The old versions worked much better. Third, this program is slow as a pig. The old versions were really fast and responsive even on a Pentium 90 Mhz laptop. The version was VERY sluggish on a my Dell Pentium 3 733 Mhz. Although the performance is acceptable now that I have a 2.4 Ghz Pentium 4. They seem to have completly rewritten the software and it [isn't very good]! It's a real shame. I would have rather had the old version of the software with updated maps. ... Read more

Features

• New colors and more readable fonts to further improve map readability
• Import data for automatic symbolization of imported records and text files on your maps
• Create maps for presentations with new printing layout capabilities
• Verify the accuracy level of imported and geo-located addresses with new Import Tools
• Attach digital pictures, spreadsheets, documents, and more to locations on the map

Reviews (3)

Poorly Designed User Interface
We've used Delomre's Street Atlas software in our business on a daily basis since Version 4 (1996?). Upgrading to each new version was a no-brainer since we were happy with how easy it was to use. However, when Delorme redesigned the interface with Street Atlas USA 2003, we continued using the older (version 9) edition. The interface is non-intuitive and extremely difficult to use. Other comments here describe the problems well. In addtion to the interface, we found the software to be innacurate. For some reason many of the routes are wrong. Sometimes it will not allow you to cross a railroad crossing on certain routes and will route you around it. No matter how much you try with VIAs you cannot make it cross certain railroad crossing. In addition, we found that sometimes it routes you off an interstate, and back on at the next intersection. It appears that it thinks you can't go on I-80 westbound at certain cities. As a result, the software is just plain unreliable. Numerous contacts with Delorme's support desk and product manager has resulted in no resolution. Product manager refuses to acknowledge. DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT!!!

Primitive Software
Having worked in the IT industry for the better part of a decade, I consider myself fairly adept at navigating software. Almost nothing in this application is designed for easy, quick, or intuitive use and the help feature is of very limited value.

I purchased SA 2004 Plus primarily for being able to upload multiple addresses from a spreadsheet and then computing the most efficient route. While the software does technically perform this function, the user interface is just so incredibly counter-intuitive that as a practical matter it was nearly impossible to get a route computed. We retained the software for a few months hoping that familiarity would breed usability. It did not. We switched to the less expensive Microsoft Streets & Trips and have been very happy since. It is very disappointing to see a respectable firm such as Delorme deploy such a primitive product.

Very disappointing!
I rarely have trouble using software. (I'm an IT person, so these things should come easily for me, right?)

This goofy (can't think of a better word) user interface is throwing me for a loop. I don't think DeLorme knows the definition of the word "intuitive". Almost every feature I've tried to use is a mystery until I look in the help file. The features all seem to be there, but with all the work involved in finding out how to use them, this is going to be a long, painful project.

I travel for my company, and setup and troubleshoot remote offices. My original plan was to both use the product for route-planning, and create useful interactive maps for reference (click on a remote site, and up pops all their information). I still think I will be able to do this, but no longer have any illusions about knocking it out in an afternoon. Maybe in my spare time over several weeks.....

A colleague recently showed me Microsoft MapPoint 2002. What a difference! Intuitive, easy to use, and predictable with normal pull-down menus instead of these weird tabs that just get in the way. It even downloads updated road-construction information over the internet to help plan your routes.

MapPoint is expensive, and doesn't have the same feature set (really overkill for me), but the DeLorme folks should buy a copy and start taking some UI design pointers. ... Read more

Features

• Comprehensive suite of easy-to-use trip planning tools
• 70,000 points of interest including sites off the beaten path
• Walking and driving tours; kids' activities; video and slide shows
• Detailed U.S. city street maps; 20,000 rated hotels and restaurants
• Printable maps, itineraries, and directions; cost calculator; weather almanac

Amazon.com Product Description

Based on The Mountaineers Books hiking series, 1,001 Hikes in North America delivers 1,042 hikes from 18 of the continental U.S.'s most scenic regions to your desktop. From the purple peaks of Colorado's Maroon Bells to the crystal clear waters of Washington's Snow Lake, 1,001 Hikes helps you plan a memorable journey to snowcapped summits, alpine meadows, and glacier streams. Whether you choose a jaunty 8-mile hike, a challenging 20-mile trek, or even a gentle trail to enjoy with young children, this CD-ROM delivers detailed directions and maps, trail mileage, elevation gain, difficulty levels, estimated time, and the best seasons for each trail. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Excellent Product!
This is an excellent product. Very easy to use and loads of information! Worth of money!

A Great Starting Place!
This product is a great starting place for discovering new hikes and areas. It gives detail directions to get to the place and gives skill levels on the varying hikes. I recommend this product 100%. The navigation could be a bit better but it works. It takes a few minutes getting use too but all new products do. This is a collaboration of many books and if purchased in printed form would cost a lot of money and be over 1,000 pages. This is easy to read and easy to use.

Waste of money
This program does have some good hiking information but it is not very user friendly at all. The maps are the worst part of it, you can either look at a small general state map or zoom to a trail map NOTHING in-between. If you want to find trails (and don't know the trail name) you have to guess on the state which only lists major cities. All you can do is click on the small state map and hope it is near the town you are looking for. If you know the trail name then it is OK. My advice is save your money and use the internet because there are many hiking web sites that have the same or more trail information and are a lot easier to use. ... Read more

Product Description

Help young minds find answers to their many questions with the Encyclopedia Britannica Student Library. Two complete age-appropriate encyclopedias - the Elementary Encyclopedia for Grades 1-5 and the Student Encyclopedia for Grades 5-9 - form the cornerstone of this comprehensive tool that interests and involves young learners. ... Read more

Features

• A complete reference library for grades 1 to 9 (Ages: 7 - 14)
• The Elementary Encyclopedia for Grades 1-5 and the Student Encyclopedia for Grades 5-9
• Includes Merriam-Webster's Student Dictionary and Thesaurus
• Features: Atlas; Learning Games and Interactive Study Guides; Timelines
• Online Outreach: Link to 166,000 Web sites selected by Britannica editors

Features

• Navigation and travel information software for your Palm device
• Download over 1000 U.S. maps from pdastreetfinder.com
• Search for addresses with street-level detail
• Personalize your maps with color schemes and map markers with icons
• Includes Mobil Travel Guide for locating hotels, restaurants, and points-of-interest

Reviews (2)

Buyer Beware
The packaging of this product seems delibertly designed to confuse the buyer. The product suggests that it can generate directions -- what it doesn't mention is that you have to go back to your computer each time to do so. You might as well use MapQuest! Other mapping products like Mapopolis and Tom Tom can actually do this. I finally decided to buy Mapopolis because it doesn't require a Tungsten T3 like Tom Tom (it doesn't even work on the T2 or Clie units) and have been happy with my purchase. It's a shame you can't return software, because I would love to send Rand McNally back ...

Big Mistake - Poor functionality, inaccurate
Caveat Emptor - Buyer Beware! I regularly rely on Internet mapping programs (e.g., MapQuest, Yahoo Maps) and thought a personal computer based PC to PAD mapping tool would allow easy interface between address book locations (throughout the USA) and surrounding points of interest and other business locations. The write-up for Rand McNally StreetFinder looked like a perfect fit . . . and if the software actually worked as advertised, it would have been. Unfortunately, from initial problems with installation, through dozens of common address locations that the software could not find or map, to partial downloads to my Tero 600 - this is one of the poorest software investments I have ever made. Save your money and stick with downloading maps from the Web. ... Read more

Features

• In Millennium Encyclopedia, browse through detailed histories of warfare and medicine, a foreign phrase guide, Dr. R. Brasch's Library of Origins, and a look at the most important scientific developments of the modern age
• Webster's Millennium New World Atlas takes you to the ends of the earth -- study political, physical, and topographical maps; explore the continents' most unique geography
• Webster's Millennium Unabridged Dictionary is a guided tour through the English language -- more than 315,000 entries, with 2,400 maps and illustrations and pronunciation keys
• Go on a spectacular exploration of or planet and its solar system, in Earth 3D -Our Planet, Your Universe -- it has fly-throughs of planets and moons, a history of astronomy and hundreds of space-based photographs

Reviews (2)

Worst Product Ever
I bought "Street Atlas Powered by Mapquest (Jewel Case)
by Softkey Incorporated" for a birthday. However, the day after the party, the lady called me back to say that it did not work on her computer. She gave it back to me. Since then, we have tried it on four computers and none of them can install the product! Bad product!! Do not buy!!! If you do you will feel sorry.

Low end mapping program, but worth the price
For this price, how could you go wrong? The package said it had GPS support, so I figured that this would be an inexpensive way to see if my GPS would talk to the computer and do something practical. In summary, the GPS interface was a flop, but I kind of liked the software anyway.

On the plus side, the user interface isn't bad. The initial screen presents with a colorful map of the continental US. By focusing the crosshair shaped cursor on a locale, one can zoom with the on-screen slider from overview to street level. With my P-366 Toshiba laptop the performance was more than adequate. On a trip to Minneapolis, I found the street layouts to be adequate; however, there is very little street-level detail, such as hotels & landmarks, other than the big-hitters--lakes, airports, parks, etc. Though the mapping engine is by Mapquest, don't expect to get the complete on-line Mapquest.com database on this CD-ROM. The word here is "basic".

Now, the dissapointing news: It didn't work with my Garmin 12. It connected OK, but sat there with the on-screen status message "acquiring" and never did indicate a waypoint on the map, even though the GPS lock was good and the interface was intact. I was not able to resolve this problem...although the software may well work with other GPS/computer configurations. On-line support for this product seems to be unavailable, as neither the Mapquest.com or the Learning Company websites appear to acknowledge this product. Had there been an knowledge base for this product, I may have been able to works the bugs out of the GPS.

Other negatives: When the cursor is set at a given point on the map, an on-screen indication of Latitude/Longitude is displayed. Convenient; however, it is only displayed at 2 decimal points resolution, which is not enough for an accurate GPS waypoint transfer. And although the user can search for a location by entering city, state, zip, etc., there is no provision for searching by Lat/Lon, a must for the GPS-enabled user. Finally, though one can enter "points of interest" and label them with several available symbols and text color combinations, there doesn't appear to be any way to edit the map itself with even a rudimentary drawing feature.

This is not for the user who needs loads of hotel and similar travel information on his CD-ROM. It's definitely rudimentary. If the GPS interface worked, it would be fine for plotting courses & trips...unfortunately this user's experience was not positive on this front. Still, the user interface is nice, the price is right, and I'm now hooked on this type of application and I'm off in search of one that is a bit more refined. ... Read more

Amazon.com Review

Microsoft MapPoint 2001 is a capable mapping program aimedsquarely at the business user; whether you want to get drivingdirections or create business reports using marketing and demographicdata based on geography, this package can help. The core functionalityof this North American edition of MapPoint features extensivegeographical and demographics data for the United States, Canada, andMexico. It's easy to look up any address, ZIP code, or businessname--we found the searching options to be quite flexible.

MapPoint doesn't disappoint when it comes to working with demographicsdata, either--it includes population data from 1980, 1999, and 2004,along with a variety of geographic, household, and income information.A data-mapping wizard lets you generate a variety of map styles (usingshaded areas, shaded or sized circles, or "pushpins" to mark data), soit's easy to identify regions with prospective customers. (You could,for instance, plot ZIP codes with a high proportion of householdsmaking more than $100,000 a year.)

The flip side of plotting the supplied data in MapPoint is plottingyour own business data, easier to do with the program's hooks to Excel(both importing and exporting) and its ability to use GPS data.MapPoint will plot existing addresses of customers or sales to generatereports with maps. And, since it's integrated into Microsoft Office, we hadno trouble creating a Word document that includes a map. (You can alsouse this tool within PowerPointforpresentations.)

There are plenty of mapping packages that make more use of multimediafor planning trips and the like. But MapPoint 2001 has a few featuresthat can benefit the home user, though this is clearly not theproduct's focus. In testing, we received extremely detailed drivingdirections for a short trip. While it's doubtful that real travel isever this precise, MapPoint did a good job showing us the way with itsroute planner.

In all, there's little doubt that this package's mapping capabilitieswill fit the needs of small to medium businesses. For organizationsthat have struggled with using geographical data, MapPoint 2001 putsmapping into reach. --Rich Dragan ... Read more

Reviews (6)

GPS function
I travel 80% of the time for my job. MapPoint 2001 gives me the ability to get directions offline. The software advertise NMEA 0183 version 2.0 use on GPS units. Microsoft gives an address and the company said that it has no idial why Microsoft is directing people to there website. The software package would be worth it if it was truly compatiable with GPS units that can be attached to laptops.

Good for the Heavy Office User, But...
MapPoint's biggest selling point is how easy it can be integrated with Excel or Access to crossreference demographic and business statistics. If nothing else, you can easily use it as an encyclopedia of US demographic traits by state, county, ZIP code or census tract, conveniently downloadable into an Excel spreadsheet. If your work entails collecting and analyzing raw data with Excel, MapPoint can be a very powerful tool. However, MapPoint's use is limited in creating visually appealing, customizable maps (ostensibly its primary purpose).

The inability to fully customize a map's presentation, and particularly the colors, is a real drawback. The program features a limited number of color schemes for presenting data. There is no way to remove county names and other labels even from the less-cluttered "Data Map" option so as to create a "data-only" map. Perhaps a more difficult problem for the advanced user is the inability to create completely accurate maps at levels other than those included in the standard package (such as cities and towns) or to define your own territories and boundaries.

It Does A Good Job.......
I got this program because I spend a lot of time traveling by car and I use it mostly for directions and it does an adequate job of that. (I haven't got lost yet!) I guess I could probably have used Mapquest or something similar, but it was handier to be able to do what I wanted without being on-line. I do agree with other reviews though that heavy duty stuff may be best left to something else.

In short, this is an ok program.

This Outstrips BusinessMap Pro by a Longshot
I've read the other reviews and it's true that you can't remove the any of the label layers. A bit frustrating. But if you've ever struggled with the awkward interface of, e.g., BusinessMap Pro, you'll be postively delighted with its ability to map data by zip and demography. And the interface with Excel and Access is fluent. Try that with Business Map Pro. True, the heavy corporate user might not find it as helpful, but then even they would have to be stuck with the heavy and obsolete DOS based naming conventions that make BusinessMap Pro so difficult. In addtition, you get that great MS support. I've called ESRI (BusinessMap Pro) tech support three times in the last 10 days and left messages asking for some help and still haven't had a response! (Incidentally, you'll never get a recording with MS tech support.) What can I say? MS does it again. In about a year or two they'll have even the few obstacles overcome as usual. I'd like to give this a 4.5 but the rating system won't let me; and I do that in light of what is available by MS competitors in this price range. If you want to spend lots more, of course you can do better.

Functional but not Completely
MapPoint 2001 have many improvements over last years version. The converion of data from Excel/Access applications are smooth and fast. However the legends available seem to get in the way and I have not found a way to take them off the map. This software is great for the small to med business but this would could not be used well in a large organization. ... Read more