Amazon.com Product Description

Rand McNally's StreetFinder and TripMaker is a four-CD-ROM collection that includes extensive mapping systems and trip planning guides to help make outings hassle-free. With customizable maps, numerous scaling and drawing tools, personalized itineraries, exploration guides, and more, Rand McNally's StreetFinder and TripMaker is an easy-to-use, reliable source for your travel needs.

StreetFinder software provides address-to-address directions and more than one-million business listings to help you find the services you need. Customize street maps with drawing tools. Create text boxes, draw walking directions, place custom markers, and much more. Also log daily schedules, reservations, and travel expenses in the Trip Organizer.

Use TripMaker to plan an entire trip with personalized itineraries geared towards your interests and driving preferences. The customizable maps feature street-level detail, and the RoadSense feature provides up-to-date road closure and traffic information. You can even budget and save on travel expenses with helpful MoneyMinder tips. ... Read more

Reviews (9)

Buggy, Hard to use, Not as good as other trip finders I have
To me it was a complete waste of time, too many discs and a difficult process to use them. If it were not for the Rebate I would have sent it back.

Not bad maps, worthless directions
The only value I have in this product is exporting a local map to my PDA. Other than that, Street & Trips is far superior. The automated directions are worthless. They don't pick the fastest route, they don't pick the shortest route, and they go fictitious near the end of the route. As an example, if I map a route from my office to my house, it takes a meander through side streets instead of travelling down the street I work on to the highway, then, when it does eventually get on the highway, the directions say to take the highway directly to my house, rather than getting off the highway and taking the 3 streets needed to do so. The map display shows the intended route taking a straight line through the woods between my house and the highway near the end as well.

not much of a help
This product seems like a waste of money to me. First, it was difficult to use the tripmaker - it would only plot a course from city to city, not from an address to an address. Then it was not easy to change the route that was suggested - I spent 20 minutes trying to have the route take me the length of Skyline Drive in Virginia before I finally figured out how to do it. And last, and probably worst, the maps seem very out of date. The date on the box of the software said 2002, yet the maps did not have the Midpoint Bridge in Fort Myers, Florida, which opened in October of 1997. "Streetfinder" made "Streets and Trips" look good.

Works well for me!
I use the Deluxe version on an XP platform and it works quite well. Areas that were poorly mapped in previous versions were updated, and features were upgraded. I work in commercial real estate and when mapping the buildings for my customers, it always does the trick quickly and well. If you use StreetFinder for planning trips, I have no idea how well it will work, but compared to the other complex and time-consuming mapping software on the market (including REGIS!), StreetFinder performs as promised.

Not On XP
This runs fine on our other windows systems but refuses to plan anything over a 40 mile trip on the XP system we bought it for. The "tecnical support" help was NOT--they basically said, "too bad, how sad..." If you plan to run this on Windows XP, make sure you save all of your boxes and receipts! ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

Around town or across the country, hit the road with Microsoft Streets & Trips 2003. Accurate and easy, the 2003 release has everything you need to navigate, travel, and explore the U.S. and Canada. An all-in-one mapping solution, Microsoft Streets & Trips 2003 delivers a comprehensive array of maps, points of interest, routes, driving directions, and Pocket PC compatibility in one value-priced software package. Instantly meet your mapping and travel needs without an Internet connection. Pinpoint exact customer or business addresses on the map by simply entering an address or location. Enjoy the convenience and confidence of full address searching for 6.7 million miles of roads throughout the U.S. and Canada. Streets & Trips 2003 also offers complete Global Positioning System support: just plug a GPS receiver into your laptop running the program to find your exact location anywhere in the U.S. or Canada. Or, create and download maps to your Windows CE 3.0 or later PDA or handheld PC to take on the road with you. ... Read more

Reviews (33)

What was Expected- upgrading from S&T2001
I am a previous user of Street & Trips (2001). I try to upgrade every two years - hoping that the information in newer version will be more up to date ( I mean the mapping information). THere is no way for me to know how much the map data has been updated compared to earlier versions. I am taking a star off because I did not notice a major change in the User interface compared to S&T2001. The zooming control has improved. I like the feature of saving a map as web page, and emailing a map. I ahve a POCKET PC - so pocket streets is useful (& free). I heard the feature of GPS for Pocket streets was added in 2002. Everything else is the same. The upgrade was not painful because of the rebates - in the end it cost me only a few buck[s]!!

Not Too Good; Not Too Bad
I was expecting more functionalities from Streets & Trips than the free maps service offered by some websites. I was disappointed for the following reasons:

1. I can't make the software remember a location like say as a favorite. It makes sense to me to have something similar to Internet Explorer Favorites. All that can be done is the whole map can be saved as a file, which is not very convenient.

2. Some directions say "Take local roads"! Wait a minute. When even a free website clarifies what road it is, can I not get the roadname from a paid software which occupies about a gig harddisk space?

Nevertheless there are some positive attributes:

1. Construction updates are up to date and is helpful in assessing the time it would eventually take.

2. Supposed to be easy to send to Pocket PC, which I don't personally use.

3. Map view & Printing the map view are decent and deserves citation.

The usual Microsoft-y look and feel may be a plus for some and minus for some.

Wrong, Wrong, Wrong
I was blown away at how many times this program is just plan wrong with directions. For me, about 25% of my destinations did not exist in this program, but it gave incorrect destinations. The directions are also overly detailed and confusing to read. I will stick with yahoo maps.

microsoft streets 2003
If you have an older version keep it. some street info on my 2000 version is more accurate then this version "my home address". I purchase it for the GPS feature, if it was not for that feature I would have returned it and continued to use the older vervion

Lacking some features for Pocket Maps
(more like 2.5 stars)

I travel once and a while for work and have a PDA so I bought this for the Pocket Maps (with good rebates) since the PC portion pretty much does what Mapquest.com can do. However, it does have additional features like telling you where places are to eat, banks, parks, etc. That's a nice additional feature. You can put in multiple locations for planning your route. Another plus over Mapquest.

However, I hoping that all of these features would be included in the Pocket Maps part as well. Basically you can copy a portion of the map to your PDA that includes the restaurants, banks, and other points of interest. But it doesn't allow you to copy the route (the step-by-step driving instructions). Sure you can copy the route to a Note or whatever, but it's not intergraded into the Pocket Maps software. You can look up an address on the PDA but can't plan a driving route with it. A PC would be needed for that. That was a letdown.

But with all the rebates you can get, bringing the cost down to a few bucks, it's probably worth it for most people that travel and want some a little more info than what Mapquest can provide and having the Pocket Map as part of the package. If I was a true road warrior with money to burn I'd for sure look elsewhere before buying this. ... Read more

Amazon.com Review

Can't fold a map to save your life? No time to make sense of theseemingly endless online map sources, or don't know which ones you can trust?Fear not, road warrior: Microsoft Streets & Trips 2002 does the dirty work.

Installing Streets & Trips is simple, and working from its database of locationsand maps is speedy. The package offers more than 800,000 points of interest. Note that this number includes ATMs, gas stations, hotels, rest areas, colleges,and golf courses, as well as restaurants, museums, and galleries. And while themaps extend to worldwide proportions, you're most likely to find the 6.4 millionmiles of road in the U.S. and Canada the most useful.

One of the newer and more attractive features of the Streets & Trips package isits GPS (global positioning system) capabilities. This requires a GPS device(such as your handheld, a palmtop computer, or a straight GPS device) thatsupports NMEA 2.0 or higher. A free download from the Microsoft site will haveyou ready to store all your trip data in your GPS device of choice.

Getting started is fairly straightforward: simply enter your starting addressand your final destination. Adding side trips and stops along the way is easy,as is reordering your stops. After you've charted your course, you have fiveoptions for printing, including a zoomable map, point-by-point directions, and,of course, mileage between exits. You can also opt for Web output and allow yourfriends and family to chart your course as you progress.

Our favorite feature in this package is the customization capability. To getStreets & Trips to suggest when to stop for gas or a stretch break, simply tellit your preferences. By entering your car's average miles per gallon (in bothcity and highway) and your preferred driving speed, you can elect to include gasbreaks on your itinerary.

Overall, Microsoft Streets & Trips is a good value; we found its directionsreliable and concise. Now if Microsoft only made something to occupy the kids inthe backseat. --Emilie Herbst ... Read more

Reviews (42)

Not enough oomph
You'd figure that Microsoft products, though not always greater than the competition's, would at least be on par.

Hardily the case with S&T 2002.

From reviews here, it's not a good product for camping and traveling. Well, it's not good for the city either. I live in a major metropolitan area. There's a major freeway in my city that's been here for 3 years, and still, it doesn't show up on the map.

The big problem I have with this product is the lack of updating information. MS has the ability to check freeway condition and improvements. But instead of that feature, why not update finished freeways, new streets and past closures

I give it some credit. The mapping of several addresses at once was very on key. However, without the correct addresses, often times I've gone the wrong way for over 30 minutes. Planning a route is pretty easy, and it's nice to be able to save the routes seperately from within the program. But I'll have to take my chances with Rand McNally's this year.

Lots of Streets, Lots of False Info
Microsoft Streets and Trips 2002 is a great program with basically every single street in America. It is great for general mapping and finding out addresses and other stuff like that, but when compared to the accuracy of Microsoft Expedia Trip Planner 1998, the reliability begins to fail. Streets and Trips 2002 adds random ramps at interchanges, leaves out forest and picnic areas, and displays many roads that aren't paved as passable to standard vehicles. It's also odd to note that many freeways, which opened up in 2001, were not on Streets and Trips 2002, including a major part of the 210 Freeway extension in southern California around Interstate 15. That's just one example of how the program missed out on updates that should have taken place. I hope 2004 is better; otherwise, I'll just wait until 2005 for an upgrade.

Won't work on my handheld
Even though the product information states that the MIPS processor is supported (but not tested), I could not get this program to load onto my Fujistu Pencentra 130 Handheld PC. I had to send it back to Delorme.

A little Outdated
I find streets and trip easy to use. I like the feature of mapping many different points at one time. However it is outdated. There are many addresses I cant find. It only updates the highway construction but not new local housing areas. That is a big hassle trying to find a cross street close enough to where I am looking for.

Same [stuff] as 3 years ago...
Streets & Trips has not changed at all since the 2000 version, which itself was actually a downgrade from the 1999 version. While the street data has presumably been updated with each subsequent release, the interface and features, which are far from perfect, remain completely unchanged.

There is very little information on any places, and no hyperlinks are provided to find such information either. Seems like Microsoft is only interested in the internet so far as they can control it and profit from it - not when their customers actually need it.

As with every version after 1999, there is no good way to manage your pushpin sets. Tasks as simple as creating a new set of pushpins or moving pushpins from one set to another require a non-intuitive, inefficient, and cumbersome procedure. There is no dedicated screen to help you organize your pushpins.

Also, there is no global command to hide or display all pushpins, their labels, or their details. In fact, there is no way at all to hide pushpins other than by deleting them. If you want to hide a pushpin's label, reveal it, or displa its full description, this must be done with each pushpin one by one, in a very slow and cumbersome procedure. Since 1999, Microsoft removed pushpins from the program's "Show or Hide Places" dialog box.

If you only have top deal with a few pushpins at a time, then I suppose this isn't a big deal. But if you want to manage groups of pushpins, you're out of luck because this product seems intentionally designed to make this as hard as possible.

There is no way to control at what zoom level street names and other details do or do not appear. This means that you frequently find yourself zooming out to get the big picture, only to have to zoom back in again to see the label for the street or place you're looking for. Similarly, too many details are often visible when zooming out, particularly pushpins, creating a horrible visual mess if you're not viewing the map at street level. But there is no way to control this, and as I said before, there is no way to hide all pushpin labels with a single command.

As far as directions go, you are better off vioewing the path on the mapo than trying to read the turn by turn directions provided by the program, which can turn the simplest route into a confusing mess. Worse yet, the program overlooks common local names for streets (ie, Main Street) and usually refers to them only by their Federal, State, or County road numbers, even when nobody refers to them by those numbers. Horrible.

Pocket Streets is a worthless abomination. I could write volumes about everything that's wrong with this terrible piece of software, and I have - along with thousands of other angry users. Yet Microsoft has completely ignored these complaints and left this program the useless mess that it is. It is just meant to promote the Pocket PC platform - not to actually do what it's advertised to do. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Total Garbage
Avoid this at all costs! First of all, you can only navigate in a TINY window within an annoying an unnecessary "skin". The maps are not detailed at all and it's annoying to have to zoom in and out with a button click (mouse wheel doesn't work) and the detail is EXTREMELY poor. Also, it works against you by having to move around in that tiny window. Don't waste your money!!! This is [bad] and we should expect better. I wonder if the folks at Rand McNally use their own software for navigation. Probably not.

Generic Atlas
This is definitely not the type of quality product I would expect from Rand-McNally. The maps it provides are not detailed, and generic in nature. It shows only main roads, etc. I expected to receive a standard Rand McNally Road Atlas of the US, just as the printed version, but transferred to CD(s). This product is all but useless. But I'll use the CD as a coaster to protect the finish on my computer desk!!

Garbage
Shame on Rand McNally- This software is terrible. This reminds me of 1990 software. Just buy the hard copy Atlas. MapTech makes the best affordable mapping products available.

Passable software
Basically take Rand McNally Tripmaker and update the interface. I don't even think they updated the road database (c) says 2000 but I must admit the interface is easier to use so if you are looking for a simple city to city travel guide (place to place will only work if the place you are looking for is in one of the 83 full city guides they have in the program) that is easy to use then this is for you. If you want more map detail try Streets and Trips or Delorme Street Atlas. ... Read more

Features

• Prepare for a first date, job interview, or cocktail party
• Impress friends, influence people, or simply brush up on interesting topics
• Speaking with confidence provides a verbal advantage
• Complete and easy-to-use resource offers the knowledge needed to succeed
• From Astronomy to the Universe to the Solar Systems, never again be left speechless

Features

• Use Street Maps USA to locate any street address in the country, and get door-to-door directions for your trip!
• Zoom in on particular areas and have an entire city or neighborhood mapped out for you
• Get complete latitude & longitude directions for any location
• Search for a location by city, street or ZIP Code
• Talking Travel Maps USA maps out an efficient route for anywhere you want to go

Amazon.com Product Description

XMap Business maps your information for you on detailed street maps of the entire United States. Easily display contacts from ACT!, Goldmine, Excel, and other leading programs. Select leads from the included 104 million U.S. business and residential telephone listings. Qualify leads in seconds by business type, proximity, address, and more. You can even create two maps from the program for use on your Web site. Works with the Earthmate GPS receiver. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

OK, but beware, this is a multi-disc product
This product has 8 different discs for different regions of the country. Unlike Street Atlas USA or microsoft's Streets Plus, you can't just pan from one region of the country to another. Well, actually, you can do so at a low maginifiction, all the discs contain the few large scale maps. But once you want to zoom in on an area not covered by your disc, the software will advise you to change discs. It's relatively painless, but not as nice as not having to do it at all. I haven't yet tried to get it to switch drives in a multi drive machine; my guess is that that wouldn't work. I note that there is a dvd version that does not require switching discs. I didn't know about that one; I might have bought it instead, but I don't have a dvd on my home computer, so maybe not.

I didn't know this from the editorial or user reviews when I bought, otherwise I think I'd have gone for a different product. Now that I have it, I think I'll keep it but that's only because my state of Illinois is the only state that's on two discs, which makes it a little more convenient for me, if not for you.

I haven't yet checked this out precisely, but I get the feeling that it doesn't show as much detail for the zoom level as StreetAtlas. In other words, to get all the street names, you have to zoom in further than on Street Atlas, and thus have to print off more maps.

I find the product much more cumbersome to use than Street Atlas, but it also has the routing features of MapnGo, but not, I hasten to add, the all-North American coverage, which you'd think they could provide with 8 discs. Canadians and Mexicans beware. It has phone numbers of local business establishments like Microsoft STreets plus, which my '95 version of Street Atlas doesn't, and as far as I can tell, is fairly up to date. It has some streets near me that are new, but one of them is inaccurately portrayed. Some of the dashed lines, however, I know to be trails while some are gravel roads. It doesn't show all the gravel roads, however. The accuracy and thoroughness at high magnification is questionable.

It comes up fairly fast, depending on your drive speed, and has much nicer and more regular-map-like colors than either Street Atlas 95 or Microsoft Streets plus 97. It comes in a little loose-leaf notebook that keeps the discs orgainzed; the plastic sleeves that contain them are easy to get the discs into and out of for quick changing. I like the notebook but it does take up more space than most newer software. There are some business features that I'll never use that may be important to some people.

On balance, It's probably worth the $[money], but just barely. In my mind's eye, I'd like a product that covered the whole world with at least 14 really different (not just maginification) zoom levels, hiking trails in public areas, and street level detail for the US and Canada for less than $[money]. I'd be willing to live with a multi-disc product in that case. I don't know why no one produces such a product.

Have fun-

Wayland

A Most Appropriate Find!
Literally, a find indeed. I have used several of the more popular Mapping and Phone listing programs for what I use this software for, and I have even used previous versions of Street Atlas and Phone Disc, but this is by far the best as a combination. In comparison the mapping is superb, and the phone listings have not let me down yet. The ease of use for a package of this caliber amazes me. You get so much for a reasonable price! I can't say enough about the product. If you are looking for Business, Personal or Census Info. This one is Very Good! And it doesn't take Big Blue to run the program! I'm happy with it.

xMap does it all !!!
This product allowed me to map my business customers and develop maps for routing from one to another systematically. If you need a product to help you cold call or develop routes, this is it. ... Read more

Features

• Audio and visual narration give you directions and highlight points of interest
• Perfect for armchair explorer who like to camp out at their keyboards!

Reviews (1)

MS Expedia Streets is the only way to go!
A poor aqttempt to compete with MS.

The following is a list of MAJOR draw-backs:

1 - Can not get route info from one place to an other without access to the Internet (how many of you have internet in your car?)

2 - GPS support is very buggy. At least it is with my Garmin GPS 12XL (only the single most popular GPS sold in the last few years). I had to keep switching speed & NMEA vers, etc (basically I tweaked with it & I could not find an consistant setting that work well for any length of time)...

3 - If you zoom in and out too much map data disappears. Very irritating because you have to relaunch the program and enable gps functionality. Pretty difficult when driving down the road! This nice "feature" also shows up when the map refreshes it self. WONDERFUL!

4 - Overall the GUI is very buggy and not consitant with standard MS Windows functionality (double-click to select objects, etc.)

I would have to say that this software basically sucks and is a major waste of cash! Buy MS Expedia Streets!!! ... Read more

Product Description

Destinator is the best mobile satellite navigation solution for your PDA. Whether you are a salesperson, a delivery person, a frequent traveler, a road warrior or a tourist in search of directions or points of interests, you need Destinator. Destinator will save time and money by guiding you through the shortest or quickest route. With gas prices on the rise, Destinator is the indispensable tool for sales and delivery people. With Destinator you can optimize your route and maximize your day. Destinator has been designed with the user in mind. It's easy to learn and easy to operate. It comes with built-in voice prompts to guide you through every highway exit and every turn.Destinator has no monthly or activation fees, nor does it require installation in the vehicle. Just select or input your destination and hit the road with confidence and safety. You'll never have to ask for directions again or fumble with paper maps. Get where you're going faster, easier, and safer than ever. Should you make a wrong turn, RELAX - Destinator will automatically recalculate the best new route to your destination. Keep your eyes on the road and follow voice instructions and enjoy the ride! Out of your car? With Destinator in your pocket you will never need paper maps! Destinator offers the highest resolution of maps with immediate access to any address and on the fly optimal route calculation between any 2 points. ... Read more

Features

• High-resolution maps offer point-to-point guidance anywhere in the US
• Turn-by-turn voice prompts guide you to your destination by speaking directions
• Recalculate your route immediately if you miss a turn or an exit
• Special GPS attachment lets you track yourself as you follow your route -- no more getting lost
• GPS attachment plugs right into your USB port

Amazon.com Product Description

Print big, detailed maps from your own PC printer; no special computer or map skills required. With Map Print Pack USA, you can create and print beautiful, detailed topographic maps for any need. Map Print Pack USA gives you more than 500,000 detailed maps covering all 3,500,000 square miles of the U.S.

Having the right map is essential to much of what we do, both on the job and with our family and friends. With Map Print Pack USA, you can print exactly the maps you need when you need them. Ideal for outdoor recreation, home and office reference, school projects, scout troops, armchair exploring, family outings, weekend travel, and much more.

You can make maps in minutes by following just a few simple steps. Locate your destination with an advanced search engine using place name, street name, ZIPCode, or latitude and longitude. Find more than 300,000 miles of trails and more than 6 million miles of road. Then personalize your maps by labeling rendezvous points, adding new roads or trails, or displaying property boundaries. And once you're ready, print your maps on regular 8-1/2-by-11 paper. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Great Topographic Maps
Probably the best topographic mapping program out there in terms of details, but once again has that difficult to use DeLorme interface. Produced excellent maps of off-road and lake areas where I frequently hike and fish. Don'tcount on it for perfect urban street detail; you definately need something like Street Atlas for that. But if topographical maps are what you are after, this is where to look.

Map Print Pack
This is a preatty nice aproach to create your own maps, ideal to travel throught conventional systems. Eassy, quickly and chip. However is limited to USA.

Map Print Pack by DELORME
The program works ok, however, I had diffulties installing it initially. This is a two CD program, but the insallation program is only on the Eastern U. S. CD. It took me several minutes to figure out that it was only the wrong CD not a problem with my computer/program compatability. The program itself is easy to use and prints out a good map with nice shading and readable contours at 1:50000 and 1:24000. The contours seem to be accurate, however there are some inaccuracies in the details, where roads and trail do not follow contours. I suppose there is a degradation in detail to be expected in this inexpensive product. Another thing I noticed, was that the trails, although depicted, were not labled. There was no distinction between difficult "Jeep" trails and dirt, forest-service type roads. Several other back roads looked like they were active roads on the map, but were closed, abandoned, or dead-ended on private property. I liked the coordinate grids that made it easyy to use GPS. I also liked the instant elevation readouts of mouse pointer positions. It is fun to use the program to explore new areas at home, but there is not quite enough detail to really hike or 4-wheel the backcountry. ... Read more

Features

• Prepare for a first date, job interview, or coffee house visit
• Impress friends, influence people, or simply brush up on interesting topics
• Speaking with confidence provides a verbal advantage
• Complete and easy-to-use resource offers the knowledge needed to succeed
• From Astronomy to the Universe to Solar Systems, never again be left speechless