I travel quite a bit for work, and find using a GPS to get me to all the different places I need to go is almost a necessity. There are also vacations with many places that we have never been to before. The days of carrying state maps in the glove compartment (Dating myself – but can you remember when you could get all the maps you wanted free at any gas station?) or an atlas in the trunk are over for me. Even the “high tech” method of using a mapping program to find a location, develop the route to the destination and then printing a map out are past their prime.

To get around to all these places with the least fuss I create different custom POI files for the Garmin Nuvi 755T that I received as a present. I would imagine the method I am going to detail on creating and uploading a custom POI file would apply to other models also.

First you need five things:

• A Garmin GPS
• Garmin POI loader software
• A USB cable
• ITN Converter software
• An internet connection to download and use the ITN software.

First download the ITN software from https://benichougps.blogspot.com/
(Note: Clicking on any of the following pictures will enlarge (most of) them to allow you to see detail better.

You may do better if you convert the page to English, although it is not really necessary.

Click on the “Downloads” hyperlink.

Follow the prompts to install the software to your PC. Once done you will have an icon like the following on your desktop.

Once it is installed click on the icon to open the software. Then click on the “Editor” button in the lower right hand side.

It will launch the program and open a link which displays Google Maps in a pane along with the program.

Now the fun part starts! Where do you want to go?

Now the fun part starts! Where do you want to go? Type in a search string that gives you the results you want. (1) It can be an address or the name of a place. Here I wanted to find “Cobo Hall” in downtown Detroit Michigan since I was going to run a 10K “Turkey Trot” race there. Click the “Search Icon” (2). Now you have to pick the best match for where you want to go. I like to turn on the satellite view, (4) and zoom in so I can see the object fairly well. (5)

It may take a littel sleuthing to make sure you have the correct location. You can use the address that comes up and Google it to verify the address is the place you want. I often go to the Google Maps page and search there since it gives more detail on the place located. Once you are sure you have the correct location showing you can edit the name. (6) This name will later show in your GPS so you want it short and meaningful to you. Once you edit the name click on “OK”, then remember to click on “Add to itinerary” to save it to your list. (8)

TIP: You can click on the map to add a “pin” for the exact location you want.

TIP: You can click on the map to add a “pin” for the exact location you want. I like to do this so I can define a specific place I want to go such as a certain parking lot at a large park, or even the entrance or exit of a large building that I want to be closest to. Just add the pin then name it like above.

You should see it appear in your list of saved places (9)
In the file give your new file a name. (10) This name will later show in your GPS as the “Custom POI” file name. Again, you will want to give it a meaningful name.

TIP:Organize your files!

TIP: I start all my file names with a series of numbers like 01, 02, 03, etc. This is because later the GPS will order the custom POI files in your GPS in this same order. I like to put the most commonly used ones first in the list to avoid a little bit of scrolling. You can always change the numbers later to add a file or rearrange them if you like.

Repeat the above steps until you have as many waypoints as you want in your file. You can always come back and add more later if you want.
Once you have added all the points you want in this file, click on the X to close the editor.

Once you close the editor it will automatically add the new locations to the file page.

Now you are ready to save your file for later use. At the bottom of the window select “CVS” as a file type. (12) Then click on “Export”. (13)

When you click on export a file explorer opens, pick where you want to save your file, and the name you want it saved by. It will use the name you entered earlier by default but you can change it here if you like. Here I have added the “16” to the file name for later ordering of the files. Another tip is to use either the number of places contained in the file, or the date… or both as shown here. The number of entries in the file lets me know which “revision” it is if I edit the same file multiple times in a day.

That’s all there is to creating your first custom POI file! The ITN software makes this so easy to do I frequently go back in an add even one or two points to a given file. It’s easier than typing in an address in the GPS unit, and probably more accurate.

Now that you have a file what do you do with it? Come back in a week when I go through the details of how to best load the new custom POI’s into your unit.

Until the final POI is defined,
George