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Started by jbensman, December 26, 2010, 11:23:20 AM

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jbensman

How about seperating the tutorials on how to make maps from the ones on how to use the maps on this site.  I think people really get confused by havng them mixed.  At the top of the page there could be a title Tutorials for using/installing maps from this site.  Then there could be a title tutorials for making maps for this site.

-Oz-

I get the idea but what is the best way to do it since they are all tutorials...  I try to link to the using/installing ones from the map pages but I guess I never did finish that code that made it popup.
Dan Blomberg
Administrator - GPSFileDepot
GPS Units: Garmin Dakota 20, Garmin GPSMap 60csx, Nuvi 255W, Nuvi 250W, ForeRunner 110, Fenix 2, Tactix Bravo, Foretrex 401
See/Download My Maps!

Boyd

The big problem is that people just don't "get" Mapsource if they haven't used it before. When they run an installer, it asks where to put the maps. This may actually be the source of the confusion, because the next thing they do is go to the install location and wonder how to "open" all the .img files.

We see this happen again and again. Then they find the tutorial about installing .img files with MapsetToolkit and get really confused, when really all they need to do is run mapsource and use the map.

Maybe that tutotial about installing .img files needs to have a big warning in the beginning that it shouldn't be used for maps that include an installer?

jbensman

The vast majority of people who contact me about a map and lots of the posting on this site is due to this confusion.  I would say how about doing all ot the suggestions?  I would say seperate the map making from using installers and the addition to the tutorial on using mapset toolkit would eliminate lots of time spent dealing with misunderstandings. 

Boyd

Really, I think the root problem is that the installer asks the user where to put the files. So naturally they assume they need to do something with the files after installation. We could just put the files in a standard location, like the \Garmin folder on C: but that might bother people who don't have much free space.

Probably the best solution would be to have a default location, but have an "advanced install" option where it could be changed as opposed to a dialog box that always appears.

maps4gps

Perhaps:
   Have a 'general' headed/section labeled in bright bold letters with the appropriate tutorials following.
   Then a 'for map making/authoring' headed/section labeled ....  and state these are usually not needed for the mapsets downloaded from this site. 

Boyd

We are still seeing lots of people that have the same problem. When somebody first says that they can't figure out how to open the map, I think it would be better to give them a link to this tutorial instead of the one for loading the maps on their GPS

http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/tutorials/how-to-open-maps-in-mapsource/

This one just shows you what the installer should look like, and how to find the map in mapsource. After they figure this out, then they can tackle trying to send it to their GPS.

jbensman

I don't have the ability to change the site.  So I cannot do anything about the obvious problem with the tutorial page being very confusing.  It could be easily fixed by dividing up the tutorial page into sections.  Unless I am missing something, the post on the site today shows this is still a problem that we waste much more time telling people they used the wrong tutorial than it would take to edit the page so we do not have to tell people over and over again the same thing.  I hope fixing the tutorial page so it is not confusing gets high on the priority of those with the ability to fix it.  Is there some reason I am not seeing to not edit the tutorial page to remove the confusion?  Thanks to all who do the work on this great site.  But this really needs to be fixed ASAP. 

-Oz-

It is a high priority but from my current location doing this is very difficult.

I get contact forms daily where I just reply with the tutorial link.
Dan Blomberg
Administrator - GPSFileDepot
GPS Units: Garmin Dakota 20, Garmin GPSMap 60csx, Nuvi 255W, Nuvi 250W, ForeRunner 110, Fenix 2, Tactix Bravo, Foretrex 401
See/Download My Maps!

Boyd

Yeah, there was another post today where somebody was mucking around with MapsetToolkit when the map they downloaded included an installer....  :-\

I'm thinking that maybe we should forget about using Mapsource in the basic tutorials and just give instructions for Basecamp. That is a simple one-click install from Garmins site, with no tricky stuff involved (it includes its own basemap). Then using Mapsource could be a separate tutorial, since it will install without issue if you already have Basecamp.

Basecamp is also multi-platform, so one tutorial could cover everyone.

-Oz-

Well, it may have taken awhile to split the tutorials but it has been completed.  i actually have to change the backend so that it now knows there are different types of tutorials.

I don't know how to help people stop using MapSetToolkit.  I'll likely make it so after you download a map it takes you to a page with tutorials to help you out because i can generally guess that .exe's have an installer and .zip don't.
Dan Blomberg
Administrator - GPSFileDepot
GPS Units: Garmin Dakota 20, Garmin GPSMap 60csx, Nuvi 255W, Nuvi 250W, ForeRunner 110, Fenix 2, Tactix Bravo, Foretrex 401
See/Download My Maps!