a few questions

[deepspace]

Hi, I am getting ready to finally finish my project. But have a few questions.
on a recent trip to Eastern Washington I had 2 versions of the map. One with the zoom settings as per the header from this site (23, 22, 20, 18, 17)  the other with some different (24, 22, 20, 18, 16, 15)
both had pluses and minuses. But what I am looking for is the contours (20 foot)  to show up at something about one more level out from 800. At 800 in some areas one could not plan far enough ahead. Any thoughts?
And finally when is there just to much information. I found some shape files which have obscure information such as every bridge in the state and a few other weird ones. Thoughts.
Thanks-
Marc

[maps4gps]

Data bit level 23 is view zoom level 800', 22 is about 1600' or 0.3 miles.  The GPSr has 2 or 3 view zoom levels between each of the data bit levels.  They simply proportionately expand (or shrink) the distance on the GPSr screen between the coordinates defined in the data bit levels.  The GPSr view has 'more' and 'less' detail settings, and MapSource has 'lower' and 'higher' settings (usually affecting all data items) which slightly changes the view zoom level at which items appear.
Obscure but neat info would be a good candidate for an overlay layer(s).

[deepspace]

Thanks for the clarification makes more sense to me now. I am looking at one more thing. I have a gnis shape file for the state, but the web site no longer has the tutorial on how to manually convert a gnis file only the topo process method, which of course only works with the internet. How would I convert it, I did not copy the manual method? Thanks-Marc
 

[deepspace]

I have one more (most likely stupid) question. I have some trail shape files which when opened in mapedit keeps trying to open with with bounds of N: 1566718.8750 S: 1482609.2500 E: 382455.56250 and W: 280379. 90625
How does one convert them to a usable .mp file?   

[leszekp]

From the coordinates, looks like they're in UTM. You'll need to re-project the shapefile to latitude/longitude, WGS84 datum; MapWindow can do this for you:

http://freegeographytools.com/2007/a-free-and-easy-shapefile-coordinate-converter

But you'll need to know the datum for your original shapefile.