Customer Reviews

Delorme Street Atlas USA 2007

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

I broke down and bought this software after having owned the 2006 version, what a waste of money. It does not list roads that are 8 years old and has my neighborhood listed as outside the city limits, we were annexed in 1999. These maps are not as up todate are mose online maps were 3 years ago. Oh well, I might try again in three or four years.

I had been a satisfied user of Street Atlas v.9 for several years, but when I needed to get a new computer last month I thought I would "upgrade" to the newest edition. To put it briefly, this software is a complete dissappointment, to the point that I may uninstall it and return to the prior edition.
For starters, Delorme has chosen to completely avoid using a typical Windows interface. No file, edit, tools, etc buttons on the header. The interface that Delorme has chosen is clumbsy and foreign, with nothing intuitive about it.
Secondly, the maps are pitiful. The house I live in now was built in 2000, yet my street isn't listed on the map. Many of the other changes that have taken place in the Philadelphia area are also not current.
Third, the software takes forever to load, and that is on a new, very fast computer.
Fourth, Delorme seems to have overburdened the software with lots of features specific to use with a laptop and GPS. I have no idea if these features are worthwhile as that is not how I use the program. I use it on my home machine to map routes and find locales. The GPS functions seem to bloat the program and make it near impossible to use for these simple tasks.
In closing, I would recommend you not waste your money on this version of Street Atlas. I'll hope that Microsoft does a better job with it's latest release of Streets and Trips. Or, I'll just work with Google Earth for free.

As an update to this review, I just purchased and installed Microsoft Streets & Trips 2007. It is much easier to use and the maps are more up to date that Street Atlas. I'll be uninstalling the Delorme product this evening.

I drive a tractor trailer for a living. What that means is, I RELY on accurate and easy to use software to get me where I am going up to 16 hours a day without wasting time finding a destination accurately and quickly - otherwise I end up sleeping in the truck. Delorme "dropped the ball" after version 9 by butchering its user interface. Now I use a Globalsat USB GPS device with MS Streets $ Trips which is a pretty poor quality application but beats Street Atlas hands down in terms of ease of use and price. I would pay double the price for the MS application rather than use Delorme's product.

To install the product I had to go in an edit my regestry as it gave an erron on install. After getting it installed it then gave an error that the netlink settings could not be read, but I was still able to open the program. Everything seemed to work but if I clicked on the netlink tab it would say it could not connect which was expected, but when clicking on another tab after that caused the program to abend in erroe and shut down. So you don't click the netlink tab. Checking out the streets I found many major highways in the NC that were updated and their location changed not updated in 2007 even though the the changes were almost two years old. Found many major revisions on highways missing. Really bad software. One star is the lowest rating I could give this, no stars is better

Having been a previous owner of DeLorme Street Atlas 2006, I decided to upgrade to 2007. When I received the software (3 CD's), I un-installed the 2006 version from my computer which uses Windows XP Professional.(tm) The installation seemed to go smoothly but when I inserted the third CD, the installation continued and the progress bar was almost complete but after approximately an hour, it was obvious that the installation would not complete so I had to "Cancel" the installation. There were no virus checkers or TSR programs running in the background so I was puzzled as to why the install would not complete. I called DeLorme's technical support number ( which is not "toll free ) and after a good twenty minute wait finally got a technician on line. We basically tried the installation again but with no success. The technician told me I would have to create a folder on my desktop, copy the three CD's to this folder, then try the installation from the folder and if this didn't work, call them back and let them know any "error messages" that I encountered. I still have been unable to install the software and will not attempt to install it on my laptop where I can use it with myDeLorme GPS receiver. Unless you have unlimited time and patience, I would not recommend the purchase of DeLorme software.

Ok, it is a little more complicated to use, not as intuitive. For the hardcore mapping user this product far exceeds MS Streets.... The very casual user should stick with MS Streets.... I drive an 18-Wheeler across country. It is not meant for trucks per se as it can route you down restricted roads. But it allows you to easily set routes 'Via' selected roads, much easier than MS Streets. It has a good database of 'Points of Interests' and other features. I utilize 3 different mapping programs, as well as mapbooks, but once I learned to use Street Atlas, it is the main program that I rely on. You can also download a serial port emulator from the DeLorme website for free that will allow you to use the DeLorme GPS receiver with other products. I did and I do.
Get the 2007 version, be patient, work with it, read the manual. You will not regret it!!

I live in an area where the roads have been established for over 20 years. These same roads are not accurately placed in SA2007. With an upcoming major drive cross-country, I question the reliability of any information from this product. After continuing on the proper road, only to hear, "off route-recalculating" every five seconds, it gets very frustrating. I'm going to have to cut my losses and look for a competitor's product with more accuracy and reliability.

Like other reviewers here I've used Street Atlas for several years and even have one of the Earthmate units that is a lot of fun to use. However, when I bought this 2007 version I was really disappointed. For one thing for some reason it is more difficult to use. I was travelling to Pittsburgh and searched for the Doubletree Hotel a major hotel in center city and found nothing. An amazing outcome for a travel software that is supposed to be current.
I worked with the thing for a long time to get it to find the hotel address - something that should be a no brainer so was very frustating. Oh and it did show me the McDonald's and Burger King in town but NOT the major center city hotel.
It also could not find my home address. I thought the GIS elements of this software would find every address??? Again, I manipulated the thing to create my home address as a starting point with great difficulty.
Then, the maps would not load to my GPS unit - a Garmin that has pretty open architecture.
Finally, this version is for win 2000/XP only and would not load on an older laptop that I have with Win 98.
I'm going to be investigating the Microsoft product and contacting Garmin to see what they recommend.
A real disappointment as I previously found this software application to be very useful.

I waited for this 2007 version that came out in Sept to map our road trip down the gulf coast of Florida all the way to Key West and back home via the Atlantic coast with a side trip to "the Villages" just south of Ocala. First, it has no information on any of the roads in "the Villages", just a black dot denoting it's location. That was my first disappointment. Once on our trip, using the maps from this new version, we left Cedar Key and looked for route/road numbers that were designated by the program and that I had printed. These however, were not correct and we drove in circles for an hour until forced to consult our Rand McNally Road Atlas. The next disappointment was getting from I75 to Tarpon Springs, Fl. Again, the route numbers and road names given by the program were incorrect. We are still on our trip as I type this and not very confident that the maps that I've printed from Street Atlas 2007 will be correct. In short, we feel this program was a waste of money.

BEWARE !!! Their are no Highway exit numbers for most of their National Highways, State roads etc. If you want Directions and maps to have exit numbers go for the Microsoft product - Streets & Trips, it is more user friendly and has exit numbers everywhere I looked !