Customer Reviews

Microsoft MapPoint 2009 [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My workplace just upgraded to 2009 from 2006, and while 2006 was easily the best version of this software I've ever used, the 2009 version is easily the worst and has gone backward in functuality.

For one thing, the program doesn't support Windows 2000, which all of the computers where I am run. I know, they should upgrade to XP (which they have finally begun to do with Win2K end of life support), but they won't do that, so I'm stuck using this on a VPN running Server 2003 (eventually upgraded to Server 2008), which is acceptable, though slow.

Guiding myself around the interface is now a pain; instead of giving you a choice between panning and zooming via the toolbar, you're stuck with the left mouse button panning, and the right button dragging the box to zoom in. Nobody uses the right mouse button for click and drag interaction, and I never use the panning feature, preferring to use the arrow keys, so this works horribly for me. The interface also defaults to an ugly black background within the toolbars instead of the cool blue of Office 2007 in XP/2003/Vista or basic grey of Mappoint 2006, which makes the program seem more intimidating than friendly.

Pushpin choices are extremely reduced, and you're stuck with only a few landmark pins and a few colored pins (up to 20) which seemed to be designed on the rush. In 2006 to pinpoint a destination, I could differentiate it as a business or home by using a pin to do so; that's no longer the case here. It's either one of the basic pins, slowly adding custom ones (or as I later found out, grabbing the old icon pack from the many Streets and Trips/MapPoint enthusiast forums out there), or you're out of luck.

Searching has been seriously kludged. I used to be able to type an address in the style [123 Sample Rd, WI] to save time and unneeded keystrokes to get to the address I needed within my state without having to type the city, and go right past matching addresses in other states. No longer does it default to WI with the [, WI] command. It lists every address from the beginning in Alabama, and if it's a common number/street combo, you'll be hitting Page Down quite a few times. Then you also get the blended listings from Live/Bing Search. This should be a good thing, right? But it slows down the search process, and often it's redundant and unneeded if you're just searching for a basic address, not a business name or type.

I'm also finding it hard to zoom the map to a certain geographic area, such as a county after a click on the county's name, and I have to pan the map into frame and zoom manually to place an entire county or city in focus of the window. Zooming options have seemed to lessen too, as my favorite default of 18 miles has seemed to change to 20 miles, losing street grid information within that view.

This program is wonderful and my favorite map program, but things that weren't broken were 'fixed', and have ruined the user experience for me. I would love to see a software update to address these problems, but for now I'm going to use a combo of paper maps, Google Earth, and the kludge of Mappoint 2009 to search for maps rather than depending on this alone.

2004 version had the pan or select mode to move around the map. The select mode enabled you to "square" off or "size" the viewing area to the best fit. Also bringing in the custom pushpins is a pain. Best thing was the updated addresses which decreased the number of addresses that could not be mapped.

First off, Microsoft MapPoint 2009 is NOT a Google Maps wanna be. Yes they can both be used to map out trips. Yes, they can both be used to find nearby businesses. But for me, that is where the similarity ends. Only a few years ago to map out demographic data took months of research and the hand recreation of data onto a map. With MapPoint 2009 a click of a button imports select US Census data and automatically overlays that information on the map. Tie this with the software's ability to define territories and companies can now many valid decisions on where best to spend its time and effort. What I wouldn't have done for this 10 years ago!

Other reviewers have said that the interface is "not fluid" and "kludgy". While I have not used any previous versions of MapPoint, I can truthfully say that I cannot disagree more. I am an avid gamer and the map controls are very similar to those that have been developed for real-time strategy gaming. I found the controls to not only be fluid, but to make more sense than the control schemes mentioned in other reviews. That said, I do wish there were more options for push pins. I find the existing options greatly lacking. Perhaps as I use the software more I will find ways to make the pins and their tags easier to identify at a glance.

The Route Planner function has already proven very useful. Do you need to make a lot of deliveries? Create push pins for all of the locations you service, then active the Route Planner. You can then add the locations you need to visit that day. When you are done, select "Optimize Stops". That is all there is to it.

After your route is planned, click on "Find Coupons". After all, a person's got to eat. Restaurants and other businesses located along your path will be displayed. Click on the business and you'll be given the option to print a coupon. Even 20% off of fast food can add up pretty quick.

Overall I give Microsoft MapPoint 4 out of 5 stars. If I had a GPS, perhaps it would earn the full 5. However, the cost versus what I am using it for is a little steep when compared to similar products. Still, it's a great product if you are going to use it for all that it has to offer.

I've wanted MapPoint for about four years now but had hesitated to purchase because I wasn't sure it was worth the price. After using it for two days now, and going through the tutorials, I realize just how powerful this software is.

For the average home user looking for a routing solution, this is overkill. Just stick with Microsoft Streets & Trips 2009 or Microsoft Streets & Trips 2009 with GPS, or for free, use google maps or mapquest.

This software is integrated with the US Census Bureau so you can import an excel spreadsheet of data, and using MapPoint, create a map to help you make business decisions. I was able to import our client list, and then overlay sales data with income, age, and other demographic information. This would be very useful to target mailings by carrier route because you can compare your current results geographically and see where your advertising dollars are best spent.

You can also map your appointments and then block off an area you want to cover, and put in a starting point, and it will map the most efficient way to make all appointments.

That is just the tip of the iceberg, this has so many more really useful features.

I found the MapPoint tutorial to also be very useful, one of the more useful tutorials Microsoft has put out. If you are using the tutorial, I recommend running two monitors so the tutorial can sit on one screen and MapPoint can be open on the other screen.

Four years ago when I wanted to get this software we were thinking of starting an organic produce home delivery service. Now that I've been able to put this to the test, this would have been the perfect solution for routing deliveries.

For those who are on the fence about buying this software, Microsoft offers a 60 day free trial. You can download it right at the Microsoft web site and then use the built it tutorial to see if this is a product that can enhance your business. If not, you've wasted nothing but your time.

Another great advantage to this software is that regardless of your Internet connection, you can always have maps and routing information available to you as long as this is installed on your computer or laptop. It also has coupons built in, so you can enter an address, and it will show you coupons for attractions and dining nearby.

If you plan to use this as a backup or primary gps in your car, I would recommend buying the version that comes with the GPS receiver, Microsoft MapPoint 2009 with GPS.

The maps in this product and Microsoft Streets & Trips 2009 are the same - and both are awful. They are incredibly outdated, incomplete and error-ridden.

On a recent trip, I was navigating. In a car moving at expressway speeds, the results in the search box were impossible to read because the type is so small. The address I was looking for is a house that was built in 1993. Neither it nor the surrounding community are to be found on the these maps.

In my own area, within a six block radius, both MapPoint 2009 and Streets & Trips 2009 list four restaurants that closed three or more years ago. Another restaurant, which has been located at its current location for at least ten years, is still shown at its former location a couple of miles away.

Such inaccuracies are unacceptable.

For route planning, I would strongly suggest using Google Maps as your primary source or at least to check on the accuracy (or lack thereof) of the Microsoft products.

Data mapping capability, on the other hand, is excellent. You can use ". . . an address, ZIP Code or postal code, census tract, city, metropolitan statistical area (MSA), state or province, or country. You can aggregate data by importing or linking data at one level (for example, ZIP Code) and displaying at a higher level (for example, State). Additionally, you can associate data to territories that have been defined on the map."

Importing is a relatively smooth process and you can use Excel, Access, Outlook contacts or any of several text formats.

You can create territories from data or manually. Pushpin styles are limited, compared to the last version, but you can add your own.

Once the data is mapped, you can massage it in a variety of ways, including creating routes between multiple pushpins.

Overall, I think both Microsoft mapping products have taken a step backwards from the most recent versions. Neither MapPoint 2009 nor Streets & Trips 2009 have any features compelling enough to make the upgrade and the maps appear to be the same. I'd hold off for the next version or consider competitive products. By all means, try out the Microsoft evaluation version before you purchase this product. Make sure it works for you and that the maps are accurate enough for your needs.

Jerry

Though MapPoint can be used for general mapping and directions, it is not really meant for that. It is a business application first and foremost. It is best suited for sales type companies and positions. So for example, you buy a database of all hospitals in the USA and all of their statistics. You can then visually see all hospitals of a certain size or how much revenue if any you have sold there so far. You can then better decide sales territories and such. Of course, once you did, you can provide your sales force with MapPoint and have it provide them routes to each destination to maximize their time on the road and in front of clients.

With the introduction of the Ribbon menu system in most of the Office products, I would have thought they would have incorporated that into MapPoint by now, but they did not. There are still several products they have no done this with. I like consistency in software from the same vendor. Regardless, the toolbar is useable but still feels and looks rather old school.

It is fairly easy to import or link your demographic information as always. What is disappointing is that they still have not included the ability to link to data via ODBC or a SQL Client. For a business application, I would think you should be able to link to a read database and not just Access, Excel, or text files.

The best advice I can give you is this. Just like most Microsoft products, MapPoint is available for a 60-day trial. So always do that first to see if you like it before you buy it.

I installed MapPoint on a Vista 64 bit computer and an Atom Netbook with Windows XP and it functions perfectly on both. MapPoint is a must for the serious / business users; it has all the features of Streets and Trips plus powerful data mapping, information analysis, and communication tools.

It is very powerful. You can basically search by street to any location in the USA and Canada plus it also has street level coverage of Mexico.

It is easy to use. You can type in a street or just click on the map. You can put in start and end locations and MapPoint will map it all out for you so you can streamline those travel plans.

If you want to see detailed data information on different areas such as age, population, etc. then this program has it. This is great for business users so you can target certain products to certain areas. You can also use the maps etc. in your Microsoft Office applications (such as Word, Excel etc.) to create your own specialized documents.

Once you get rolling then you can plug the GPS receiver in your car into your computer and then run MapPoint in the full screen navigation mode to follow that route you already planned earlier. It even has voice direction.

I really enjoy using this software, it has all the features of a good navigation program plus it is a powerful mapping and information tool. The functionality is near perfect which is as you would expect from Microsoft.

One of the ads for MapPoint 2009 says that you can "See Your Date in a Whole New Way" and that really does describe one of the features of this program that makes it worth the money. You can import your own data or use Census date to make maps using only the information you want to enhance your business. You can do this in minutes. It's an amazing feature.

You can ad a USB GPS device to your laptop and use this software like you would an onboard GPS unit, but, of course, that would necessitate you looking over on the passenger seat on occasion. MapPoint has several points of interest programed into it, so if you're touristing off or just looking for a good restaurant, MapPoint will show you the way.

You can plan your trip, calculate your milage, figure out your drive time, find the best route all with MapPoint 2009. It's an expensive program and I feel like I'm just scratching the surface, but it's intuitive and easy to use, kind of fun too.

Microsoft MapPoint 2009 is for me Google Map with coupons. I have not yet used the integrated feature of activating a GPS receiver with this software so I'm guessing that the MapPoint will have greater utility when connected to GPS. Just as I have always done using Google Map I entered my starting point from my house and plotted a map with directions to my sister's house near New Orleans. Pretty much did the same thing as Google Map. The plus to this software is that you can do much on your desktop instead of being constantly plugged into the internet. Your course plot can be exported and interfaced with your Office Excel Software (which I have) which makes it very convenient when you desire to publish a document which can contain information from your work done on MapPoint. So now I can send my client directions that I can publish with Microsoft Office - a big plus. Finally coupons; I was surprised that MapPoint can inform me about restaurants, stores, hotels etc. and allow me to print coupons (many of which are two for one) that I can use to save money on the road. So I deducted only one star for a lot of duplication with Google (a free service). Overall I like this software.

Addendum: After playing around with this software I am in agreement with Candy "AustinLady" from Austin, TX. There are a hoste of layered features to this software that takes it lightyears further than Google Maps. Demographic data imput which is available allows you to have much more at your disposal than just trip information and places you can eat and stay at a discount. You can actually find out about the population characteristics of places you select - which would have come in very handy to me some years back when I was planning to open a mexican restaurant in South Florida. I can see a huge business utility associated to using this software.

For over two years I have periodically attempted to retrofit this software to my needs and objectives largely without success. That is not a condemnation of the application, it is an admission the capabilities here are vastly beyond my business needs so the underlying motivation to exploit it to the fullest is just not there.

Frankly, the only thing I've really done is map routing and that is tragic misapplication, one that can be as effectively and efficiently accomplished with my GPS. I can easily see where this software could be highly beneficial to business entities where business marketing and acquisition expenses for multiple associates is a significant factor but in my case site to site travel is not a primary functionality.