Customer Reviews

Rand McNally StreetFinder & TripMaker Deluxe

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

There are many things not to like about this app. The interface reminds one of Win 3.1 apps and quickly becomes frustrating when you want to do anything other than find a street.
You want continuous zoom or pan? Forget it. You can only position and zoom at preset intervals which are too large for detailed work and there is no mouse interface, its either keys or a tiny menu impossible to work with.
You want to know the name of a small city? Forget it. You can see the streets but not its name.

The maps are also very old. For example, Madison WI maps are at least 10 years out of date.
You cannot plan a precise trip. For that you have to switch to their TripMaker, but alas, the trip you create in TripMaker cannot be read into StreetFinder. Problem is, TripMaker has only the larger roads and freeways, so its useless to plan trips within cites or on small county roads, and StreetFinder does not allow for multi-waypoint trip. So both are useless for side trips unless you want to go from places like NY to SF. But we all know that for that you just get on 80 and go West.
So, save your money and buy a map. Better yet, use several of the on-line maps. They're free and give you almost everything this doesn't. In all fairness, there a few good things there, but they're not worth the frustration the other things will cause.

I could not be more frustrated by this thing (that I refuse to call a software). Run away from it. I gave one star for this because there is no option to give zero or negative stars. Paper maps are more useful.

Need directions? First you need an internet connection... Unless you have an interenet connection in your car you cannot get directions on the road. And even if you planned before hand, you cannot customize your way. If you would like to use one road instead of another you are on your own.

The walking tool is the most ridiculous thing I ever saw. It does not even add up the total distance you walked. And you you need to go through SEVEN STEPS to get things done. You are forced to go through steps for changing the color of the line and the font used everytime... And the result is not scrollable. If the directions list is longer than the screen you have to move the window around to read its contents.

The measuring tool is very adequate for birds. But only those that can fly and provided it is not a windy day. The only thing you can do is to draw a straight line and see what is the distance between the two points. And I was expecting something that allowed me to create an intrincate path and have the total distance... Couldn't they combine the walking and measuring tools in a single useful thing?

It's not as good as the advertisements and the description on the box say. The map itself is better than Microsoft's. But the information like POI is horrible. There is almost nothing you can find in suburb area near Chicago. And even I use PC ver. I can not locate my apartment correctly. But it's PDA ver. is better than Mapopolis' PDA ver. Mapopolis' PDA ver. even cannot show the street right.

The biggest drawback is the marker can not adjust its position on the screen and let you see it all. If the marker is not in the center of the screen, it will just be cut out by the screen and you have to scroll the map just to read the whole marker. It's stupid.

To PDA user, this software's map selection function is funny. There are 4 methods, the part shown on the PC screen, point to point rectangle area, areas around 2 points and areas along the route between the 2 points, areas around 2 points and the route only. It doesn't seperate the maps into small areas and let you select by area like other mapping softwares do.

A big drawback to GPS user, it doesn't have alternative font option. It's not that easy to read the street name in small font while you are driving. Especially for Clie user.

If Rand McNally can add street to street routable function in it's PDA ver. and enforce it's POI finding function I think it will be close to perfect.

I ordered Xmap 3 days after I bought Streetfinder. It's on the way. After I test Xmap, I will write my review.

Now I'm think to sell the title.

I have been using this software for 3 years and will continue to use it. BUT, I find myself frequently finding ways in which the program could and should be improved. We travel with a pop-up camper for 70 days a year, logging in an average of 6000 mile /year. Plenty of "test" time.
Pros:
- Cheap. A limited version was free and I liked it enough to by the $30 Deluxe 2001. It is now packaged with the StreetFinder which I do not have.
- GPS function is a hoot. It is not always on the nut for coordination with the map, but it works well and it gives my wife something to do in lieu of correcting my driving.
- Mapping a basic route is very simple. Major roads and most secondary highways are right on the money.
- Using the program saved me at least once on every trip by correcting a missed turn to re-routing through detours.

Cons:
- Zoom. Maps are primative at low zoom levels and have many errors at high zoom levels, but generally provides "passable" information. It's easy to miss detail on the maps unless you remember to zoom in. It is slow in redrawing a zoomed or re-centered map.
- Missing information. As campers who prefer the more rustic locations we find that some of our preferred campgrounds are missing from the database. For example, there is one listing each for the White Mountains, The Green Mountains and the Alleghany Mountain National Forests. It does not list individual campgrounds of which there are many. Some state parks are missing too. There is little excuse for that as all the information is on the net.
- Commercial. There is lots of info on private campgrounds but not all. I suspect that there might have been listing fee involved and that takes presidence over accuracy. Unfortunate.
- Outdated. One campground changed their name in 1996 and it still was not listed properly in the 2001 edition. We drove past it 4 times before we believed the GPS and went in to check. Many other examples of that.
- Inaccuracies. It was kind of fun to see that we were traveling in the Bay of Fundy. Most of the Canadian and rural areas maps had poorer coorination with the GPS.

Recommendation: Extensive review of the reviews does not turn up a program that fulfills the promise of mapping and travel planning software. I'd pay hundreds for the program that does it all. Where is it?
In the meantime, this program provides a service and is more fun than frustrating. Where else can you spend $30 and keep your wife entertained for days on end?

After using Street Atlas USA on my brother's computer, with his Garmin eTrex (standard yellow), I decided to purchase some software to use with my eTrex Legend. I looked around, and decided between this software and MS Streets and Trips, purchasing StreetFinder finally, figuring it would have better maps (I decided against Street Atlas USA already by my brother's encouragement, as it is apparently STRICTLY maps of the US, and all roads apparently stop at Canadian and Mexican borders).

After receiving it, however, I became VERY disappointed VERY quickly, as I could not get it to recognize my GPS, at all. I had already updated the firmware on it, and used it with EasyGPS, so I knew that the link was good, and the software was just [not working] out. After adjusting it for a while, I gave up, and began playing, which was another disappointment. The interface is terrible (it tries to be "easy to use" but that really means "not usable"). Also, StreetFinder and TripMaker do not use shared maps, so although Streetfinder has the road I live on in it (surprising, as it is a new subdivision), TripMaker doesn't even have streets for the city I live in (and its not some dinky town or something, Clarksville is the fifth largest city in Tennessee). This was a great frustration, especially in planning a trip to memphis, as I just ended up guessing my entire way there.

Overall, StreetFinder is only a halfway good piece of software because of it's excellent maps, and TripMaker is just [stuff]. Rand McNally advertises "Full GPS Support", but I wouldn't know, as I never got it to work, even in NMEA mode (of which I could monitor with Hyperterminal, and read the data, so it was coming in....). My recommendation is to buy MS Streets & Trips, as it picked up my GPS immediately, no problems, and has quite decent maps to boot, as well as a usable interface.

I wasn't able to install this software and my machine exceeded all the requirements. I am very frustrated and disappointed with this product. I chose this over MS's map software because it was Rand McNally, a respected map maker. Apparently software is not their forte. I now have to make a trek back to the store to return this product and buy the MS software. A waste of time, a huge aggravation, and a big disappointment.

I intended to buy MS Streets and Trips 2005. I'd used the 2002 and 2003 versions and wanted to upgrade.

I saw the SteetFinder and TripMaker Deluxe offering and decided to give it a go. One word can describe this product - AWFUL.

The first thing you notice is the clunky interface. Rand McNally may have a history of making great maps, but they can't write software.

The interface is totally unfamiliar to anyone used to the standard Windows interface. I'm an IT technician, I work with all sorts of different software packages from different vendors, but this was without doubt the worse interface I have ever seen.

The map looks great when the program first opens, but as soon as you zoom in the nice topo detail is lost. There is no option to display the map in topo / road detail as you get with Steets and Trips.

The GPS navigator was a deciding factor in getting this software. If that alone had worked well I'd have been happy.

Unfortunately it doesn't work well at all. Sure it will track your GPS position and give voice prompts as you drive (assuming you have a GPS unit), but it takes so long to enter your destination address you'd probably have already arrived.

The software is buggy too. Several times the map would suddenly change, whole roads vanishing. Zooming out made them appear again but as soon as you zoom in they disappear. Only restarting the software fixed this.

Back to the GPS feature. The software has a GPS window that estimates arrival time and distance to go. I recently drove 250 miles and watched the ETA field increment to the point that when I was ten miles away from my destination the software said it would take 13 hours and 90 minutes to get there. Quite why it couldn't convert those 90 minutes into another one hour and 30 minutes I don't know, but either way it was wrong. The distance to go indicator ended up over 500 miles.

At first I thought the software assumed I was driving somewhere else, so I pulled over and restarted my laptop. I entered all the details again and it correctly estimated time and distance, but after a few miles it went crazy again.

Printing maps is a JOKE. You can only print the current map view, not an entire route to follow.

Forget pushpins - if you like that feature in MS Streets and Trips you'll be disappointed with this package. Addresses are stored in an 'address book' - sounds logical right? It doesn't work very well at all. You have to look up each address, you can't type in a partial name and find it like you can with Streets and Trips.

I ended up getting the MS Streets and Trips 2005 package and I'm very happy with it. It doesn't have voice prompted GPS navigation, but I quickly realized I didn't really need that feature.

STAY AWAY FROM THIS PRODUCT!

I am so frustrated about having this program I felt I needed to write a review to warn potential buyers.

I've used 3 softwares: Garmins' MapSource USA, AAA/Delorme's Map & Go 4.0 (1998). This is by far the WORST program.

Looks good with nice package and appealing interface, but works poorly.

1. It's very slow - takes a long time to load and refresh. For each zoom in/out action, it takes about 2 to 3 seconds to refresh. I use a P4 top of line laptop by the way and have the whole program installed on my harddisk.

2. The TripMaker has lots of fancy functions like expense tracking, daily schedule etc. It's all too cumbersome to use and impractical.

3. GPS function does not provide voice commands (ie PC tell you which direction to go).

I intended to replace my 1998 version of Delorme's Map&Go from AAA with this program. But the former is still much more superior than this!

I bought this product for use with a small hand-held Garmin GPS on my laptop. Then I discovered it uses the Internet to plan trips. This was before I left so I planned and saved the trip I wanted before setting off. ....

Luckily I happened to have Microsoft Streets and Trips 2002 on my laptop so I can compare these two products, both of which I had to use on my road trip. I did not plan on using the Microsoft product as the maps are out of date and I bought this"~ product as it looked better from the box. I should have read the Amazon reviews first, shouldn't I? <sigh fact that it had picked the SHORTEST route to my destination, not the QUICKEST. The Microsoft product was able to tell me the quickest route and so I followed that using StreetFinder but it could not cope with how far off track I went from the planned route and worse, was not able to re-route to the way in which we were going. It just locked up - highly inconvenient when you need to know where you are so which junction to take next! Having the Miscrosoft product installed saved me time here. Had I not had it I expect I would given up and stopped in a gas station and picked up a paper map!

... To check we were going the right way I would flip to Microsoft Streets and Trips 2002 and check! Then flip back to this product to get faster location updates.

I may have been better off buying a more expensive hand-held Garmin GPS that has maps in it. This was intended as a "poor-man's" solution to this on our family road-trip but this software was not up to the job. I liked Streets and Trips and might upgrade to the 2003 version if it updates locations faster. ...

Like most people, I too have used on-line mapping services for sometime, usually with mixed results. It seems as though every single result I received varied from one site to the next - generally taking me in a route which wasn't even the best (or fastest!) The final straw was when trying to map out directions from my office. No mapping service, including a few different software programs, even recognized my offices street address - & we've been in this location for over 2 years!

Finally! A program that actually knows where I'm at! Rand McNally is the only program I've tried so far that has given me accurate & efficient directions to every destination I've tried to find. I didn't even realize it at the time I purchased this set, but it also included a (fold up) road atlas (very cool) & a bonus CD for my PALM PILOT! I honestly never thought of being able to use my PALM as a portable GPS system. As an outside sales rep, I cannot tell you how many times this has helped out!

If you've ever been frustrated with results you've been given while trying to map out directions to some unknown destination - I would strongly suggest you give this program shot. I think you'll be quite impressed. Not only for the accuracy, but the additional features alone - are worth it!