If you are attempting to use the software with a USB GPS receiver, you will need to get a USB to COM Port software driver from the GPS manufacturer.  This driver will capture the information coming in to the USB port and internally divert it to a COM port.  Most GPS unit manufacturers use *proprietary* COM emulations in their USB devices, anyway, and they have recently made software device drivers available for free (on their web sites) to allow *other* mapping applications to work with their hardware.  Find the manufacturer of your GPS, go to their web site and look for a USB serial emulator driver.

For example, here is the description from the Delorme web site (and the link to download the appropriate device driver) http://www.delorme.com/support/supporttemplate.aspx?id=217  (this location is valid as of 4/5/2006 - Note that the location on their web site may change, in that case go to www.delorme.com and look for the appropriate device driver).

Possible Solution (2):

You need to make sure that the settings on your GPS receiver, and/or any USB/COM emulator drivers, are the same as the settings in the TLDCN-2009 software (e.g. the COM port #, the Baud rate, etc.)

See list of GPS receivers reported by users as working well with the program...

Normally when a GARMIN Nuvi GPS device is plugged into a computer it is automatically detected as a mass storage device (external drive), and will NOT operate or be detecting as a GPS device. You can change this behavior by using the following steps (No external drivers or any other software need to be installed)

1. Turn on the Nuvi GPS device without connecting the USB cable to the PC (Note: the Nuvi’s battery has to be charged in order to turn it on)

2. Enter the diagnostic mode by pressing and holding the icon of the battery for about 10 seconds.

3. After you get the diagnostic screen, connect the Nuvi device to your compute, using the appropriate USB cable, and then exit the diagnostic screen by pressing "Exit". The device should no be recognized as a GPS device. Wait for the installation of the driver by Windows (the first time you do that, it may take a while)

4. After the process finishes, and you get the message that the device is ready to use, start TLDCN2009, open the GPS dialog, select the Garmin USB protocol and click Start Tracking.

See list of GPS receivers reported by users as working well with the program...

Answer:  As far as we know, the GPS receiver shipped with MS Streets and Trips, is manufactured by Pharos.  Based on Pharos' web site, indeed, you should be able to use their device with ANY NMEA compliant software.  Here are some brief instructions (from their site,  http://www.pharosgps.com/support/faq-faq2.htm paraphrased here to refer to TL Campground Navigator 2009)

To make sure that the software is reading the appropriate Com Port, check the Device Manager to see which Com Port the driver as been assigned to.

• Go into your "Start Menu"
• Click on "Control Panel", make sure it is in Classic View
• Click on "System"
• Click on "Hardware"
• Click on "Device Manager"
• Choose "Ports (COM & LPT)"

Here, it will read which Com Port the GPS device has been assigned to: "Prolific USB-to-Serial Comm Port (Com 3)" (as an example) Once you know which Com Port the device is located on, you will be able to go into TL Campground Navigator 2009, in the GPS Tab, GPS Settings and set the same Com Port for communication to begin.

See list of GPS receivers reported by users as working well with the program...

Answer:  Yes, you can use the Earthmate USB devices with the program.  You need to download and install the appropriate device driver from the Delorme web site, that allows their devices to communicate with third party NMEA compliant programs (like Trailer Life Directory Campground Navigator 2009).  The link to download the appropriate device driver is

http://www.delorme.com/support/supporttemplate.aspx?id=217  (this location is valid as of 4/5/2006 - Note that the location on their web site may change, in that case go to www.delorme.com and look for the appropriate device driver).

After you install the device driver (following the Delorme instructions) make a note of the virtual COM port that the device is assigned to.  Then, run the Trailer Life program, select the GPS tab (on the right), Select GPS settings and set the Port number in the dialog that appears to the same number as the virtual port the Delorme device was assigned to.

Note that if you have problems, it could be that some other driver is trying to use the same port.  Access the Delorme device driver settings again, and set the virtual COM port to a different number (you may want to try a number 5 and above).  Then, run the Trailer life program again and set the COM port, in the GPS settings dialog, to the same number, as well.

See list of GPS receivers reported by users as working well with the program...

(*) This applies to Garmin USB GPS devices.  For Garmin devices with a serial interface, the "NMEA Serial" protocol option should be selected in the GPS settings tab, and the COM port used by the device to communicate with the computer should be set.

See list of GPS receivers reported by users as working well with the program...

Answer: When the currently tracked location, as determined by the GPS supplied coordinates, has changed by the amount specified by this Buffer setting, the map redraws itself with the current location at the center of the viewport. So, a low value means the map will be redrawn when the current location has "slightly" changed.  Depending on what scale the map is at, attempting to redraw the map every few milliseconds (as the GPS position changes), can result in your systems CPU becoming overwhelmed and not be able to perform operations requested by other applications that may be running at the time (almost continuous hourglass cursor).

Only ONE entry field is available in the Search for a Campground dialog! 

What users are referring to is the 10-most-recent entries list that is part of most dialogs in windows applications.  That list is not managed by the user.  Each time the user enters a search string, it is added to the top of the list for convenient access at a later time.  When the list is full, then when the user types in a new entry, the oldest entry in the list is deleted to make room for the new one that is added to the top of the list.  The user cannot add/delete entries to that list directly, and those entries have *no* bearing in any of the calculations, unless one is "clicked on", in which case it is transferred to the dialog's main entry field.

All the costs should be calculated, see (1), below.  It appears that some users fail to scroll the information in that portion of the results dialog Up/Down (2).

Changing the Daily Start/Stop drive times in the Customize tab of the Trip Planner dialog, only affects stop points added to the trip, subsequently to the drive time changes you make - UNLESS the "Apply to All Via Points" option in the Customize dialog is Checked.  Otherwise, if you had spent all sorts of time customizing the drive times for each individual leg of the trip, setting the times in the Customize tab, would reset them all to a single Start/Stop drive time set. 

Note that dhe drive Start/Stop times for any Stop points that have been added to the trip prior to changing the Customize Start/Stop times, can be modified individually by clicking on the small stopwatch icon that appears to the right of each Stop point, in the main Trip Planner dialog.

So, you need to enter "the Longitude, then a comma, and then the Latitude".  In the example cited, you simply enter

          -97:04:20, 32:57:04

For more information about Negative values and their North/East, South/West equivalents, you can take a look here: Lon/Lat

Solution:  Somehow, your TLDCN-2009 configuration file must have gotten corrupted, and the paths are not pointing to the appropriate data folders.  Click on File, Program Options and select the map data folders. Here, you can...

(a) try the automated fixing process, by clicking the button "Reset Data Paths", or

(b)  You can manually type the correct data folders, in each of the fields in the dialog, or click on the ellipsis button (to the right of each field) and navigate to the appropriate folder, which depends on where you placed the program during the installation process.  If you used the default disk drive and destination path, during installation, then the paths should be as follows:

States0: c:\program files\TLDCN2009\States

States1: c:\program files\TLDCN2009\States

   Data1: c:\program files\TLDCN2009\Data1

   Data2: c:\program files\TLDCN2009\Data2

   Data3: c:\program files\TLDCN2009\Data3

Answer:  There is no way to specify a highway name or number that should be used by the program.  However, you can force it to follow a certain route/road by adding Via points to your trip, along the road you are interested in using, by the "Shift-Click" method. You can add as may such points as desired, to make the router follow a certain path, since it has to go through all specified Via points.

Answer:  One way would be to force the router to follow a certain route/road, around the area you want, by adding Via points to your trip, along the route you are interested in following.  The other way is to use the menu sequence, Plan a Trip, Set Routing exclusions, and highlight the areas that you do NOT want the router to go through.

Answer:  (1) while holding down the Shift key, on the keyboard, place the mouse pointer on the spot you are interested in adding to the trip, and press the left mouse button.  

(2) A popup menu will appear, that will give you the opportunity to add this point as the starting point for your trip, add it as via (intermediate) point, or adding it as the stop (end) point of your trip.

In addition to these actions, the pop-up menu allows you to also do the following

(3) If you clicked on an existing trip marker on the map, then selecting "Delete" will delete that point from the current trip.

(4) Clear all the trip points currently defined.

(5) Add and Clear Restrictions

(6) Open the trip planner dialog, by selecting "Plan Your Trip"

Since at different scales, a pixel on the screen represents a different distance, and the user can only click on a pixel, it should be noted that the accuracy of the placement of Via Points, when Shift-clicking, depends on the current scale of the map.  It is therefore recommended that when placing such points the user is zoomed-in to a scale below 2 miles, so that appropriate, accurate  placement can be assured.

Answer:  There are so many ways to search for things, in the 2009 version, that it may get overwhelming at times.  To search for any of the 13,000+ campgrounds and RV park facilities in the Trailer Life database, you need to click on the "find a Location" button, either on the splash screen or on the main screen, or select Search, Find a Location from the menu bar, or just press the F9 key while in the main mapping screen.

Answer:  After you calculate your route based on the Via/Stop points you have selected, the program calculates the "end-of-day" stop time and displays the closest campground at the end of each day.  There is a button that allows you to add those campgrounds as stop points. 

Also, in the trip planner Customize dialog, if you click on (highlight) any one of the stop points, there is a little timer icon that appears to the right of the point description.  Clicking on that icon opens a dialog that allows you to specify the number of hours or days that you want to stop at that point.

Answer:  Humans can decipher all sorts of variations in the format of an address, but computers need to follow certain rules.  For example,  if you typed

     100 Main St North Andover MA

it's impossible for the program to know if you are looking for

     "100 Main St North" in "Andover", or "100 Main St" in "North Andover"

Although the program tries to guess at what the user "meant" to type, the format for entering a search string is that one enters:

SomeStreetAddress, SomeCity, SomeStateTwoLetterAbbreviation, SomeZIPCode

Note the "commas" - they are important. They are used to eliminate ambiguity as to what the user is searching for.  The only optional comma is the one after the state abbreviation.

So, in the above example of not being able to find a city, entering "Boston, MA" with the comma should result in a successful search.

Answer:  These are French names and need to be entered the way they appear in the database and on the map.  Entering the appropriate French names, e.g.

   Percé,QC  or  Montréal,QC

should find the place you are searching for.

We have received a number of questions from users on "How to Enter the French Characters" on their keyboard.  Of course, one of the ways would be to install the French keyboard in Windows (Control Panel, Regional settings,...  You need to read the Windows information for details on how to do that, and how to access the foreign characters on a US keyboard).

On many systems, however, one can use an old (DOS) method to quickly enter some of these foreign characters from the ASCII character set, without having to make any modifications to the Operating System settings.  It is done by typing a 3-digit numeric code  on the numeric keypad of your keyboard, while holding down the Alt key.  Please, note that the numeric keypad is NOT the row of numbers at the top of your keyboard (see below). 

Also note that if you are using a laptop computer, there is probably not a separate numeric keypad, but one is embedded within the other keys and you probably need some special key to access it.  Each laptop is different, please consult your computer's documentation for details on how to do that.

Here are some common Alt-num combinations for entering characters other than English:

Answer:  You have probably set up a trip, with user-specified stops, in such a way that there are no "end-of-day" stops automatically calculated by the program.  Since the program doesn't see the need, or get the chance to calculate "end-of-day" stops, based on the travel times you have specified, it presumes that you have already decided where to stop, and therefore does not see the need to calculate closest campgrounds, either, that's why the button is never enabled. 

Answer:  If there are only two points in the list, one is the Starting point of your trip and the second is the Endpoint of your trip, by definition.  It does not make sense to have the ability to specify the length of layover for the starting point and the end point of a trip!  You can only specify layovers for intermediate stop points.

Answer:  Most of the time, the files are there, but the user has, probably unintentionally, saved them with a different file extension (rather than the default .trp) extension, or has saved them in a different folder. A tip, if you attempt to open a trip file and the list of files presented appears not to include all the trip files you have saved, then

(a) Make sure that the folder you are looking at is the same as the folder where you saved your trip files, and

(b) In case you somehow saved them with a different file extension, go to the "File Name:" field, of the File Open dialog, type *.* and press Enter.  That should display ALL files in the folder, regardless of the file extension.  Browse the list and see if the other trip files you saved are in that list.

*  The dialog that appears when the user attempts to save/open a file, is a standard windows dialog.  There may be additional details in the Windows documentation of how such dialogs operate. 

** Note that on many Vista installation, the Administrator account may be originally hidden, for Vista security purpose.  The link provided below contains information on how to access the Administrator account, if you are interested in doing so.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555910/en-us

As for Vista 64-bit, the program is a 32-bit application, but it should work as such in Vista-64, since it supports 64 bit apps.  Make sure you install it to the 32-bit program folder on your system.

You don't have to transfer the files, if the 2009 Version was installed on the same system that the 2007 version was, you can access them by simply pointing to the folders they are located in.  However, if you prefer, you can use Windows explorer to copy the files from your TLDCN2008 folders to your TLDCN2009 data folders.

If you have used the default* settings to install the 2008 and 2009 versions, then your TLCN2008 data files should be in the folders shown below, i.e. your trip files would be in the folder named My Trips, your Journal pictures in the folder My Pictures, etc.

Simply use Windows explorer to copy the files from each of the TLCN2008 folder you are interested in to the corresponding TLDCN2009 folder.  There is no conversion or other processing necessary.

* If you did not use the default settings during the installation, then you need to locate the folders corresponding to your installation and copy the files as suggested above.

Based on user feedback, this is usually the result of either of the following situation:

(a) You are not currently connected to the Internet.  Accessing the Web pages for Campgrounds that have an active link in the program, requires that you are connected to the internet when trying to do so.

(b) The Web button may be confused by the user as being active, i.e., indicating that the highlighted campground has a Web page link in the program, whereas it is not.  Note, *not* all Campgrounds have web page links.  You can tell the ones that do, because when you highlight them, the Web button becomes active (see below):

Ads, in the program, are in the form of PDF files, and as such you need to have Acrobat Reader installed on your computer to read them.  Normally, you'd get an error that the file could not be opened, but it is possible that no error appears, if Acrobat is not installed.

You may have unintentionally defined a routing exclusion.  Run the program, select the menu option "Plan a Trip" and look at the option "Set Routing Exclusion (...)"  Pay attention to what's is inside the parenthesis, next to it.  If it says anything other than "None Defined", then the rectangle(s) you see are most probably the exclusions you have defined. 

If you indeed do *not* want the exclusion rectangles you have defined, From the same, Plan a Trip menu, select "Clear Routing Exclusions".  That should eliminate the routing exclusion rectangles in question.

Note: The color of the routing exclusion rectangles is light Pink (if the exclusions are enabled) or light Green, if they are disabled.  Disabling the exclusions is also controlled from the "Plan a Trip" menu.