Comparison: Streets & Trips to Street Atlas

[sreigle]

Well, I promised when I had a chance to use S&T I'd post my thoughts on how it compares to Street Atlas.

To be fair, I've only actually followed a route on S&T just one time. I'm new to S&T so hope someone can tell me how to overcome what I see as shortcomings, for my purposes. I'm pretty intimately familiar with Street Atlas and know how to work around most of its anomalies.

First, I've been using SA for the past several generations including my current version, Street Atlas 2004. With SA I use a usb DeLorme Earthmate, which is NMEA compliant. In the past I used the older COM port version of Earthmate. It is NOT NMEA compliant. I've just recently purchased Streets & Trips 2005 with the microsoft GPS that comes with it as an option.

A. Trip routing. I like S&T's routing interface and ease of routing better than I do Street Atlas.

B. Trip tracking with GPS. I prefer SA for the following reasons:

1. I like the voice automatically cluing me to look at the screen since I have a turn coming up. On S&T I have to have the directions window open and it doesn't auto scroll. Once past the first few directions I have to manually scroll the window and that doesn't work when driving.

2. SA I like being able to see how far it is to my next turn and which way to turn.

3. SA I like being able to press Alt-F5 and see my next turn so I can see if it's a cloverleaf or what. Also, F5 gives me a voice description of which way to turn and how far from now.

4 S&T I like S&T's blue trail. It stands out better for me, a slightly color challenged person.

5 S&T I like the circle with car in it to indicate my current location. SA's arrow is good except for color challenged people it just doesn't stand out from the route colors enough for me to immediately discern where it is.

6. SA has for a long time provided an option to keep the current location centered and to keep my forward direction UP on the screen. I see the 2005 version of S&T now has this. A major plus for both packages for me.

7 Key F12 to put focus on the map so the keys work to move forward, back, or side to side when viewing the map. I can't find a similar keyboard shortcut on S&T.

Maybe some of you experienced S&T'ers can help me out with some of this. I've read through the manual and the help screens. Am I missing some capabilities, something I haven't yet discovered?

Thanks.

[Chester]

Steve, I bought S&T about a month ago. The GPS quit about the 3rd test trial and I had to return and get another. The second has been ok since.

I have not used other products but I do like S&T maps and the tracer blue line for the GPS. It stands out.

My dislikes are the same as yours and I don't think there's anything you can do. I would prefer voice prompts and to have the route automatically scroll. Honestly I've started shutting the route list off and just following the route as shown on the map. Along with the GPS trail (I always set it to have current location stay in the middle of the map) this seems to work best for me. You just can't take the time to read the directions.

[sreigle]

Thanks, Chester. On Street Atlas the next turn is shown on the bottom along with the direction of turn and how far until that turn. The voice prompt repeats this info but is my clue to look at the map so I don't drive by it. The voice repeats just before the turn and says, for example, "Turn right on Main Street, approaching NOW". If S&T would just do that or at least show me the next turn so I'd know I need to look at it pretty soon (or not for a long while) then I'd be happy with it. I do prefer the blue track of S&T. I'm somewhat color challenged. In SA the route, track, and location arrow are just too close to the same color for me. I have to spend too much time discerning exactly where the location arrow is. I'm so used to the voice and having next turn info that I'm afraid I can't live with S&T until they add that info. I see SA2005 shows both the next turn and the one after that, in case they're in quick succession. 2004 shows just the next one.

[OntMont]

About the Keyboard short cuts. Don't your arrow keys work to move the map around and the + and - make it zoom in and out? Mine do. ...or am I missing something? I have only ever used S&T because it came free with both of my computers. Donna usually has it on her lap and provides the "missing" voice. She also contols the zoom level depending on where we are (city or open road).

Maps are probably like trucks, they all work, but they all work a bit differently.

[snowbunny]

Steve,
I use Streets and Trips and use the arrow keys to scroll N,S,E,W. I haven't bought a GPS yet. I am tempted to buy the Delorme GPS with StreetAtlas so I could have my choice of mapping software. You own both and both GPS devices. Is there a difference in quality/features in the GPS devices? Can either be used with either package?

[sreigle]

John, the scrolling and zoom keys do work but what I was referring to was the text directions that show me how far to the next turn and which direction to turn, name of the road, etc. In SA it shows me that and shows me exactly how far to the next turn from right now. It constantly updates, in other words. I prefer S&T's route planning and I like it's colors better for the tracking and route. If I had started with S&T I'd probably have stayed with it but I'm afraid the voice prompt is the biggie for me. Our laptop sits on the console. I wish there were a way to take the best of each and combine into a single package.