TT5 contact integration..?

[ReP0]

I'm coming from the Destinator world where you can view outlooks contacts directly within Destinator itself and select an entry to route to or set as origin.

I've been playing with a friends copy of tomtom and I was horrified at the way contact integration has occurred. If I understand it correctly there doesn't seem to be a way within tomtom to access the contacts when plotting a route. If I understand how it work then I've got to go to WM2003 contacts which is outside tomtom. I don't mean to ruffle any feathers but thats so brain damaged and clunky I'm stunned. Is there any 3rd party app that will let me use the contacts directly within TT so I can select multiple contacts without having to go in and out of TT?.

Version of TT used was 5.

Thanks!
PS apologies if I missed a way of doing this within TT5.

[ReP0]

If it isn't obvious I'm using this on a Pocket-pc.

[peterc10]

Easiest way I find is to start Contacts first. If I have Tom Tom already running I just press the hot key on my Ipaq to start Contacts. Find contact you want to navigate to then hold stylus on it so that options come up. One will be "navigate to", and another will be "find contact on map". Choose either and Tom Tom starts up automatically and does exactly what it says.

Personally I don't see any real problem with that system. Either way you have to start one programme up and let it start the other one automatically - but I guess it comes down to what you get used to ..... In reality it is probably only one more press (of the hot key) than the way you are used to.

[schneid]

Go buy Streets 2206 at BestBuy for around $20.00. Import the contacts you wish from Outlook. Save the .est file file. Use POIConverter (link below) to import the .est file and output it as TT .ov2 file. Create or find a suitable .bmp file for the POI graphic. Convert it to 22x22 by 16bit color. Name it same as your .ov2 file. TT will do this itself but there is no need to store a giant multi-color bitmap that TT can't use. Copy whatever.ov2 and whatever.bmp to your currently used TT map directory. You now have a new POI category containing your Outlook contacts. The POI .ov2 can cover the entire country. Just make sure you copy it to whatever state or regional map directory you are using.

POI Coverter supports other formats including Excel .xls, .csv text files, and others so you can import other address books or POI databases into TT.

If you don't want a custom graphic to represent your contact, TT will use its default one. Mine seems to be a red square.

On the fly you can setup say a days calls in Streets. Save it, run it through POI Converter, copy the .ov2 to TT, and you have your day loaded and ready to go.

POI Converter is here and other places. Just Google it:

http://rjdavies.users.btopenworld.com/html/poiconverter.html

[ReP0]

Appreciate all the feedback and ideas.

For me it's a bit of a let down since the way d3 does it is intuitive, that is, when planning a route you can select "contacts" and the list opens up within d3. Guess there is no plugins that emulate that automatically:(.

I want to stay away from having to create and import entries separately because I like to only have to update my contacts in one place and for that matter let activesync do the job for me. I would hate to go throught the POI import process everytime I altered or added an address entry into my contacts.

To be honest if they fixed TT5 to do this properly it would be the perfect GPS system for my pocket-pc.

I think I like TT5 better than D3 irrespective of this lack of integration and it's more complicated gui when compared to D3. hmm now is it worth switching over...

[uffe73]

ReP0, I agree totally with you regarding the lack of integration with Outlook from within TomTom. Allowing you to chose 'Navigate to' from Outlook itself is of course one way of solving it, but it would be much nicer if it could be done in TomTom itself, just like in Navman SmartST.

I wrote a comparison of TomTom 5.0 vs Navman SmartST V3 a few weeks ago, where I mention this limitation in TomTom. Unfortunately I haven't received any comments to my posting. It would be great if you wanted to add a few comments to enlighten me in the strengths and weaknesses of Destinator, since I haven't used that product. Where do you see the advantages and disadvantages in Destinator compared to TomTom or other navigation programs?

After using TomTom for a few weeks I have learned to appreciate its menu system. TomTom is much easier (and safer) to operate while driving than SmartST and you're given much more options e.g for looking up POIs. The big downside though is the lousy graphics. The maps in Navman SmartST are much easier to read. What's your opinion about the maps in Destinator?

Best regards,

Ulf
_________________
TomTom GO720T: App ver 8.351(9982/090518), OS:315187, GPS v1.20, Boot 5.5120
TT RDS-TMC: 4V00.013
Maps: Scandinavia v840.2562, Western_Europe v715.1703
Garmin GPSMap 60CSx (SW ver. 3.70)

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