If you are the kind of person who likes to travel, but does not like to ask directions from anyone, this program could be for you. Street Atlas USA 7.0 is a boon to travelers and offers other useful information. The program comes with two CDs, the one is for the installation and the other for program data, including any data that the user adds. The program data disk must be used when running the program. User has the option of installing Points of Interest, but this feature takes a lot of disk space.

The opening welcome screen has four choices, the first is Did you Know which is similar to a Tip of The Day sort of thing. There is a button that you can press for the next tip. The next choice is Show me How To, followed by Test Drive, and lastly, Over View. The Overview is well worth reading and should be read before going on to the other tutorials or help screen. Of the two remaining choices on the opening screen, I found Test Drive to be far more helpful in learning the program than Show Me How To.

The tutorials can also be reached from the Help menu. In my case, this program is not the kind that I could just start using without reading the tutorials. I would have simply missed too much and made an easy task difficult.

Street Atlas USA 7.0 will allow you to pick a route that actually takes you from one address to another any where in the country, the program also can be set for directions from one city to another. There are four choices as how to set the route, the Quickest which will save time, the Shortest which will save gas or you may pick the Scenic route for enjoyment. In addition, there is a Preferred route, which is geared to the users personal preferences or habits. There can be a great deal of difference in mileage between the shortest and scenic routes.

After a beginning point and destination are chosen, the route can be calculated in the routing manner that you wish.. A table comes up which shows the travel in legs, the distance of each leg, the time involved for each leg, the total distance, and the direction of travel and the exits, which are to be taken. The map may be customized with text, which can show favorite restaurants, parks etc. or geometric symbols.

If there is an area that you do not want to drive though, this can be avoided.

I planned a trip from my home in Sarasota to St Petersburg by the quickest route, which was over the Sunshine Bridge. I then asked that the trip be calculated with avoidance of the bridge and the program did the route through Tampa.

Once the trip is calculated, a single map can be printed or the route directions can be printed in table form or an entire package that includes a route summary, directions and map can be printed. You can also print detailed maps of the destination area as well as of the beginning.

There is also an option, Find, which allows areas to be located by placename, zip code, area code and exchange, latitude and longitude or zip code. Often times I have a phone number and would like to know the general area where it would be located. The program does this and comes up with a map that encompasses the area.

If zip codes are to be listed on the map, demographic information for an individual zip code can be pulled up. Besides population, information will also be given on median home value, median rent, median household income, average age and other data. Street Atlas USA is compatible with GPS (Global Positioning System) which allows you to display a "bread crumb trail" of your travel as you go. And if you have a hand held computer the routing and maps can be transferred to it

Street Atlas USA is offered by the well-known mapping company, DeLorme, in Yarmount, Maine. There is a demo that can be seen on their Website, www.delorme.com. The phone number for Delorme is 207-846-7000. The Delorme estimated street price is $45.00 and can be ordered from their site for that price. However, it can be purchased locally for $39.99.




Recommended: Yes