dkmidwest's Full Review: Microsoft Streets & Trips 2004 Full Version for PC...
Overall the product produces good, basic maps. There a nice variety of push pins to mark and save location points. It is easy to use; however some features could be improved.
The maps do not show highway exits well, even when zooming in. Also, the highway/freeway number and street names do not show up until a certain zoom level is reached, which is a pain when printing maps for travel where reference roads/highways are essential. Another negative is that on the political maps, not all incorporated areas are designated. For example, in Ohio there are several small cities whose boundaries cannot be distinguished from the unincorporated areas.
Maps can be displayed in three formats: terrain, political, and road map. I can’t tell that much different between the three other than the color schemes. OK, if you are looking at the entire U.S. then perhaps you can see the mountain ranges. On the other hand if you are zoomed in on an urban area, you can’t distinguish the terrain anyway. So, personally I keep it on ‘terrain’ because the mostly pinkish colors on the political map are annoying to the eye in my opinion. I have NOT noticed any loss in “roads” by selecting ‘political’ or ‘terrain’ over the ‘road’ map setting.
Some of the better features are the Route Planner and Distance Measure. For the Route Planner, you just have to enter all of your stops and Streets & Trips will provide you the best route. There is the ability to select your route options by preferred roads, quickest route, or shortest route. The Distance Measure features allows you to calculate distance by drawing a freehand line from any location to another (following along a road….or not). This is especially handy if you need to keep track of miles for business purposes but forget to read your odometer. You can simply “re-trace” your route to calculate the correct mileage.
Over the software functions OK, but it could be improved. It’s fairly inexpensive and Microsoft offers a rebate, so it may be worth it even if you only use it for mileage calculations and quick address look-ups. And yes….it is much better than on-line mapping like Map Quest/Yahoo Maps because of the ability to save customize, calculate, and SAVE your map file.
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