Planning

Planning a walk

Smartphones

ViewRanger app is very good and we have standardised on it. You can use it on your smartphone, PC, android tablet, iPad or iPhone. You can use free maps such as OpenStreet maps. You can also buy Ordnance Survey digital map tiles for your computer and smartphone. These are not expensive. If you buy a smartphone it would be useful for it to have a compass. Not all do.

www.viewranger.com

Planning a walk

You can do this on ViewRanger on your, computer, tablet or smartphone. It is also possible to plan a walk by adding waypoints to a free map on the internet at the Walklakes website. Although the website is for walking the Lake District the 1:25000 walkers maps also cover England, Wales and Scotland.Use your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox etc) to

www.walklakes.co.uk

Register as a user. It costs nothing.

Click on the GPS MAPPING tab on the top right, enter a start point for your walk in the Go to: box on the left and press enter. A relevant map will be displayed. Just click on the map to make a waypoint. To navigate around the map or to zoom in or out use the arrow buttons and plus or minus buttons on the top right of the screen. There is a Help link for more information.It is only basic mapping software but you can save your walk on your computer by clicking on Download as GPX (file). Transfer it to your hand held satnav, if you have one. Note: It is a route not a track. Note: You can no longer upload a track.You can copy the screen/map and save it for printing using a free download, such as Screenhunter. Just do a  Google search for Screenhunter.

There are new programs appearing all the time which are useful to ramblers with a satnav.

Quo

Quo, a free mapping program is downloaded from www.mapyx.com. This has more facilities than ViewRanger or the GPS planner provided by walk lakes. You may have to buy digital map tiles for your computer. These are not expensive. You can buy 10km X 10Km square map tiles (i.e. 100 sq km). I use this program for olanning walks.

Mapyx have recently produced an app for Android smartphones. I am going to wait a few months before trying it so that they can remove any bugs.