RouteWriter is a relatively simple add-in, and has two panels. The main RouteWriter panel is used to write route information to an external destination (eg. Excel). The RouteReader panel is used to create a new route from pushpin data.
This section discusses the RouteWriter panel. To use it, first create the route that you wish to export. Then select RouteWriter... from the Tools menu in MapPoint. You will be presented with a panel that looks like this:
Unregistered installations of RouteWriter will also show a Buy Now! button in the upper right corner.
To export the current route to Excel, all you have to do, is to make sure Output Route to is set to Excel Spreadsheet and then press the Save Route button. This will start Excel, calculate the route and write the route data out. The resulting Excel spreadsheet will look something like this:
This example is taken from the sample data provided for RouteWriter, and is based on the clients sample data that Microsoft supplies with MapPoint.
The first column is the sequence number for the waypoint within the route. The next column is the name of the waypoint. This will also be the same as the name of the pushpin used to create the waypoint, if you used one. The remaining columns are all optional, and depend on the other settings.
As well as Excel, RouteWriter can write the same information to a text file. This is covered on the Writing to a Text File page.
Use the Output Times and Output Distances checkboxes if you want times and distances to be written for each waypoint. These are relative to the start location. Hence the start always has a time of 0 minutes and 0 miles. Times are always in minutes. The distances will be either miles or kilometers, depending on MapPoint's unit settings.
Use the Output Rest Stops check box if you wish to also output the rest stops. These will be written between the waypoints in the output spreadsheet and marked with the name "Rest Stop" (or the equivalent text in your geographic edition of MapPoint). Corresponding distances, times, and coordinates will also be written if these options are selected. Note that no attempt is made to find a street address or any pushpin data for the rest breaks.
Waypoints are often created using pushpins. If they are, RouteWriter has the ability to search for these pushpins, and report extra information for each waypoint. Pushpins are matched to waypoints according to their name. The pushpins can be in any pushpin set. Do not create multiple pushpins with the same name because this will result in unpredictable results. Set the Cross-reference with pushpins check box if you wish to search for matching pushpins. This option will also result in RouteWriter writing all available data fields for each pushpin. These are written in the order that they are found. Note that different pushpins in different pushpin sets may have different field definitions. RouteWriter can handle this, and will simply write blank cells to Excel for all fields that are not set for a particular pin.
Checking the Cross-reference with pushpins checkbox also enables three further checkboxes. The first is Output Pushpin Coordinates. Set this checkbox to write geographic ("GPS") coordinates to the spreadsheet. These are longitude and latitude coordinates using MapPoint's coordinate conventions. That is, they are decimal degrees using the WGS84 geoid. West and South are negative.
The second checkbox is labeled Output Pushpin Street Address. If the pushpins were created from addresses (eg. using the Data Import Wizard), then this street address location information will be available to RouteWriter. Select this checkbox if you wish to have the street data written to the spreadsheet.
The third checkbox is labeled Resolve duplicate matching pushpins. Pushpins are matched to waypoints using their name. Spurious matches may occur if there are multiple pushpins with the same name. Select this checkbox if you want RouteWriter to attempt to resolve multiple pushpins that have the same name. RouteWriter resolves these pushpins by choosing the pushpin with a matching name that is closest to the waypoint in question. Note that this process can take a few minutes. For large datasets, it is recommended that you use unique pushpin names and disable this checkbox.
RouteWriter has two further options: Optimize and Overwrite all stop times. RouteWriter always (re-)calculates the route before writing it. Select the Optimize Route Order if you wish to optimize the order of the waypoints first. With the exception of the start and end waypoints, this re-arranges all of the waypoints to minimize the route length. Note that it can take a few minutes to calculate if you have a lot waypoints or if they are separated by large distances.
The Overwrite all stop times option sets the stop time for each and every waypoint. Enter the required stop time in the Time for each stop box. This is specified in minutes.
RouteWriter can also write the route information to a text file, and this is covered on the Writing to a Text File page.