Paperless...Easy or not

WGA Member Joined: 2007-02-17 Posts: 6

Hi
Have discovered this great hobby, and had a question on the paperless part. I have the palmOne E2 handheld for keeping track of my days. So if I become a premium member what is the best program to buy so I don't have to print out each geocache? And is it that much easier to do it that way? Pros vs Cons? Looked at a web site on it and it seemed pretty confusing...then again I'm not the most technical person in the world. Thanks for your help!!!!
Surprised

Z

Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2007 7:15 pm

I use CacheMate ($8) on my Palm. It allows you to look at (and delete) individual caches.

Plucker (which is free), does something else. If I remember from when I tried it some years ago, it creates one file for all the caches. Whereas CacheMate will give you a list to browse thru to find the cache you want, Plucker is like a book without an index. You have to page thru everything to get to where you want to be.

Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2007 9:27 pm

Welcome to the great hobby of geocaching (some may call it a obsession)
Going paperless is the only way to go! Two of the best programs out there are GSAK and CacheMate. Both are worth their weight in gold. Load GSAK to your computer and Cachemate to your palm, and you will never need to make another printout.

WGA Member Joined: 2007-02-17 Posts: 6

Ok I have taken the next steps in this obsession and up graded to the premiere membership and bought cache mate. Except I can't figure out how to get the way points to my GPS nor am I able to download 100 of the hunts into my Palm. Need help or did I just waste money? Thanks for the help!

Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 11:31 am

digger00..where are you from??? NO it was not waste of money. It's not that complicated once you've done it a coupld times. of course there are always technical challenges..like me and my computer!!

Not sure if there are paperless classes coming out sometie soon, but depending on where you are located, maybe we can get you some help!!

WGA Member Joined: 2007-02-17 Posts: 6

I'm from the Milwaukee area, I looked at a couple of sites that offer help but I'm still having technical difficulties. Would be thankful for any help I can get.

Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 12:47 pm

I'll be glad to help you through it. Send me an email at drsecond AT scj DOT com.

Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 3:04 pm

Also glad to help out, we've hosted afew paperless training events.

e-mail me through my gc account
Not So Lost Puppies

Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 3:57 pm

Here read the tutorial at this link. I used this to get myself set up and found it very helpful.

Paperless Tutorial by Team CoyChev

EDIT: BTW, purchasing GSAK is very worth the cost of the progam. Good luck

Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 6:29 pm

Here is another online tutorial, though it looks somewhat similar to the previous one:

Florida Paperless Article

There is a learning curve with GSAK and Cachemate, but they are very worthwhile and highly recommended.

Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 7:06 pm

Just a note about opening the pocket querie from GC.com .It will come as a ZIP file......GSAK can open the zip file for you, so you won't have to use anything else. I find this a nice feature of this program.

WGA Member Joined: 2007-02-17 Posts: 6

Thanks to everyone who helped. I got it to work so I'm set for caches on my Palm for a while. No more paper for me!!! Whooo HOOO!!!

Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 5:04 pm

Redo your pocket Queries often. As the status of caches can change daily. I redo mine just before heading out to make sure that I have the latest info. Glad to see that things worked out well for you.

Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2007 6:15 pm

Yes, use of many plans for clearing out old cache data.... clear the database for each import, or create a filter to find caches with a last GPX date over x-days old and delete them (can put that in a macro)