Any easy way to convert .gpx files to word or excel?

[+TXHawgHunter]

I was wondering if there is an easy way to convert a .gpx .loc file to word or excel. I would like to put the files on a Blackjack phone for easy access when caching.

[+deirarobert]

In Excel, you can choose Open, All Files (*.*) and select As an XML List. This will open it. If you need a "flatter" Excel file you can select all, copy, open a new workbook, right click, paste special, select values only and hit ok. This will drop the special XML stuff. Unless I missed your question completely that should work.

 

Robert

[+NightPilot]

Either Word, Excel, or IE will open xml files, but the result of opening a .gpx file from here isn't pretty. Groundspeak has so many proprietary extensions that the formatting is strange. Word just shows the xml code, as does IE, because it sees no style sheet for the file. Excel shows cells, but it's not really readable.

[+TXHawgHunter]

didn't work. I was unable to do it as an xml file.

[+NightPilot]

What you can do is import the .gpx file into GSAK, and then export as either .csv, which Excel will read, and then save as .xls, or export as html, if the blackjack can handle html. If it can, you'll see pretty much what is on the gc.com pages, except for the maps and stuff. That's how we do it for PDAs, generate html and then have something convert to the appropriate format - Plucker for Palm, and AFAIK PPCs just take the straight html files. I have no idea what the Blackjack needs.

 

A quick look shows that the Blackjack has a web browser, so the way to go is have GSAK generate html files, which go into a folder on your HD or perhaps your phone. You can transfer the files to your phone one way or another and pretty much have the web pages as you see them on the site.

Edited January 13, 2007 by NightPilot

[+TXHawgHunter]

I'll give that a try. The blackjack says it can read html and xls files.

[+TXHawgHunter]

Was able to export from GSAK and open in excel. It's not real pretty, but I can read it. I will play with it more and see what I can come up with from there. Thanks for the help.

[+NightPilot]

I wouldn't bother with Excel, use the browser on the html.

[jakal323]

Try using gpsbabel for that. They can convert the gpx to either straight HTML (suitable for use on your average smartphone) or a CSV (suitable for conversion to a regular Excel spreadsheet).

[+NightPilot]

That would work, because it's what GSAK is using to do the same thing. But it's not as easy as using GSAK, because most people have no idea how to use a command-line program, which GPSBabel is. The GUI interface does some of the work, but it's still easier in GSAK. Robert Lipe has a great program there, but ease of use for the average Joe Sixpack hasn't seemed to be a priority.

 

Actually, you need more conversion for your average smartphone, because there are still far more PalmOS smartphones out there than those which use WM. Despite Bill Gates' hype, Treos still outsell WM units, and the installed base is far larger. I'm not sure that will continue, but for now that's the situation.

Edited January 13, 2007 by NightPilot

[+SgtSue]

GSAK to Excel is not hard at all.

 

From GSAK

"File"

"Export"

" CSV or TXT"

Select tab delimitated txt (either will do but in step by step I believe in no choices)

 

Open Excel

"File"

"Open"

Change "File Type" at the bottom of box to "All Files" (.txt extention doesn't appear for some reason)

Browse to file location and select file

An import wizard will open up

Select "Delimited"

Press "Next"

Select "Tab" (you will see how the lines breaking the data up)

Press "next" and "next" then "finished"

IF you see #### in any of the columns don't panic, just column isn't wide enough. Make it a little wider.

 

Will look just like what you are expecting

 

edited to fix typo and again to make it a little more plain

Edited January 13, 2007 by SgtSue

[+SgtSue]

Also if you already have .csv files that open with all the data in one column with little squares splatter here and there then that can be fixed

 

Highlight column A

Go to "Data" "Text to Columns"

Conversion wizard will open

Select "Delimited"

Press Next

Try each of the "Deliminators" one at a time until you see lines separating the data as you need. Technicall CSV should be Comma Separated Values and therefore the comma should work but I see where this is not necessarily true in the GSAK generated .csv and the TAB option works best - or my computer is squirrelly.

Press Finish

 

You should be good to go

[+naviguesser74]

i used GPSVisualizer and converted the gpx file into a tab-delineated file. Then opened in Excel

[+NightPilot]

I still don't see the point of using Excel if you can see the actual pages in the browser, other than for the sorting capabilities. If you want to sort on different columns, then Excel will work pretty well.

[+Markwell]

If you want to sort on different columns, then Excel will work pretty well.

As will GSAK.

[+sTeamTraen]

If you want to sort on different columns, then Excel will work pretty well.

As will GSAK.

 

I was just thinking... once the data has been loaded into GSAK, the OP might not feel the need to go any further!

[+Bad_CRC]

I know little of "smart phones"... can you run windows mobile programs on it?

 

I run GPX sonar on my pda with windows mobile on it, and it works beautifully, opens gpx files right up in perfect webpage format, does sorting and filtering, pretty much anything you want. It's pretty amazing, and it's free.

[+NightPilot]

It depends on the smartphone. If it's a WM device, then you can run windows mobile programs. If it's a PalmOS, which is much more common, then you can't.

 

The problem with using GSAK to do the sorting is that you can't use it on the phone. If you want the ability to do resorts on the fly, on the phone, looking for caches, then GSAK won't help you at all. That isn't a big deal for me, but it might be to some.

[+TXHawgHunter]

Hi and thanks for all your responses. The blackjack phone is a WM device, but it can't run GSAK. For some reason, I can only access Geocaching.com via a wap connection and it doesn't allow me to filter searches or do searches for unfound caches only. That is the reason I was wanting to use the gpx files. I will try using GPXsonar, if I can figure out how to load it on the phone. I ain't as smart as I once thought I was, but given time I will figure it out.

 

Thanks again,

Don

[+NightPilot]

Whatever works, but you should be able to run GSAK on your PC, export the caches to html files, put them on your phone or card, and read them with your browser on the phone.