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puzzles and paperless


rovers3

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I have been paperless for a while now and have yet to figure a good way to keep track of and enter solved puzzle caches that I will look for in the future and have not found anything of help when I searched the forums. I use cachemate maccmconvert and a palm m515 pda and Explorist XL. Have also started using macccaching to transfer caches to the GPSr.

Any input is appreciated.

Thanks.

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I love puzzle caches, use a mac, and have a terrible system for keeping track of puzzle caches. Usually, I end up printing out the puzzle page, solving it, and writing the solved coordinates on the page. Then I manually update the coordinates when I go to look for the cache. The problem is I often lose the pages, and have to solve some puzzles two or even three times!

 

Probably the best way is to keep a spreadsheet just for your puzzle caches. That's what I plan to do, jsut haven't gotten around to it yet.

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Don't know anything about Macs but I keep a seperate GSAK database of solved puzzles. Then, after I upload a new pocket query of unfond caches into GSAK, I copy all the records from the solved puzzles database into the unfound caches database which overwrites the fake coords with the (assumed) correct ones.

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I have a PC, so I don't know if the way I do it will help . . . or not . . .

 

In GSAK I created a new database just for the Puzzle caches. If I get updated coordinates for them, I move them to the Default database, which is the one I load my GPSr from.

 

A friend who was really good at solving the Puzzle caches would print out the cache pages and put the pages in a large 3-ring notebook. All her notes and calculations and final coordinates were on the pages in that notebook.

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Ugh. I don't! And the growing number of puzzle caches in my immediate area is a testimony to that.

 

I can't tell you how many times I leave the house, get about 10 miles down the road and realize I left the final coordinates for a puzzle at home!

 

When I'm on top of my game, I store the final coordinates for a solved puzzle in a memo on my Palm and enter them when I'm heading out to find a cache. It's not perfect, but it works.

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I have been paperless for a while now and have yet to figure a good way to keep track of and enter solved puzzle caches that I will look for in the future and have not found anything of help when I searched the forums. I use cachemate maccmconvert and a palm m515 pda and Explorist XL. Have also started using macccaching to transfer caches to the GPSr.

Any input is appreciated.

Thanks.

I keep a mapsource file with all the coords of the puzzles that I have solved. I update that file to add/remove puzzles as I find them or solve them. Then I dump non-puzzles from my PQ into that file and upload it to my GPS. Finally, I load my PDA will everything so I have the hints for each puzzle.
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I have a pretty good system. A tiny bit cumbersome, but it works.

 

1. I do not pull and unknown/mystery caches with my normal weekly PQ.

 

2. I have another PQ that only pulls Unknown/Mystery caches (except those that are ignored) but I only use it to review those in my area. I don't run it to get the GPX file.

 

3. Any puzzles I have solved (including unknown/mysteries that are not puzzles) get put on my 'solved puzzles' bookmark (with the solution and solution method in the bookmark notes as a backup to the same info in my GSAK) and on my 'ignore lists'.

 

4. I then have a PQ I also run weekly built from that 'solved puzzles' bookmark.

 

5. I also have a book mark list for 'working puzzles' where i can keep all info on puzzles i am working on or codes I have to collect for bonus caches.

 

6. When I find a solved puzzle, I take it off the ignore list and out of the solved puzzle bookmark.

 

7. When I complete solving a puzzle, I take it out of the working list and move it to the solved list.

 

BTW - i also make a note in my ignore list of why a cache is there - solved puzzle, questionable status, can't do, etc..

 

This way, my solutions are backed up, I can pull a list of solved, working, or unsolved puzzles any time. Also, using the corrected coordinates feature of GSAK, I know the coords in my GPS and PDA are the finals because I never download unsolved puzzles.

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I use GSAK and keep all my puzzle solutions, puzzle solving methods (including any urls etc I may have used to get the solution), multicache intermediate waypoints etc in the Notes section. I enter the solved coordinates/intermediate coords as corrected coordinates and place a 1 letter code in the user2 data column - the 1 letter code enables me to quickly identify whether the corrected coord is a solution, an intermediate waypoint, or final of a multi. The whole lot is then exported to my Palm at the same time as I send the waypoints to the gps so that I have full cache details to refer to, if required, whilst out in the field.

 

I don't use separate databases for puzzles. I find that with GSAK's filtering abilities I can quickly pull up anything I need.

Edited by BaldEd
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Oh yeah. I forgot that part. Once I have everything in GSAK, I do, of course, export it all from there to my GPS and my PALM. I have had GSAK lose both the corrected coords and user notes so that is 1 reason I keep a solved puzzles bookmark list as a backup data store. The other reason being I can get the latest info and logs from the caches with the corresponding PQ only for my solved puzzles, not the ones I've yet to look at.

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"I love puzzle caches, use a mac, and have a terrible system for keeping track of puzzle caches. Usually, I end up printing out the puzzle page, solving it, and writing the solved coordinates on the page. Then I manually update the coordinates when I go to look for the cache. The problem is I often lose the pages, and have to solve some puzzles two or even three times!"

 

This sounds like my method. I often come across puzzle cache pages that I have done and forgotten where I had placed them. I then need to redo the puzzle hoping I get the correct answer again and then find my original worksheets. Not as organized as I should be I guess. Also hate to have to email the cache owner to verify correct coordinates more than once.

 

In the same vane I also tend to misplace hints or clues from caches, that are needed for future caches.

 

I think the bookmark method may work for me, I'll give it a try Trying to stay away from PC and GSAK even though I have Parallels on my iMac.

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