Don't Have Gadgets?

[+dingermcduff]

I don't have any portable electronics like a PDA, Palm Pilot, or any of that other stuff, so here's how I get around printing a million cache pages...

 

I copy and paste the relevant information from each cache page; the name, coordinates, difficulty rating, USEFUL parts of the description, and encrypted hint and paste it on a Word document. I paste a number of caches on one document--say an entire city or county. Then at the end I paste the decryption key.

 

Now the key. I go to "Edit" and select all. Then I change the font to size 8 (or the smallest readable).

 

This gets me all of the info I need from 3-5 caches on one page. I have a few 5 page stapled packets I carry with all the info for about 100 local caches. I just cross them off the page as I hit them and occasionally pencil one in on the appropriate page when I see a new one listed.

 

Wish I had a gizmo, but this saves paper in the meantime.

[+Milbank]

I started doing that with local Benchmarks.

 

I only wish I would have thought of it back when I started geocaching.

[+Milbank]

I see your from Grand Rapids, MN, cool...

 

I'm going to Bemidji, MN in the morning for the weekend.

Going to do some geocaching in Alexandria on the way up there.

 

Does not look like there are many caches in the Bemidji area

If you know of any good ones I should hit up north please let me know.

 

I will have the use of a computer with internet when I get up there.

 

Thanks,

Edited August 20, 2004 by Milbank

[+flask]

i used to do that too. it was better than printing reams of paper, but it took hours to cut and past the 50 or so caches i wanted at a time.

 

then santa brought me a PDA and i have downloaded the 50 closest caches to all the towns i'm likely to be in.

[Howling/Pepper Chef]

I am going to be around tower,mn on Saturday. Some great caches to do in this area. Hope you have a great trip

[+cachew nut]

There's a software called geoclipping that would really help you gather this info even quicker, but unfortunately the website where it was located is no longer available, and the author of the application hasn't been here since March.

[+dingermcduff]

I haven't done many caches to the west of Grand Rapids--mostly up the Iron Range. I have placed 2 caches about halfway between Grand Rapids and Bemidji--near Winnibigoshish. Duck Culvert and Bring Your Binoculars . They're pretty easy caches, accessible to kids. My son and I placed them to give people a shot at seeing some wildlife.

 

There are good 'clusters' of caches in the Grand Rapids area where you can hit 3 and 4 at a time in a small area. Some of them are very good, too.

[+Milbank]

I have placed 2 caches about halfway between Grand Rapids and Bemidji--near Winnibigoshish. Duck Culvert and Bring Your Binoculars

 

Was just checking them out

Sounds like fun, I will have to see how much time I have,thanks.

 

There's a software called geoclipping that would really help you gather this info even quicker, but unfortunately the website where it was located is no longer available, and the author of the application hasn't been here since March.

 

Could you make a copy and send it to me?

 

Was there only one site you could download it from?

Edited August 20, 2004 by Milbank

[+fly46]

Or, do what I do.. Put the cords in your GPS, head out, REMEMBER what the cache page said, walk in circles while the gps is being stupid, spin around a lot like Monk when he's trying to solve a case, glance around oddly, try to rememeber which clue goes to which cache, start to backtrack and then see the cache container, shout triumphantly at whoever you're caching with who's still at the first spot you told them to check. Mom hates that.

[+PandyBat]

Or, do what I do.. Put the cords in your GPS, head out, REMEMBER what the cache page said, walk in circles while the gps is being stupid, spin around a lot like Monk when he's trying to solve a case, glance around oddly, try to rememeber which clue goes to which cache, start to backtrack and then see the cache container, shout triumphantly at whoever you're caching with who's still at the first spot you told them to check. Mom hates that.

Bad Boy Scout!

I tried that once and got NO WHERE. I realized then that I must start going out more prepared.

[+fly46]

Or, do what I do.. Put the cords in your GPS, head out, REMEMBER what the cache page said, walk in circles while the gps is being stupid, spin around a lot like Monk when he's trying to solve a case, glance around oddly, try to rememeber which clue goes to which cache, start to backtrack and then see the cache container, shout triumphantly at whoever you're caching with who's still at the first spot you told them to check.  Mom hates that.

Bad Boy Scout!

I tried that once and got NO WHERE. I realized then that I must start going out more prepared.

Me? A BoyScout?

 

Actually, it works rather well. I only go out for a couple caches at a time, so it's not a matter of that much stuff to remember. And I'm usually pretty good at it (I swear, the Monk thing works, but you must have to be OCD to understand it)... Except that for some reason I ALWAYS pass up the cache and find it when I turn around to go back and retrace my steps.

 

There's only been two caches that illuded me - one was a simple one that I just never could find, and the second one was a difficulty 4 micro.

[+cache_us_if_you_can]

<snip> I copy and paste the relevant information from each cache page; the name, coordinates, difficulty rating, USEFUL parts of the description, and encrypted hint and paste it on a Word document. <snip>

This is a good idea, but it doesn't always work. A few of the caches I've found have had hidden hints and clues in the cache details, often over looked as "useless" parts of the desciption until at the cache site.

[+Robespierre]

There is one button on the cache pages that I was slow to find, so I will mention it in case you also haven't found it.  It says, "make this page print friendly," it is a little under the title, etc., and it limits the printer to ONE page.

[+CompuCash]

There is one button on the cache pages that I was slow to find, so I will mention it in case you also haven't found it.  It says, "make this page print friendly," it is a little under the title, etc., and it limits the printer to ONE page.

 

Yes - I use it all the time - the frames can be a problem but there are ways around that too. I like to print with the last 5 logs also. But it does not necessarily limit it to only one page - this depends on the length of the cache description.

 

[+flask]

unless there's a LOT of description, you can use your printer's range function to cut it down to one page. i usually find that the tag at the bottome of the page comes out as a new page unless i remember to do this.

[ju66l3r]

Whatever happened to when a notebook and pen were good enough?

 

I have a small notebook that contains all of the waypoints, names, clues, hidden descriptiony bits that I thought necessary, etc. I would actually use my PalmIII but it died a while ago and now that I jot things in a notebook, I find it just as convenient when I go out for a 3-5 cache hunt.

[+wimseyguy]

<snip> I copy and paste the relevant information from each cache page; the name, coordinates, difficulty rating, USEFUL parts of the description, and encrypted hint and paste it on a Word document. <snip>

This is a good idea, but it doesn't always work. A few of the caches I've found have had hidden hints and clues in the cache details, often over looked as "useless" parts of the desciption until at the cache site.

You would do well on my caches CUIFC- that has been my MO for a while. Too many folks around here hit that decrypt button awfully fast.

 

I'm still pretty lotech so what I like to do is print out the page from 'Identify' the closest caches, and scribble some notes in the margins of each listed cache I'm planning to seek. That's if I heading out of town. If I'm local I just download into my GPSr and drive off.

Edited August 20, 2004 by wimseyguy

[+CompuCash]

If you only want to print part of a cache page you can highlight (drag to select that area). This can be a little tricky when doing so in frames pages but I find if you drag from the bottom up it works better. Now click file - print -

 

on the print dialog you should see a radio button that includes "SELECTION'

 

click this and then ok - you will print only what you selected.

 

Another thing that works most of the time - select something in the main page - just a word - anything - then do a normal print from the print button - this will usually print only the main page and not the other frames pages.

 

----------- -----------

[robertlipe]

It's kind of an obscure feature within GPSBabel, but you can feed it a pocket query, choose an output type of "text' and suck that into your word processor for formatting. I just spot-checked a typical 500 cache query, ran the margins down to 1cm, and selected 3 column format and it averaged over ten caches per page. Print that double sided and it's really pretty decent density.

 

Hint: this is a good opportunity to use the 'sort' filter in GPSBabel, too...

[+globalgirl]

Then there's PrintScreen. Seems a lot a folks seldom use this, but I find it VERY handy. As a noobie, I need all the help I can muster, so that includes maps.

 

With printscreen I can zoom in on a map at whatever level suits me, hit the printscreen button and paste it as an image into my graphics software. Then in a blink I can crop out all but the map. I can paste up to 6 maps on a page this way (incl. one of the general area with all the caches in the vicinity.) Then on the other side, I use dingermcduff's notion of cutting and pasting just the pertinent page info (inclulding bits of possible clues from the logs) for each of the caches into - well, not Word 'cuz that's BILLY'S ABOMINABLE SOFTWARE <errr... dontgetmestarted> - into PageMaker (now THERE'S A BRILLIANT SOFTWARE!).

 

Really doesn't take all that much time, and can get ALL the info I need for verily 6 caches on but ONE sheet of paper. That way if I happen to be in that particular area, I can pick and choose which/all I want to do.

 

Then again... a pda would be loverly - alas just not in my budget this millennium... <sigh>

[+drag-racer]

Glad I read this thread. Gave me a couple of good ideas. I did not realize there was a "printer friendly" page......that helps a lot. If you set your web browser's font to the smallest size, that should get almost all cache description pages to print on one page. I was using up 3 or 4 pieces of paper on some of them.

 

Cutting/Pasting into a Word doc in a good idea and I had thought about doing that ....just seems like an awful lot of work.

Edited August 20, 2004 by drag-racer

[thorin]

I just use a post-it to scrible down the co-ords and any other useful info. If you use boths sides you can easily get all the info for 4 to 8 caches.

 

Thorin

[+Early Starts]

I just print reams of paper and don't worry about renewable resources that are recycled and recyclable. I bet it is still much less taxing on the environment than producing and disposing of Palms.

 

Edit: Spelling

Edited August 20, 2004 by Early Starts

[+Boo & Kitty]

I use GSAK to process PQs and manipulate the way waypoints are downloaded to my GPSr. Just by looking at the waypoint symbol, I can tell the cache type, and by glancing at the decription, I know the size.

 

Since I've started doing this, I've found several without having printed out or written down a single thing. And I've found a couple where I have not even look at the cache listing in advance!

 

This is with the GPSr alone. No PDA needed.

[+dingermcduff]

cache us if you can,

 

Most of the time, the only stuff I deem irrelevant is the huge list of original contents so many people feel the need to add to the description. I wish they wouldn't do that--I prefer it to be a mystery.

[+hmarq]

It's kind of an obscure feature within GPSBabel, but you can feed it a pocket query, choose an output type of "text' and suck that into your word processor for formatting. I just spot-checked a typical 500 cache query, ran the margins down to 1cm, and selected 3 column format and it averaged over ten caches per page. Print that double sided and it's really pretty decent density.

 

Hint: this is a good opportunity to use the 'sort' filter in GPSBabel, too...

That's handy ... and works great! I've about made babel my only tool other than a few scripts I've written for myself ...

 

Granted I haven't played with all the other tools out there, but I've yet to find anything I wanted that it couldn't do.

 

Highly recommended.