GPS for Dummies.pdf - Engineering Surveyor

296Part IV: Using Web-hosted Mapping ServicesFigure 18-4:A routeMapQuestmap.Rand McNallyRand McNally (www.randmcnally.com), in the map business since 1856, nowproduces both paper and electronic street maps for the United States. ItsWeb site offers some of the cleanest, easiest-to-read online maps that areavailable on the Internet; an example is shown in Figure 18-5. If you’re used tomaps with jagged lines that look computer-generated, the second-generationdigital maps that Rand McNally produces will pleasantly surprise you.After you display a map, you can change its size, print it, e-mail it, or save itonline if you’ve previously registered with a free or paid Road Explorersmembership.In addition to standard route mapping capabilities, Rand McNally has optionssuch as selecting fastest or shortest routes, whether to use a greater orlesser number of route steps, and displaying driving directions in several differentformats. (A simple route map is shown in Figure 18-6.) The site is alsoone of the best places on the Web for planning vacation road trips. RandMcNally has taken a large amount of content from its popular paper travelguides and put it online to help you find attractions and activities on yourtrips. The only major issue that I’ve found with this site is its servers seem toget bogged down every now and then, tending to be slower displaying mapsand generating routes compared with other sites.