Thomas Guide grid via Mappoint

[Christopher Glaeser]

Can Mappoint provide a Thomas Guide page number and grid? For example,
given the address "Tuolumne Dr Fremont CA" generate the page and grid
"793J2".

Best,
Christopher

[Gilles Kohl [MVP]]

Christopher,

On Tue, 11 Jan 2005 15:07:57 -0800, "Christopher Glaeser"
<nos...@nospam.com> wrote:

>Can Mappoint provide a Thomas Guide page number and grid? For example,
>given the address "Tuolumne Dr Fremont CA" generate the page and grid
>"793J2".

I'm afraid not - why would you need this?

Regards,
Gilles [MVP].

(Please reply to the group, not via email)

[Christopher Glaeser]

Gilles,

> I'm afraid not - why would you need this?

Thanks for responding. I'm developing an Access database for my brother's
roofing company. The roofers in the field have Thomas Guide books in their
trucks (Thomas Guide is only offered in a few regions of the US, but they do
have CA East Bay book, our region of interest). To save time and minimize
confusion (not everyone speaks the same langauge in the company), the office
manager radios the Thomas Guide grid. I want to automate the process in the
office by printing the Thomas grid on the WorkOrder.

Thomas does license an ActiveX control that would solve this problem
technically, but the license fee is somthing like $700 sign-up plus $800 per
year, which exceeds the cost/benefit ratio for this feature. I thought
perhaps someone had created a Mappoint to Thomas Guide conversion.

Thomas Guide also includes a companion CD with each map book.
Unfortunately, the CD must remain in the CD drive, and it will not integrate
directly with Access or other applications, but this is probably our best
alternative. Copy the address from Access to the clip board, Paste the
address to Thomas, then enter the page/grid to the Access WorkOrder.

I'm guessing Mappoint has sufficient power programmatically to generate
Thomas grid information if someone took the time to enter all the Thomas
page/grid coordinate information into some sort of database, but I lack the
time to do that unless creating a grid overlay in Mappoint is extremely
easy.

Any other ideas? I'm assuming Mappoint does not have a companion book for
the field similar to Thomas Guide.

Best,
Christopher

[Gilles Kohl [MVP]]

Christopher,

On Wed, 12 Jan 2005 11:08:03 -0800, "Christopher Glaeser"
<nos...@nospam.com> wrote:

>Gilles,
>
>> I'm afraid not - why would you need this?
>
>Thanks for responding. I'm developing an Access database for my brother's
>roofing company. The roofers in the field have Thomas Guide books in their
>trucks (Thomas Guide is only offered in a few regions of the US, but they do
>have CA East Bay book, our region of interest). To save time and minimize
>confusion (not everyone speaks the same langauge in the company), the office
>manager radios the Thomas Guide grid. I want to automate the process in the
>office by printing the Thomas grid on the WorkOrder.
>
>Thomas does license an ActiveX control that would solve this problem
>technically, but the license fee is somthing like $700 sign-up plus $800 per
>year, which exceeds the cost/benefit ratio for this feature. I thought
>perhaps someone had created a Mappoint to Thomas Guide conversion.
>
>Thomas Guide also includes a companion CD with each map book.
>Unfortunately, the CD must remain in the CD drive, and it will not integrate
>directly with Access or other applications, but this is probably our best
>alternative. Copy the address from Access to the clip board, Paste the
>address to Thomas, then enter the page/grid to the Access WorkOrder.

What sometimes works as a last resort (although it has to be done very
carefully to avoid errors) is SendKeys (-> Google) or similar devices
to automate applications that have no other API. For the CD problem
(if your intention is to reduce wear on your CD drive) check out
www.virtualcd-online.com.

>I'm guessing Mappoint has sufficient power programmatically to generate
>Thomas grid information if someone took the time to enter all the Thomas
>page/grid coordinate information into some sort of database, but I lack the
>time to do that unless creating a grid overlay in Mappoint is extremely
>easy.
>
>Any other ideas? I'm assuming Mappoint does not have a companion book for
>the field similar to Thomas Guide.

No. OTOH, as lat/lon coordinates are a somewhat more universally
accepted way to locate spots on this planet, why not try to map
lat/lon to those grid numbers?

[jenniferg...@gmail.com]

This number is requested on an online form for section 8 recipients also. Here is the link to the form:

https://portal.shra.org/HCVForms/AffWorksheet

I don't know if it's "required" or not, but I want to be able to supply as much info as possible in case this speeds up their process. Bureaucracy being what it is...

~J