Working with Multiple Waypoints

Previously, we have only added waypoints in the order that we wish to visit them. It is also possible to change their order. Do this by selecting the waypoint you wish to change, in the Route planner pane:

Selecting a waypoint to change its position in the route

Then press either the ‘up’ or ‘down’ arrow button on the right of the pane. This will move the waypoint up (earlier) or down (later) in the route itinerary. Pressing the ‘up’ arrow with the display as above, changes the route so that Memphis becomes the second waypoint:

The modified waypoint order

The ‘cross’ button can be used to delete the selected waypoint. The ‘double-cross’ button (bottom) is used to delete all of the waypiints – ie. to completely clear the route.

The ‘clock’ button (top) is used to schedule a particular time for a waypoint.

Simultaneously Adding Multiple Pushpins

It can quickly become a chore to create a long route from many pushpins. MapPoint lets you simultaneously add large numbers of pushpins as waypoints. You can do this by right clicking on the required pushpin set in the Legend, or by creating a selection area around the pushpins on the map and right clicking:

Adding multiple waypoints at the same time

In the right-click popup menu, select Add pushpins as stops to add all of the pushpins in the selection area to the route as waypoints. Use the ‘up’ and ‘down’ arrow buttons (see above) to change the order of the resulting waypoints.

In MapPoint, pushpins and waypoints are different concepts. You can create waypoints from pushpins, but these are simply copies that use the same name and location. No other data is copied, and no link is made to show how the waypoint was created. This can pose problems if you are trying to create large routes from pushpins in a specific order, or if you are trying to find the best order, and then export the results. Our MPRouteWriter add-in was written to solve these problems. The MPRouteReader half of this add-in, can create a route from multiple pushpins, sorting the resulting waypoints in a specific order defined in a data field. The MPRouteWriter half can be used to export a route’s waypoints complete with matching pushpin data fields. These waypoints/pushpins are written in order, and with route distance and time information.