So this is a post hard earned from work – how the heck do you manage to shorten some of the route planning, route cards, green forms and batting  of information back and forth between me and some of our forthcoming Duke of Edinburgh expeditions?

Even better, it combines my secret geek with outdoor fun…

How to….

Make sure you have updated to the latest Memory Map version – Currently Memory Map European Edition 5.4.2.

Next, create your New Route – I am assuming here that you can do the basics of clicking and creating a new route. Here is a wee wander from Killin to Glen Ogle head – I will use this to demo the principles of what we are going to do.

Now you need to double click on a leg of the route – not one of the waypoints! I always rename my route, maybe change the colour etc to stand out. One of the benefits of MM is that it automatically saves when you close this menu box – so make your changes and close.

Now, here is the important bit to make MM work with DofE Route Cards. You need to rename the waypoints that you want to appear on the route card. The short example route has 30 waypoints – I do not need them all, I want the important turns, handrails or places I am looking for, the lunch spot, the location I need for my aim or possible camp spot.

You do this by right clicking on the waypoint and clicking on Waypoint properties on the pop-up menu. The options box that opens allows you to change the name easily, but  you need to also tick the ‘Show name’ option box for the waypoint to appear on the DofE route card. I also change the symbol used to a flag to make it stand out more.

Close that options box. You repeat this for the waypoints you require on the DofE Route card. See mine below.

Now, the fun bit…Double click on your route again to open up the Overlay Properties dialogue box. Next to the ‘Route Card’ button is a settings button – click this. In here you have a few options. Firstly re-set the Estimated speed of the group (there doesn’t seem to be a ‘DofE – snails pace’ option…) – I use 4km/hr for most unaccompanied young groups. Importantly you need to tick the ‘Only include labelled waypoints in Route Card’ option.

Then, click on the ‘…’ box next to the Template file location box. You now have some options – play with them, but the one we want is ‘RouteCard_word2003’ option. The ‘DofE_template’ produces a simpler HTML version; ‘RouteCard_template’ is the standard Memory Map HTML one that includes a map. Click on the one you want, and then the ‘Open’ button. Save by clicking OK on the Route Settings menu.

Nearly there….Now you can click on the ‘Route Card’ button. Word or Open Office will display the DofE Route Card, with your named waypoints in ready for more notes and information.

There you go – one DofE Route card started for you in the correct format, from Memory Map. Edit and save as you need.

The down side of the DofE route cards is that they have limited numbers of legs – you can easily end up with more than 8 through the day on a complex silver of gold route. I suggest that you create as many route cards as you need – certainly each day as a new route in Memory Map and new route card, but you could also consider doing more – ‘Day 1, Morning’ for example.

Then you can email me the route cards, meaning I can add notes easily and send back for you to edit or print off. Saves piles of paper, scanning, postage, faff….