New in our Gear Guide: Books, Maps, Software

This thread is for comments on the article "New in our Gear Guide: Books, Maps, Software"

OK, so there was a gaping hole in our Gear Guide: No actual guides; not even a single map. Well, those days are over, folks: we've just added more than 500 new guidebooks, trail maps and software titles that'll talk to your GPS units.   Topo! Explorer Deluxe. Deep Survival. We added the GPS software first, but Murphy's Law and Microsoft have trained us to expect batteries to die and software...

Full article at http://www.trailspace.com/blog/2009/11/24/new-books-maps-software.html

Good stuff! I just post my first review for my favorite mountain book.

Maybe it'll be better not to have it under Navigation Tools and just add books & maps to the start list?

We may decide to break the category out on its own; it's not an exact fit under "navigation tools."

Our thought process went like this: Software maps needed to be in the same zipcode as GPS devices. By extension, software maps and paper maps should be in the same zipcode because they perform the same function. So once we put all maps together, it's clear they need to be categorized by geography -- as do a large majority of outdoor-related books, which are are defined by geography as well.

Once we have maps and guidebooks divvied up by geography, the last decision is "what do we do with skills books?" a number of which deal with navigation as well.

Our publishing software currently allows products to exist in only one category; ideally you put all the GPS units and their software together under one subcategory, and divvy everything up by geography in another subcategory, and have one big "books" category with a bit of both. We can't do that so some categories get scrunched together.

Yes I can understand the problem involve in splitting the categories as they bond together.

Maybe renaming it will be the best way? something along the line of "Navigation tools, maps and books"? or split into "Navigation tools and maps" + Books?

Hmm... "Navigation, Maps and Books" might work... I'll confer with Alicia the Almighty and see what she thinks.

Excellent, nirotem, our first book review.

I'll think about the hierarchy and naming too.

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