sglass

As my trip departure date draws near, I want to thank this message board for the wealth of information I have gathered, either from archived posts or responses to my specific questions! Maybe the way I finally put it all together might prove useful to someone else- I see references to "bookmarking" frequently.
While there are two schools of thought about destroying guidebooks for ease of portability, I am of the tear them apart camp. I make a little packet of all the info and put it in a ziplock for each city or region of the trip. This can also include maps, directions, etc. For example, I printed one part of Stu Dudley's so-useful driving advice and have it in the relevant bag, for the day we be in that region.
I started a Word document months ago when I joined here, and made headings for the places I was interested in getting advice about. It's been so easy to just cut and paste as I read. It didn't take long to reformat these, shrink the font where necessary, print, cut apart, and add each to the information package I already have.
Some stuff, past trips, I have gotten rid of as we go, replacing it with odds and ends for post-trip scrapbook materials, notes, etc.
I hope this is useful to somebody out there- and many thanks again!

crepes_a_go_go

<<I started a Word document months ago when I joined here, and made headings for the places I was interested in getting advice about. It's been so easy to just cut and paste as I read. It didn't take long to reformat these, shrink the font where necessary, print, cut apart, and add each to the information package I already have.>>

I started doing this after my first trip to France, and I call it "My Extremely Rough Guide" to wherever. It's worked out great for me over the years.

Robespierre

I just copy whole threads, guidebooks, and maps - unedited - to my iPAQ so I can text-search the entire board for specific items.

The year is two thousand seven CE, and most people are still using 400 year old technology to travel. Cut apart, shrink font, paste together, file in little bags - Gutenberg would be proud.

Travelnut

Robes, if you please, what is the utility on the Ipaq to text-search all files to find the one you want?

sglass

Yeah, well, Robespierre, that is very 21st century of you...I actually teach technology classes for a living but we all vacation differently. For me, searching threads electronically while standing outside a museum I've waited my whole life to see, or tippety tapping with a little stylus at the Parthenon would just ruin my moment. I am proud of my nifty little Word-edited baggies and until I get back to share any insights I've gleaned, sharing this strategy was the way I could hopefully help another traveler who maybe doesn't own all your gadgetry...

Robespierre

You're trying to make the same distinction that people drew when music synthesizers first came about: "But it's not natural." Well, what's natural about a piano? Or a violin? Or a cornet?

The dead trees smeared with petroleum oil that you consult while standing before the monuments of antiquity is just one century's technological take on the travel information problem. It's an oboe.

I search txt files with notepad. Adobe Reader has a built-in search facility for pdf files.

Travelnut

ok - I thought you meant that you had numberous documents saved to memory and you used ______ to search 'globally' to find something in one of those documents. That would be way cool.

vivi

I copied pages from some guidebooks and this forum and made my own little notebook. AS I traveled I discarded the pages, it worked great. There is no way I would ever carry heavy guidebooks around while I was sightseeing!