14 DAY TRIAL // Whether it is before the actual trip, during the planning phase, or after the trip itself, when you are compiling the records of your travels, visual representations are not the easiest thing to do. Sure, GPS technology makes it very easy to keep a record of your movements, and with the right piece of software, you can turn that movement into a very precise visual representation, but the problem is that such technology costs quite a bit. Fortunately, there are many ways to skin a cat, and if you don't have a GPS, you can still do things by hand. It might take a bit longer but it is definitely cheaper. All you need is the right program, like Meander.
What it does Meander is a little program designed to help you plan routes and measure distances. All it needs is a Mac and an image of a map to work on, which can be just about anything. Trace your route using waypoints, label them, and instantly see the distances. Routes and maps can be saved for later viewing and editing.
Working with it The first and foremost step in working with Meander is acquiring a map of the route you intend to plot. It doesn't matter what kind of map it is, what format it is in, and what you use to view it. As long as you can see the map on your screen, and can fit the entire route you want to plot into one single screen, you are good to go. Fortunately, maps are easy to come across, Google Maps probably being the easiest and fastest map source.
Once you have the map on screen, and can see the route you are going to plot, simply start up Meander. The program's window will be called Acetate, and will be transparent. This lets you position the Meander window over the map so you can plot the route. From here on, things are really simple. Using the mouse you can place waypoints, edit them, add labels and move them around. It requires little more than a steady hand and keen eye to get he placement of the waypoints in just the right spot, most of the work being in setting up the map properly before you start plotting. Even so, it is a bit annoying, as it gives you a big cross hair cursor, which is very pointless and covers up the actual dot you are placing.
Once the route is plotted, you will have to set the scale, if you want Meander to be able to automatically measure distances. Here again, things can get messy, especially if you don't have the scale on screen for whatever reason. If you are zooming in on a map, or moving it around to better fit the route on screen, you might want to use an image editing application to paste the scale somewhere on screen.
Once you have the scale on screen, you use to pointers in meander to copy into Meander. Again, the two cursors are annoying here, but far worse is the actual scale line. The developer has decided to give you a nice white line with a black border, which makes sense since you are thus able to see it regardless of the background. The problem is that the line is very thick, and the cursors on the end points also extend out, making it next to impossible to actually ever see the endpoints of the original scale if you are hovering over them with the mouse. While you can change the way the route line looks in the preferences, it is impossible to change anything about the scale line, which is extremely annoying.
Other stuff Beside letting you plot your route, Meander also lets you do several other things.
The first of these are waypoints. Similar to the points you use to plot the route, waypoints are a bit more important. Firstly, each can have its own name and description, and they will be included in the measurements, giving you intermediate distances. You can add these as you plot the route or afterwards. Waypoints can be added between normal points, or you can convert normal points to waypoints.
Meander also lets you write a 'journal' that goes with you route. This is a simple rich text document, much like you can make with TextEdit. Also, the program lets you add circles to the route. These are fixed in size for some reason, and are just plain, red circles. The route can also be dotted with distance markers, and the distance between them is customizable to your preference.
Another cute thing that Meander lets you do is to add images. These are marked on the map by a little photo icon held up with a pin. The image itself can be anything on your hard drive.
The Good
Similar to drawing it is very easy to use and requires nothing special. A good way to plan or capture trips.
The Bad
Very reliant on maps that you must obtain yourself. Also, some of the route plotting process can be annoying due to silly things like cursors and very thick lines not letting you see what you are doing.
The Truth
If you don't have a GPS, Meander offers the next best thing. It may not be perfect, with all kinds of limitations and quirks, but it gets the job done nicely.
Here are some screenshots, click to enlarge:
