TOPO! National Geographic USGS Topographic Maps, Arkansas, Lousiana, and Mississippi

User Review: - Good idea that falls Short
I had high hopes that this software would be very helpful in mapping out weekend hikes. Much to my regret, it falls far short. I can overlook the poor interface. I knew going into this that I could not download the maps to my Garmin. I wanted only to be able to plot out hikes, print out the paper maps, and transfer the route to the Garmin. All this works to a degree, with the map quality limiting the plotting. Unfortunately the quality of the maps falls short of usable. The map data is too small to use until blown up past level 5. At this point it starts getting fuzzy and blurs badly. I guess that I should have realized that a raster map when blown up too far, starts degrading badly.
The worst part was that when I asked for assistance on this problem, I traded a few emails with a support person at the product website, and then when my questions got specific and I supplied him with samples, I no longer heard from him. He just quit replying.
I will be asking for an RMA. Too bad - It sounded like a great product, but did not live up to expectations.

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User Review: - Amazon Price is Weird?
this product (CA version) is listed for $149 at Amazon and at $99 at the National Geographic website and at REI. What's up with that? 50% over the MSRP?

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User Review: - Worst user interface that I've ever seen
TOPO! has the worst user interface ever created. It doesn't follow the standard user interface designed by Apple, Adobe, and Microsoft.
- There's no hand tool to move around the map--rather you have to move your cursor to the edge of the screen and click to push the map around. Hard to control and creates lots of cursor movement
- The tool to draw routes is hard to control

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User Review: - Horrible UI, slow, and crash-prone
Do not waste your money on this horrible software. Even on a 2.4 GHz, 2 GB RAM MacBook Pro, it staggers to run. It takes an average of 20 seconds just to change zoom levels and pans incredibly slowly. Try drawing a route and half the time the whole thing freezes and crashes and you have to start over. I'll say it again - DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY!

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User Review: - How To Increase Its Value
With TOPO, it makes a big difference if you copy the maps from the CDs to your hard drive. That results in a much faster and better experience. Directions for copying the maps to your hard drive are on the Topo web site. Some reviewers do not realize that.

The digital maps are an extremely good value compared to paper maps!! Live Map Updates is a feature of version 4. You can download the current maps and street overlays for the quads you are interested in! And that is free.

I have used versions 2, 3, and 4 of this product. Version 2 was excellent. Versions 3 and 4 are incremental improvements. On Amazon, it isn't always clear which version you are buying. Go by the dates -- version 4 was released in 2006.

The software is excellent. My only complaint is that it is a bit complicated to install. I don't think it has ever crashed on me. I use it a lot, and discover new features all the time. It is not hard to learn. GPS support is great, in my experience.

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