Telephone Poles on the Moon

How to Use GSAK May 2, 2009

I am getting traffic from a number of queries around “How to use GSAK”, or Geocaching Swiss Army Knife.  I have talked about the power of GSAK before.  It’s a great package, even though it’s not one of the regulars in my toolbag.  I have my other preferences but I cannot deny that GSAK really is outstanding.  The tool is quite simple but there are resources to help you navigate its features.  Aside from my post on the file formats it will support and when you should use them you should look here:

• The GSAK home page
• The GSAK 101 user guide, a Word document in English, German, Dutch and French
• The GSAK 201 user guide, for you more advanced folks interested in customizing GSAK
• The GSAK 301 user guide, for the true geeks among you who have to automate the tool using macros.  Only in English and Dutch.
• The GSAK FAQ
• All of these documents are available on the Getting Started forum on the GSAK Message Boards

I am a sucker for people who produce proper documentation and looking at the 101 Guide, it’s grade A material.

As of this post the current version is 7.5.2.  Do yourself a favor and download the software right from http://GSAK.net instead of one of those file aggregators like Cnet or Rapidshare or some Bittorrent you downloaded from a “friend”.  Registration is only $25 if you like it and want to see the guy (Clyde) keep updating the software, so why not?

And why not share with the rest of us how you use GSAK to help your Geocaching?

-edit 05/02/09

For those of you searching for “GSAK to SQL” you might want to consider that since the GPX files GSAK reads in are XML you might want to go straight to GPSBabel.  Since it is the engine under the GSAK hood, you SQL people can just cut out the middle man.  (sorry, Clyde, but I figure the SQL folks are a different crowd).