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This web page was written by Seth Price.
How do I use the Trip Planner?
Who and What
Organizing a trip can be like herding cats, you're lucky to survive with your sanity (and without bite marks). So, I've created a page to help you organize your journey. To create a Trip Plan, you need to be in Member standing. You get trial Member standing automatically when you register, and after your trial period runs out, you can buy a membership via a subscription.
What can you do with the Trip Planner? In the General information, you can post things like who is going, and when and where you are leaving. Using the Itinerary builder you can assemble the journey, so people know when and where you are planning on traveling. The Calendar is automatically created from the the Itinerary. Use the Checklist to keep track of who is bringing what. Use the Discussion to keep everyone up-to-date on the latest.
In This Tutorial
Create the Trip Plan
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Submission Page
On the left side of the page, click on "Submit...". If you don't see the link there, then you are not logged in.
From the submission page, click the "Create a new Trip Plan" link to proceed to the creation form.
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Trip Plan Form
Fill in when you are leaving and returning, the member names of anyone accompanying you, and who can edit/view the Trip Plan.
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Form Finished
At the final screen, you will be presented with a link to your new Trip Plan. This is a "permalink", you can safely post it on your blog or send it in an email. You might want to fill out your Itinerary before advertising it, though.
Itinerary
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Blank Plan
You will need to fill your itinerary in with what you plan to do, and where you plan to go. Create a new Trip Segment by clicking on the "Add Trip Segment" button.
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New Trip Segment
All plans are divided into "Trip Segments". You can think of a trip segment as a leg of a journey. You might want to have one trip segment for each day, or a trip segment depending on who is going where.
Example: The Price family is going on a three week camping trip. The first week is spent driving to Great Smoky Mountain National Park and stopping at parks along the way. The second week is a reunion with friends and family. Some people are going hiking, others are going biking, and others aren't leaving the campground. Each group can have their own Trip Segment. Then, in the third week, the Price family is driving (and camping) back home again.
Fill in the title of each location, and add any other information that you have. If you want the locations to be organized properly you must have the arrival and departure time filled out.
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"Advanced"
You can save yourself some work by adding locations that are already on Unearthed Outdoors. Doing this will automatically fill out the notes, latitude, longitude, and photo if they are available. It will automatically link from the itinerary to the location's page, so your companions can more easily see what they are getting themselves into.
Under "Advanced" select the type of location that you are visiting and fill in its ID. The ID can be found at the bottom of the General page for a location, under "Editing Information". You can also do a lookup using the "Lookup ID" button. The ID of Great Smoky Mountain National Park is 1299.
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Edit Segment
Once you have created a Trip Segment you can go back and edit it by selecting the appropriate segment and clicking "Edit Trip Segment" on the main Itinerary page.
If you haven't restricted their access, any of your companions will be able to edit and create Trip Segments. We'll keep track of who has edited what, and when. That way you can see who is active in planning the trip, and who is a slacker.
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Making Progress
As you create and edit your Trip Segments, they appear on the main Itinerary page. They are nested depending on the arrival and departure times that you list. You can click on the titles to view a more detailed view. Changes are logged along the right side.
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Calendar
The calendar is automatically generated from the arrival and departure times in your itinerary. Each Trip Segment is colored a different color. When you have finished the Itinerary, you can print off the calendar and laugh at how far off schedule you are, or rejoice at being ahead of schedule.
Checklist
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Add a Checklist
Under the Checklist tab you can create and add checklists. You can choose from one of the Checklist presets, or you can create a blank list. When you have made your selection, click the "Add Checklist" button.
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Modify the Checklist
Be sure to add clear item names and notes in order to avoid miscommunication in planning with your tripmates. You really don't need 10 stoves for 10 people, but at least one stove would be good.
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List Items
Once you have items in your checklist, people can check (and uncheck) them. To make a change to the checklist, check (or uncheck) whatever you want, and click the "Save All Changes" button.
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Item History
Each checklist item has a history, which you can see on the right. You can see when an item was added to the list, when any changes were made, and when it was checked. You can also see who made each change.
This way you know who to blame when you get into the back-country without toilet paper or utensils.
Discussion
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Post a Message
Use the discussion board to keep everyone up-to-date. The discussion board is better than email because it is easy for an email message to get lost, or not sent to the entire group. This way you can be sure that everyone has the same information.
Posting a message is very similar to submitting a review. Click the "Post a new message" button, type in your message, and post it to the Discussion.