Garmin Software
For our unit we bought Trip & Waypoint Manager. This includes the Mapsource Software with a base-map of the world. Basically it is a programme with a digital map you can run on your PC and create/modify Tracks, Waypoints and Routes and upload/download to and from your Garmin GPSr.
When you buy the GPSr it has an integrated map installed. In Europe this is called the Atlantic Recreational Basemap. This map covers the whole world except the very outskirts and Antarctica. Western Europe is more detailed than the rest of the world.
For auto-navigating Garmin sells City-Navigator (Land) and Bluechart (Marine) maps.
Additional Maps we bought to use on the Garmin GPSr are:
TOPO Schweiz
Tracks4Africa
Tracks4Australia
All these maps are Vector Maps. This means that the maps are made up of lines and shapes (Polygons). With Mapsource you can not only send the Waypoints, Tracks and Routes to the GPSr, but also the Maps themselves.
The other type of Digital Maps are Raster Maps. These maps are built up from Pixels and cannot be loaded onto the GPSr. To view these maps and create Waypoints, Tracks and Routes and upload to the GPSr various software programmes are available. For our Raster Maps we use Oziexplorer.
It is not difficult to exchange Waypoints and Tracks between the two Software packages. We use mostly the GPX format.