Oddly enough, most electronic devices work the same. Incredible as it seems, the nerds who design them all read the
same comic books and think alike. So, here is a handy guide to using a GPS, which will work with almost any GPS unit.

Turning On

The on-off switch is almost always the only switch on the unit which is colored red. Press it for one second or longer,
the unit should power-up. The reason for the one second delay is to prevent accidental power-up when the unit gets
jostled by the thieves ripping it off your dash, or by the security gorillas.

Once the unit is powered up, the red switch takes on a whole new personality. If you push it again, a message will
appear on the screen asking you to make a choice. Usually this is in the form of a brightness or speaker volume
setting. If you dont know what to do, or dont want to change the setting, just ignore it for a few minutes, it will go
away.

Setting It Up

The very first time you power up your GPS, it will ask you a few simple questions about your location, time zone,
language preference etc. Some people understand the questions, but dont see how to mechanically provide the answers..
what button to push, in other words. The answer is, on all units there will be a pair of buttons or arrows on the
screen which can go either way - either plus-minus, or up-down, or maybe just a round shaped surface which responds to
touch. This is the device you use to answer the questions. When you press one side of the switch - the plus side for
instance - the screen of the GPS will change and your new choice will be brighter than the other choices. This is
called 'high lighting' which means 'brighter than the others'. When you high light a choice, the unit will take that
choice. Example, English-Spanish-German-Italian, one of the choices will be high lighted.

Having made the choice, maybe nothing happened. The screen says 'English' that's fine, but won't move on to something
else. At this point, you need to look at the unit for another button which serves to proceed ... usually it is labeled
'ENTER' or 'OK'. it may be on the screen, and you may have to get to it by moving the same switch you used to highlight
a choice. There may be a message on the screen that says 'OK' or 'ENTER' - just choose it like any other choice, and
the GPS will move on until you're done with basic stuff.

Where I'm At

So, now you are powered up, and the screen has gone through its changes and will settle on a display of your current
location. Depending on how much you paid for the unit, the display may include streets, terrain countours, or
whatever.. doesn't matter. The important point is, there will be an arrow in the middle of the screen which represents
YOU and everything else on the screen will move as you move, just like real life. If you walk or drive even a few feet,
the screen will show the new location while the arrow remains constant.

Most likely, the streets or features being displayed are either too detailed, or not detailed enough. This means the
display needs to be ZOOMED in or out, to change the map scale, just like a paper atlas has maps scaled to a whole state
or just a local town. All GPS units have a zoom feature, the only hard part is finding it. Most often there are buttons
on the unit labeled + and -  (plus and minus), these are used to change the map scale, or zoom. Some newer units have
the + and - buttons right on the screen, just tap the screen-button and it will work just like a real button.
If pressing these buttons results in the map going away and some strange picture like a graph showing up, just keep
pressing the same button until the map comes around again. If that doesnt work, look for a button labeled 'QUIT' or
'MAP'. That should take you back to the map.

At this point, you should probably just move or drive around a little to get used to basic GPS functioning. You will
notice that the display may be a little annoying because it doesnt show your world as you see it. Some people like to
see their position like a paper map, in which North is always at the top, whereas other people like to see their
position as if they were walking along, when they turn a corner, they expect the map to turn with them, so North will
no longer be 'up'. So, we could say there are two kinds of people - North-UP fans, and Show Me Where I'm Headed fans.
Don't worry, almost all GPS units allow you to change this, we will get to that in a minute.

OK, I know where I am, is that all there is ?

Well, the answer is, for many people, yes thats all there is. They don't need directions to go somewhere, they just want
to see their progress and watch the map go by. Thats fine, even the most expensive GPS unit can be used just like a
paper map, just watch the streets go by and drive toward what looks right. Same for hikers, just walk the terrain and
watch the contours go by.

How Do I get Directions to There ?

Now comes the tricky part. Take a valium and try to relax.

The best part about even the most simple GPS units is, they can guide you somewhere. This is called 'navigating'.
If your GPS unit says it's in 'Navigating' mode, it is trying to guide you somewhere, or is ready to guide you somewhere.
But how do you tell it where you want to go ?

Somewhere on the unit, or on the screen, there will be a button or choice which leads you to believe an action will
occur if you press it. it may be labeled:

GO TO
ROUTE TO
FIND
WHERE TO?
WHERE AM I?

Sometimes these are a little sneakier, with names like:

POINTS OF INTEREST (POI)
FEATURES
DESTINATIONS
CATEGORY
ROUTE
ADDRESS
LOCATIONS
LAT-LONG

There will also be some ambiguous buttons like:

MY FAVORITE PLACES or FAVORITES
RECENTLY FOUND PLACES
HISTORY
WAYPOINTS
ROUTES

Those are advanced topics, dont mess with them yet, we'll get to them.


All these choices basically start a sequence of further choices where you tell the GPS where you want to go, the only
differnece between all of them is, how it goes about showing you your destination. For example, you may want to pick
your destination based on a list of gas stations, restaurants, parks, etc..these are called 'POI' or points of interest.

Or, you may want to type an ADDRESS into the unit like 123 Elm Street, Dafukami, Ohio and have the GPS send you there,

Or, you may want to do it the hard way, typing in the LAT-LONG latitude and longitude (this is usually only done by hikers or other serious GPS geeks)

or, you may want to pick an ADDRESS destination from an alphabetical list of cities, streets, or points of interest.

or, you may want to return to a RECENTLY FOUND PLACE from a previous trip, since most units keep a history of
destinations.

There is another way, which is to run your finger around the map on the screen until your destination shows up. This is
a somewhat hilarious method which usually results in you winding up in Nome, Alaska, or else not being able to get the
map back to where you started. Tip - don't run your finger around the map unless you're adventurous. If this happens by
accident, look for a button labeled MAP, QUIT, or BACK.  Avoid buttons labeled SET, ENTER, MARK or OK because
these will, indeed, send you off to wherever your finger wound up, like Nome Alaska.

Lets take each navigation method in turn.

POI - POINTS OF INTEREST

Most automobile based GPS units have about a gazillion stored Points of Interest which you can find by selecting POI on
the screen. Almost always, these are POI in the immediate area, fanning outwards.. it is pretty hard to find a POI
1,000 miles away but it can be done. Of the gazillion POIs , about half of them will be dead wrong. Thats because
stores close, parks sink into the swamp, trailer parks are over run with condos, and tar covers everything eventually.
But sometimes a POI search, like for a gas station at 3 AM really works out.

Some GPS units arrange POI into CATEGORIES like shopping, government, auto service etc. and you start there.

ADDRESS

This method works really well...if you know the address you're going to. Since no GPS units have a computer keyboard
with alphabet letters, typing an address is a cumbersome process. usually you move around the screen using high
lighting, then use the plus-minus, up-down buttons maybe arrow buttons (if there are any) to pick the letters out one
by one. if some of the letters don't show, it means there is no choice spelled like that. If you make a mistake, look
for a backward arrow, or a strike-through symbol like a no-smoking sign. To move from one address line to the next,
usually you choose DONE or BACK or NEXT or use an arrow button.

Getting There

OK lets say you've picked a Point of Interest, or an address, or laboriously typed in the Lat-long coordinates. next
step is to tell the GPS that you want to actually go there - because some of them just store that location and take you
back to the map. So you want to look for a button that says ROUTE TO or GO THERE something like that. When you click
that, navigation begins...

Navigation and the Nice Lady Who Speaks

Navigation is the process of letting the GPS give you directions to get somewhere. On most units, the directions will
be in the form of arrows displayed on the map, telling you to turn left, right etc, and some back that up with spoken
turn directions. Most of the time, adequate advanced warning is given when a turn is coming up, and its always a good
idea to check the name of the street before you turn. The GPs will usually show the street name and some even speak the
name.

Routes and Trip Planning

The above example covers a single trip to a single destination, letting the GPS do all the route calculations. But what
if you want to make intermediate stops, or if you want to make sure to pass some point of interest, or avoid some point
of interest? Thats where trip planning comes in.

A trip is a series of intermediate stops called 'waypoints', leading to a final destination. Most of the time, this
type of planning has to be done on the PC version of the installed maps (if there is one).

To set waypoints, you locate them one at a time as POI, addresses or any other method, but instead of immediately
clicking GO THERE, instead you click SAVE AS WAYPOINT or SAVE AS FAVORITE.. some variation of save will be offered.
At the end of this process you'll have 2 or more intermediate stopping points but they haven't been combined into a
trip plan or ROUTE yet. To do that, you look for a button labeled ROUTE or TRIP or PLAN ROUTE, just like when you
started a single-stop route, but instead of selecting an address or POI, you select one of your WAYPOINTS, FAVORITES or
RECENTLY FOUND PLACES as the first stop. Then you repeat the process until you select the final destination.

When you actually begin the trip, the GPS unit will route to each WAYPOINT, and the distance/time estimates will be
based on that waypoint.

If You Get Lost

Quite often you will miss a turn, decide not to make a turn on your planned route, or otherwise be unable to do what
the GPS wants you to. A nagging voice just like my ex wife may start warning you that you are off-route and asking you
in a whiny nasal voice if you want to re-calculate the route. Different GPS units handle this different ways. Some will
just re-calc a u-turn to get you get back on the original route. Some will re-calc a totally new route to the next
waypoint or the final destination. Some will re-calc two or tree times then give up and wait for you to rejoin the
original route. Depends on the unit. Most of them will resume navigation if you get back on the original route by
yourself.

When You get There

When you arrive at your destination, the GPS will usually announce this fact one way or another, most basic being the
distance-to-go counter goes to zero. At that point you may be able to save the route for future use by looking for
ROUTE OPTIONS then SAVE.. or you can just let the route fade away.

Settings

There are a few things you can change to make your GPS easier to use. They are usually accessed by a MENU or SETTINGS
button. Be aware that there may be more than one level of settings or menu choices - one set for the current displayed
screen, and another set for the unit in general. Usually the first time you press the MENU key, you get the local
screen options, and a second press of the MENU key gets you to the top level which is the device options. Some options
worth looking at are:

BACKLIGHT TIMEOUT - the screen light uses a lot of battery power, might be worth reducing the timeout

SPEED LIMITS - this is where you set the target speed for different types of roads. The GPS uses these targets when it
pre-estimates a route.

AVOIDS - this is where you can avoid being routes over toll roads, ferries, u-turns etc.

VEHICLE TYPE - if you drive a RV, you might want to choose a TRUCK/BUS type value here, which will steer you away from
narrow streets and dead ends. However its not fool proof.

DETAIL or Points of Interest Display - some units will display POIs as symbols on the map, which is nice but it can
clutter up a map badly. There may be a choice at which map scale these symbols start to go away, like 1/2 mile scale.
There may also be option covering display of railroad tracks, dirt roads, and other stuff not needed for routing.

NORTH UP or TRACK UP - discussed earlier, this is your choice of how the map is oriented as you drive. Track up means
the road ahead is always in front of the arrow on the screen. North up means the map is always North up and the arrow
representing you goes in different directions.

Connecting to a Windows PC

Most GPS units with PC capability use a USB connection to the PC. The first time you try to connect the GPS, it may
appear for awhile that nothing happened. You may have to reboot the computer to get it to recognize the unit.
Never disconnect a unit while something is being transfered to it, like maps.

What is the reason you need a PC ? Well, for many GPS units, you don't. But for planning long trips with multiple stops,
it is much easier to do it all on a PC then download the route or trip info to the unit. Another time when the PC is
required is, when the GPS has limited storage for maps, and you want to use it out-of-area. In that case, you have to
replace the in-unit maps with those matching your new area. This can get cumbersome and it is a big drawback of the
less expensive GPS units.

Another use for the PC is to store a totally different kind of map, such as topo maps for off-roading, marine maps for
boating, or maybe European maps. This capability is available on some GPS units, not all. And in most cases the extra
maps are extra cost.

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Now wasn't that easy ?