Training Others On GPS

Send hime to Gary Hayman's site. There's a plethora of info there. http://home.comcast.net/~ghayman3/garmin.gps/index.html

I really like the ability to send items from Google Maps.

Here is very useful information from an Amazon.com web page. Check the 'Learn more' links:

http://www.amazon.com/Garmin-4-3-Inch-Widescreen-Portable-Na...

One question, did you download the free map update from Garmin? It would be about a 2 gig file and it contains the map for the Garmin and the map for Mapsource. I use Mapsource often and you need the map installed to use it. You will also need to map key to unlock the maps. It is a bit of a pain to install Mapsource, but worth the effort.

It has been a while but... to install Mapsource you need to do the following:

1) create a blank c:\Garmin\MapSource.exe file
2) download and install the MapSource update from the Garmin web page.
3) install the map update from Garmin to your GPS (it will install a map on your hard drive for MapSource)
4) run MapSource and use the map key to unlock the map

Please let me know if you successfully install MapSource using these instructions. If you do, I will post it to the group.

teach him to relax and have fun lol

Some are good at arm chair education, many do better with OJT. If you can arrange to ride around a bit; you drive, let your friend be the co-pilot and have him set some locations like a McDonalds across town and then drive the route as he watches and explores the nüvi. Try a 2nd location and toss in a via or two. Are there Red Light cameras near by? If not, temporarily load something like the Walmart file manually with a distance alert set so that he can see the abilities of his new techno-gadget.

This may also introduce him to some of the idiosyncrasies of GPS navigation, e.g. "That's not the way I would have gone." or "Why did it show my destination on the wrong side of the street?" With those expectations set, he may be less frustrated when he discovers these things on his own and understands that he still has control of common sense. Explain why selecting the shortest route may do odd thing like routing him off and on the same expressway.

Hopefully your friend will enjoy his new GPSr and share some of the enthusiasm that most of us here do.

Thank you for the suggestions. I haven't ordered MapSource yet for him, but that is on the list. I haven't given him Gary's site yet, but I probably will at the right point. We have Nextel for Direct Connect and it is pretty easy for him to reach me when something comes up. Again, I don't want to overwhelm him with too much too soon. I might tell him about downlaoding from Google Maps. He might like that.

Garmin has a page on how to use the GPS. It's good for basic operations and it's all done sitting in front of your computer.

http://www8.garmin.com/gpsacademy/

Some good advice here. I have friends that got a new GPS for Christmas but they are very non-technical. I'll point them in the directions given for help but have my doubts if it will work.

Get all your friends signed up for POI Factory.

Make sure to let them know that on the models ending in 5 and the 1xxx models they can assign categories for favorites and make their own categories using the new button.

People learn faster if there's something in it for them.

Find a way the GPS can help them in something they do.

On our way over to a friend's, my wife bemoaned not having brought a particular kind of salsa.

I told her to use the "Trader Joe's" button on the GPS and since I was driving, walked her through the process, which led us to a store on our way to the party.

She now begrudgingly admits there may be a use for the thing!

My relief driver (she doesn't do nights, rain or other inclement weather) was pretty much the same. Talking her through doing some searches has helped. Now I can tell her to "find us a place to eat" and she knows how to do a search and pick out a place she wants to go.