Come On Garmin

[gtown1]

I have owned a Garmin Nuvi 750 for about a week. I like the unit. Some points:[quote]
[/quote]-Why no manual and CD with the unit? My wife's Garmin c550 came with a nice color manual; why did I have to print off a 56 page pdf file on my home computer? the manual could also have a little more detail.
--Why is the ion rechargeable battery sealed for Garmin's, except the 800 series? This is the Steve Jobs school of design. If the battery dies, or if a problem arises, you have to return the unit to Garmin rather than simply being able buy and install a new battery.
--Why do I need to type in my state every time I start up the unit? Why can't the unit remember the last state entry on start up?
More to come?

[bobshort1]

Shoot, just save the owners manual on your computer as a PDF file. Why print the whole thing. Save trees hahaha. Yes, would be nice to have one in hand, but I can see it better on the computer screen as the font is bigger.

Why are you having to type in the state every time? Are you talking about when you put in an address or are you having to do it when you physically start up? It shouldn't do it when you start up if you input your HOME information.

[gtown1]

I fully realize the pdf file can be downloaded and saved. Garmin is the leading producer of GPS units. In previous models, a manual was included with the unit. The manual would travel with the unit, fit in the glove compartment, or other convenient place. Garmin is the leader--it needs to class up its act and act like a leader.

[gatorguy]

Nearly all the necessary info found in the pdf owners manual is also stored on the device itself in the Help file. I'm also confused as to why you have to type in the state each time. It remembers what state your last search was in. Also remembers each of the recent cities you searched, storing them under the file folder icon on city entry screen. Actually very little input is usually needed to enter a destination.

[SergZak]

In many cases, especially in more recent times, the "owner's manual" is not even worth the paper it's printed on. The manuals have seldom reached into the advanced features of the unit, thus making them just a glorified quick-start guide. These forums (and others like it) are the best owner's manual available.

I agree that they should be included, but only if they are truly worth including.

[MtnHermit]

[gtown1]

If the unit becomes locked up, or won't turn on for any reason, then the unit's help guide will not be useful. A manual--a detailed manual-- should be part of the Garmin package.

[gatorguy]

If that happens then no manual is going to be a lot of help.That's where forums like this and Garmin's tech support step in.

[gtown1]

That's true. However, the simple point is that Garmin should include a good manual. Everyone is debating other issues and possible work arounds to the central point that Garmin should include a manual. All the other work arounds are valid points. But we should hold Garmin's feet to the fire and have them act like a class act. They sell more GPS units--by far--than any other manufacturer. The reason is that Garmin is probable the best all around unit. The sales leader needs to look at other packaging aspects and include some of them--such as a manual. Garmin took a step backwards. My wife's c550 has such a manual. Why did they stop producing one for their newer units?

[Boyd]

It's a sad fact that hardly any products include hardcopy owners manuals today. My Garmin 60csx has a hardcopy manual and it's actually useful. My StreetPilot 2620 had a manual which was also helpful.

But I don't really fault Garmin for no longer including the manuals; they're just following the crowd. I don't think any of the leading GPS manufacturers include printed manuals anymore - I know that HP, Mio and TomTom don't.

Honestly, these things are really easy to use to the point that you shouldn't need to look much up in a manual. Generally speaking, if it isn't immediately obvious how to do something on a Nuvi, then you probably CAN'T do it on a Nuvi. We see this all the time here in the forum when people ask questions like "how do I change the layout of info on the main screen".

The older StreetPilots and Garmin Handhelds are more complex, and the manual served more of a purpose.

[gatorguy]

Might be due to the current mentality that many of us want all the bells and whistles but "I don't want to pay more than $200". Therks more than just printing costs involved. Have you checked out the "manual" that comes with most new computers now?

[gtown1]

Good points. However, new users of GPS units need a manual. In a year or two most people will be on their second units and probably won't need a manual. Today, one should be included.

[gatorguy]

I agree that they probably should. Garmin's not the only one that doesn't include a printed manual. Of course that doesn't make it right.

[tomj03]

My bil bought a TomTom 920.
When turning it on the main screen is in some kind of language (I think it's Dutch).
Now if are a TomTom newbie, or worse first time GPS user, I would like to know how you change the language to English, even with a manual ?

[Tim]

Back to English with TomTom

[tomj03]

He doesn't even have Internet.
But I helped him out.
** Because I talked him into buying a TomTom.

[HLdan]

I worked for an electronics store for 11 years and in my experience hardly any of the customers would take even 5 minutes to open the manual. We got calls all the time about how to do this and how to do that and it was as simple as opening the manual. The customers would tell us to our face that I DON'T READ MANUALS so expect a phone call from me for help.

Companies know this so that's one of the reasons for not including a paper manual anymore as it costs money for the company to print manuals. Garmin's pricing has come down to an almost acceptable level and this is most likely due to a reduction in accessories that customers end up throwing in the trash such as manuals.

I would much prefer to get a savings in cost and have more features on the unit than for Garmin to put the cost towards a paper manual. I was actually very happy that Garmin offered a PDF manual.

[raaurora]

[gatorguy]

I asked the same thing earlier. That may be something we can help him with if he can give us a few more details.

[gtown1]

We keep missing the point on including a manual. The manual (or set of operating instructions) that came with my wife's c550 Garmin was basically the same size and similar content to what you can print off the Internet in a PDF. It was not a large, thick manual. However, why should I have to print it off? Including such a manual/set of instructions would not add even a dollar to the cost of the unit when you figure in that the unit cost of any print product rapidly declines when you let the printing presses roll. Years ago when computers were making their way into people's every day lives, they came with detailed manuals. Today we don't need a detailed manual because we are familiar with computers and software. I upgraded from MS Office 2003 to 2007. There are a lot of differences, yet I poked around some and was using 2007 in a matter of minutes. GPS units are now just coming into being, with a lot of first time buyers. It is those people who need an instruction manual. Using a GPS for the first time is not intutive. Things as basic as charging the battery, working through the icons and adjusting the settings and so on are not intuitive for a first time user. I would recommend that Garmin continue including a manual of instructions (at least basic instructions) for a year or two. I agree that once people learn the basic of a GPS that in the out years, a manual would not be included.
Come on Garmin--class up your act. Garmin marketing people--you need to continue including first time users in your marketing strategy--not just the long time users of your GPS units.

[gatorguy]

So then you aren't having issues with address entry any longer?

I don't think we missed the point at all. We just spent two days discussing the manual you had issue with. One of your two other initial problems had to do with always having to te-enter the State. If it's no longer a problem, let us know.

[raaurora]

I actually have all my electronics user manuals on my external hard drive as pdfs. Prevents them from getting lost and I like being able to do text searches rather than thumbing thru the book. But, I can understand your approach as well.

Regarding your last bullet, why do you need to enter the state every time? It should be defaulting to whatever state you're in and then you can over ride that if necessary. What behavior are you experiencing?

[Boyd]

I don't think we missed the point either. In the end, "vote with your feet". If you aren't happy with Garmin's product, don't buy it.... buy a GPS which includes a paper manual instead. Problem is, you may not be able to find one.

[jww]

I have no specific issues on paper or e-manual, but what I do think is essential, is a full, and complete help file that works properly. This means maybe more space on devices, but RAM is still not expensive, relatively speaking. On-line help is a very old technology - relatively speaking - and should not be difficult to incorporate properly into these devices.

I don't own a GPS unit - so I am a bit ignorant on this -- but what's the on-device help like? Is there context sensitive help? It would be very useful to have a small ? icon in a corner of the unit to pop up context-sensitive help. Do any units have true context sensitive help?

[MEDEL514]

[quote="raaurora"]I actually have all my electronics user manuals on my external hard drive as pdfs. prevents them from getting lost and I like being able to do text searches rather than thumbing thru the book. [/quote]

I like this too, I'll go to my pdf. files and do a search waaayyy before I'll thumb through any paper manual!

There are a few items where I would prefer a hardcopy manual rather than a pdf., like yard equipment, car repair manuals, or other things that you can't fix in front of a computer. I had a pdf. repair manual for my car, kinda sucked having to run back and fouth from the garage to the computer, I usually ended up printing off a bunch of pages and taking them to the garage with me.

A GPS unit would not fall into that catagory, set it up at your desk, put it in your car and go. I doubt anyone will ever be on the road and then say 'hey, I'm now gonna learn how to set up my GPS' lol! Any problem can wait till you get home, if not, call 411 and have them connect you to Garmin costomer service, if you don't own a cell phone, pull into the next gas station and buy a map!!!

[Gunner45]

What is really dissappointing is Mio having ZIP files for their user manuals. What's with that? That alone stopped me from buying a Mio since I couldn't read the manual before I got one. Not happening.

[tomj03]

Right click on the zipped file, Extract all , ... easy .

[Gunner45]

My computer wants to use WinZip to open and I've used my evalution days up. I just don't like ZIP files.

[SergZak]

Windows XP has zip file extraction built into the OS. There is really no need for WinZip unless you're doing some type of advanced password protected compression & extraction.

If you have WinZip installed and your evaluation is expired, simply right-click on the zip file you want to unzip and select "Extract All..." from the drop down menu. Easy, just like tomj03 said.

[Blue Flame]

OK, I'm weird...
I printed out the pdf manual (760 and 780), every related manual (TMS/MSN, etc), and receipt's, got a binder, hole punch, and I have my manual as needed...

[lovetoflyfish]

[Tim]

TomTom devices can display HTML files, etc.

[Oregonian2]

1. Interestingly when I recently bought my 770, I got started looking into Auto GPS's by a Costco Coupon for a TomTom one. One of the reasons I had eliminated the TomTom model the coupon was good for is that I didn't like it's manual (which I downloaded and read). Garmin's was a lot better (at least for the uninitiated). Go figure.

2. PDF manuals are much better than paper ones. With paper ones, it can get tricky finding the ()*&(&*)^ section that has the info I want. PDF's usually are searchable!

3. I do agree that the manual could be better (staying PDF!) especially with all the info that's in the forums that are completely missing in the manual. And they should be. And although a PDF is much better than printed, a printed one is not bad if one is willing to take paper stuff on a trip that one does not want to take a computer. A weak advantage of paper I think, but an advantage.

4. We have a manuals directory on our home computer (in a local network accessible spot) that has download manuals for everything we have (that's available) as well as things I just looked at. We've manufacturer sub directories, and in some cases product sub-sub directories below that -- but only when appropriate. SOOOO much easier than trying to find the manual for the zillion things we've got rather than tying to paw through massive folders in a file cabinet (old method) when we remembered to put it back after the last time hunted for. When we get something, even if it comes with a paper version and no PDF version, I'll check the web for a PDF and put it into place if I can find it. "Much mo' betta!". For one-sheet sort of manuals that come with some things, I'll just do a plain image scan of it on a flatbed scanner and put that (usually .GIF is optimal for black/white text sorts of scans) into that directory so I can find the thing should I need it someday!