Notices

Hi All,
Created this thread so we can share any tips and tricks with the standard ovi maps that comes with the N900.

As basic as it is I use Ovi Maps as a sat nav because I dont want to get a stand alone sat nav as I dont want the seperate hardware to carry around or worry about leaving in my car & I dont want to pay for sygic as i've seen people moaning it doesn't work correctly all of the time!

I have found I can use Ovi Maps quite well to get me from a to b using the routing and recently found that when a route has been calculated and marked out by clicking the compass, then clicking the centre of the compass gives me a 3d perspective view which increased the usability of it greatly (cant believe I didnt know this before)
Anyway, if you didnt know about it theres 1 tip for ya!

My 2nd tip for you is regarding the annoying fact you cant set your home address as a saved position so when you have been somewhere and want to go home you have to re-enter your postcode!
What I did was when in the map, i clicked the 'places' icon and searched for a pub which is just round the corner from my house, i then clicked the little 'i' icon which brings up the pubs details such as phone number and address, then you click the pubs name area which brings up a list of options, then click route to and ovi maps should then save that pub in the 'places' function so in the future when you want to get a route direct to home just
click 'places'
click 'i' next to the pubs name
click 'the pubs name' to get the option list
click 'route to'
and a route will calculated from your current gps position to home/the local pub.
This can be done with any kind of business that is local to your home and is found by the search function!

What annoys me about ovi maps
1) when my N900 is in its car holder with the hardware keyboard closed and i want to search a postcode to be taken to the virtual keyboard will not work .... i have to take my n900 out of the holder and open the keyboard .... try it yourself and if you find a way round it let me know!
click 'routing'
click 'set a destination'
click 'set from search'
in the search box there is light grey text saying 'e.g an address, business or place name'now try and bring up the virtual keyboard .... it wont work will it??
you have to use the hardware keyboard
OK I'VE JUST FOUND A SOLUTION TO THIS WHILE TESTING AND WRITING THIS POST
tap the area just where the green meets the white box (on the left of the word e.g) three times , it works sometimes but not other times??? why it doesnt open the virtual keyboard with one press is beyond me???
can anyone out there make it open with one press?

Ok another annoyance for me is that I live near a toll road, so most of the time when i am going somewhere or going home the route calculated will involve me going on the toll road which I dont want as it costs £4.50 a time ... every time i calculate a route i have to go into 'route settings' and unhighlight 'toll roads'
Does anyone know how I can save 'route settings' to have 'toll roads' unselected 100% of the time?

WOW ... what a big post this is .... i got a bot carried away didnt I lol.

Anyway I hope the info in here helps some people and if you have any tips please post them here!

cheers

For me, Ovi Maps is completely useless because you can not enter an address because you can not enter numbers on the search screen. At least if you can, it is not obvious. All you can do is find street names, which isn't helpful if the street is a mile long.

Who the hell makes a map application that doesn't have basic functionality in it?

you can enter numbers by holding down the 'blue arrow' key while pressing the number keys ... is this what you mean?

Same here, can't use them at all.
Just for testing i found the exact spelling of a road on the map (i live in Greece and the road names are written in latin characters), then tried to seach for it to make a route to and guess what, the seach said that the road didn't exist....

thanks, had forgotten about the 3D perspective, makes a big difference for me

Nokia

And add the outdated maps too...
... and missing voice guidance....
.... lack of bookmark places....
... impossible to load offline maps using the Ovi Maps Loader...

IMHO Mapper does its job better, though it is still a bit buggy and slow...

And add the outdated maps too... I DONT KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS, MY MAPS AREN'T OUTDATED
... and missing voice guidance.... I KNOW, GUTTED BUT CAN SURIVE WITHOUT IT, WOULD ALSO MENTION LACK OF REROUTING ENGINE WHEN YOU TAKE A WRONG TURN
.... lack of bookmark places.... THATS WHY I USE PUBS AS BOOKMARKS
... impossible to load offline maps using the Ovi Maps Loader - I JUST COPY/PASTED UK MAPS INTO THE MAPS FOLDER AND IT WORKS FINE

Thanks above all for telling me how to get into 3d view. Since the last upgrade of Ovi Maps I had been unable to launch it although I was searching for it . I checked that also in the newest User Guide does not give a clue.

What I find very confusing at times is the constant change of orientation when GPS tracking is on. I discovered that I can stop that by using the compass, choose the orientation myself, and then click outside of the compass. Unfortunately, the map then also stays where it was, so the red dot is not followed any longer, but that is often the lesser evil. Does anyone know how to do better?

Good luck with this thread - may it not decay in yet another endless and thus useless series of complaints about Ovi Maps

yes, this happens quite often to me too when i stop at traffic lights, it happens as its the gps information thats used to determine which direction you are travelling in ... i dont know how to stop it but its not really a problem for me as it corrects itself when i get moving again.
Im guessing its much worse when you are walking somewhere though

No, it doesn't work. I can only type in letters no matter how many times I press the 'blue arrow' key.