6. Navigating to a Street Address

The most straight-forward way to enter a destination into the GPS is to input a street address.

Figure 37: LN740's Main Menu

About 29 seconds after turning on the LN740 (or 5 seconds if the unit was in "sleep" mode and not completely off) and accepting the legal disclaimer, the Main Menu screen appears, as shown above in figure 37. The Menu screen can be accessed any time by tapping on the Menu icon from the Map screen, or pressing the physical Menu/Power button.

The main Menu screen is where you'll go to:

• Enter a destination street address ("Address")
• Route to a saved address ("My Places")
• Plan a multi-stop route ("Route Manager")
• Route to a recently found destination ("Recent Places")
• Search the POI database ("POI")
• View real-time traffic conditions ("Traffic Info")

Let's test out the procedure for entering a street address as a destination. First, tap on "Address" from the Main Menu.

Figure 38: Typing in the State Name

Like most other GPS units, the first step in entering a street address is to tell the device what State (or county if you live up north or across the pond) your destination is in. The first time you enter a State name, the LN740 displays a short message (shown above in figure 38) explaining that you'll want to enter just the street name, and not any prefixes. So, for example, if you're trying to get to an address on "North Main Street", you'd enter "Main" as the street name, and then choose "North Main Street" from the list of matching street names on the results page.

Figure 39: Typing in the State Name

By default the "Select State" screen, shown above, displays the State you are currently in. If you want to choose a different State for your destination address, you'll need to spell the name of the state using the on-screen keyboard. There's no need to delete the pre-populated State name (Connecticut, in the figure above) - as soon as you press any letter on the keyboard, the LN740 erases the current State and starts spelling out the new name.

Figure 40: Show/Hide Keyboard

LG handles text entry slightly differently than some other GPS devices: the on-screen keyboard can be hidden by tapping on the "Hide Keyboard" button (which turns into the "Show Keyboard" button once the keyboard is hidden). This can be a handy way of browsing a relatively short list (State names, for example). In some cases it may be faster to simply scroll through the list than spell out the name.

Figure 41: Spelling the State Name Using the Keyboard

Unfortunately, the LN740 doesn't gray out invalid letters as you type, as some other GPS units do. I found myself missing this time saving feature, which not only speeds data entry but also reduces the likelihood of misspellings or accidentally tapping the wrong letter. It's entirely possible to misspell or fat-finger the State (or street) name, and the LN740 will promptly "State not found."

Figure 42: Choosing the State from the Results Page

Once enough letters have been entered that only a few possible matches exist, the LN40 jumps to a list of matching names. After tapping on the desired State name, you also have to tap on OK to continue to the next step. At first I thought tapping on the OK button seemed like a needless extra step in the process, but I suppose some people will prefer this method, as it ensures you haven't accidentally tapped on the wrong State name.

Figure 43: Entering the City & Street Name

Once the State name has been entered, the LN740 displays the oddly named "Mode" screen, shown above in figure 43.

Four options for entering the city and street names are presented:

• City-Street - Requires that the City name be entered first, followed by the Street name
• Street-City - Requires that the Street name be entered first, followed by the City name
• Cross Streets - Allows an intersection of two streets to be used as a destination address
• Zip Code - Allows a Zip (Postal) code to be used in place of a City name

Figure 44: Entering the City Name

Entering the city name is identical to the process for inputting the State name: type out enough of city name until only a few matches exist, and the LN740 narrows the results as you type until only a few possible matches exist.

Figure 45: Entering the Street Name

Next we'll need to enter the street name of our destination address. Entering the street name is identical to the State/City input screen, although I found the layout slightly confusing for this page. Notice that the text entry field says "<<< STREET >>>", as shown above in figure 45. Directly below that field the City name is displayed (Manhattan). My eye was drawn more to the Manhattan letters rather than the street name area of the screen.

From this page, you can either enter a street name, or just tap on the City name to route to the center of town -- although in my testing the GPS rarely chose the actual center of town. For example, tapping on Manhattan routes you to the very tip of the island, near the former World Trade Center.