Although it doesn't have a GPS receiver built inside, the Nokia 6600 Slide does come with Nokia Maps mapping and route finding software pre-loaded.

This can be used without GPS for route planning or location finding, with over the air updates enabling you to search for addresses, hunt for places of interest, and get routing information on the phone. You can get step-by-step instructions to go from A to B without getting L-O-S-T, and view routes on updated onscsreen maps.

You can zoom in and out for more detail or route overviews, and get info on numerous points of interest across a huge range of categories - from bars, amusement parks and religious sites to cash machines, casinos and police stations. Ad you can send routing information to other phone users in messages.

Nokia Maps on the 6600 Slide can be used in conjunction with a separate optional Bluetooth GPS module, for precise location finding and Sat Nav routing. But even if you want to keep it simple, it's an easy to use and useful application to have to hand.

Here's how to use it...

Using Nokia Maps

1. From the standby screen, press Menu (Figure 1)
2. In the main menu, scroll to highlight Maps. Press Select. (Figure 2).
3. A message appears asking: Allow online search and map download. (Figure 3) Highlight Yes and press Select.
4. You are now in the Maps application, with several options available (Figure 4). (Most of these can be used without an optional GPS receiver attached, though the Current Position option can't be.)

Looking up an address
Once you've searched for an address or location, it will be stored in the application's memory, so it's easy to look up again if you're planning a route or want to just view it on a map.

1. Scroll down to highlight Find address (Figure 5). Press Select.
2. On the top panel, select the country you want to search in, using the navigation pad left and right arrows to scroll through the options (Figure 6).
3. When you have found the right one, scroll down to the panels below this, typing in the appropriate details for Postal code or City and/or Street and House number (Postal code on its own should be sufficient) (Figure 7). Press Find.
4. The phone will begin searching for the address. In a few moments, you will see your search results onscreen (Figure 8). You can now view the address you want on a map, or plan a route to or from this address. You can also save the location within the list of additional options available. (If there's more than one search result, scroll dwon to highlight the one required.)
5. To view the address on a map, press View map. In a few moments, a map will appear onscreen with the address marked as a blue dot (Figure 9). Other nearby points of interest will also be shown.
6. To zoom in or out, press the Zoom button. A sidebar illustrating your zoom level appears on the right of the screen (Figure 10). Press the navigation pad up or down controls to zoom in or out (Figure 11). Press OK to get rid of the zoom bar but maintain the zoomed view, or Cancel to return to the original map view.

Planning routes
You can enter the route planning option in several ways, depending where you are in the Maps menu system, although the procedures for selecting the starting point and/or destination are broadly similar.

From the main Maps menu
From the main Maps menu (Figure 4), you can opt to plan a route straight away.

1. Scroll down to highlight the Plan route option (Figure 12) and press Select.
2. You are taken into a screen with Starting point and Destination (Figure 13). To define the Starting point, highlight this and press Select.
3. You can then choose one of the options from the sub-menu (Figure 14). You can browse lists of saved or recently visited locations (if you have any) by highlighting Saved locations or Recent locations and pressing Select. You can also pull up the map you last looked at by pressing From map, and clicking on a particular spot on that to define your Starting point. Alternatively, you can click on Address, and tap in the address details as outlined above to search for the location (Figures 6, 7, 8).
4. Once the location is found, press Select to define it as the Starting point (Figure 15).
5. Scroll down to highlight Destination. Press Select. A list of search options appears (Figure 16). In the same way as above, highlight the option from which you want to define your destination and press Select. If you want to search for an address, follow the same procedure as for the Starting point (outlined above). When you've found the location, press Select.
6. You will be returned to the Plan route screen (Figure 17). Press Options. Highlight Show route (Figure 18). Press Select.
7. It will take a few seconds to get the route. Route details appear in a turn-by-turn itinerary onscreen (Figure 19). You can scroll down this list to view each part of the route.
8. To see these instructions overlaid on a map, press View map. A map appears with the route outlined in blue (Figure 20). As before, you can zoom in or out by selecting the Zoom option, and scroll around the map using the navigation pad direction keys.

Directions from or to a location you've looked up
Alternatively, you can also get route plan instructions to or from a location immediately after you've looked up an address.

1. Follow the procedure to find an address described in the Looking up an address section above until you've got search results for the address you're after (Figure 21).
2. Press Options. Scroll down to highlight either Plan route to or Plan route from, as required (Figure 22). Press Select.
3. You are taken into the Plan route screen where you have to define either the Starting point or Destination as before (Figure 23). As outlined above, highlight the option you need to define and press Select. Highlight one of the options from the sub menu (Figure 24). Press Select.
4. You can browse lists of saved or recently visited locations by highlighting Saved locations or Recent locations and pressing Select. You can also pull up the map you last looked at by pressing From map, and then clicking on a particular spot on that to define your Starting point. Alternatively, you can click on Address, and tap in the address details as outlined above to search for the location (Figures 6, 7, 8). Once the address is found, press Select to define it as the Starting point or Destination.
5. You will be returned to the Plan route screen. Press Options. Highlight Show route (Figure 25). Press Select.
6. Route details appear in a turn-by-turn itinerary onscreen (Figure 26). You can scroll down this list to view each part of the route.
7. To see these instructions overlaid on a map, press View map. A map appears with the route outlined in blue (Figure 27). As before, you can zoom in or out by selecting the Zoom option, and scroll around the map using the navigation pad direction keys.