button next to SKS on/off button

I don't have a 2006, but I believe it's a reset for the tire pressure monitors.

 

Correct - it's the button that resets the TPMS system, to be used after a tire change, or any event that causes a big change in the tire pressures. See your owner's manual for details and cautions.

 

<_< QUOTE: "Too lazy to attempt to figure out if the manual says what it controls."

Then... why should anyone here trouble to assist you? There's a great deal of helpful information in the Owner's Manual.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Charles Suitt @ Sep 8 2006, 12:32 PM) [snapback]316404[/snapback]</div>

I find the manual somewhat difficult to use as a reference. Many times I can find the info I want, but more times I find out more by searching this forum. The night I got my Prius, I was driving home when I noticed that the speedometer reading was in kilometers per hour rather than miles per hour. I pulled over to stop in a convenience store so I could search the manual, and even asked another customer for ideas to find the right place in the index when 'speedometer' didn't give me the info. I finally found it by paging through the manual; luckily it was somewhere in the first 10 pages.

Just yesterday I found a posting that explained how to set up 'voice tags' for the bluetooth interface. When I'd read over the manual about using the bluetooth interface, I don't remember even seeing stuff about voice tags. But then again, I didn't know what they were until I read some threads that mentioned using them - it sounded convenient, so I 'researched' it here since my manual was in my glove compartment.

I don't often post a question where the answer might be found in the manual - more likely I'll post a question about recommendations/opinions for products, if a forum search doesn't find me the info I need. Example - my cell phone was due for an upgrade in August, so I wanted a reliable blue tooth phone. A forum search led me to believe that the Motorola v557 was a good option. Unfortunately, Cingular stopped carrying that phone a couple of weeks before my upgrade, so I asked specific questions about a different model that was newly available.

Another example - I've read in the manual that there's an SKS on/off switch below the steering wheel, but I don't remember a diagram SHOWING it, nor have I looked under the steering wheel for the switch. If I had, I might very well have asked the same question that the OP did!

I understand your frustration, though, since I've been involved in IT work for 30 years, and most people don't 'RTFM' (from my old 'manframe' days) or have a clue what the 'help' menu does (from my PC days).

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Jeannie @ Sep 8 2006, 01:06 PM) [snapback]316423[/snapback]</div>

Manframe? Sounds hunky. You're not into the manframe anymore?

Yes, a FM comes with most major equipment, and you had better R the F out of it before posting a question. At least OP admitted lack of having R'd the F'ing M. What I don't get though is how it's less work to get on the computer and ask a bunch of other people for an answer and then wait around for the answer, rather than leafing through the M first and asking only when you think you can't find it.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Ichabod @ Sep 8 2006, 01:22 PM) [snapback]316433[/snapback]</div>

It's easier if you're already sitting at your computer hooked to the internet and you'd have to get up and go outside to fetch the manual. And if I get what I want, I don't care if it inconveniences you, of course!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Jeannie @ Sep 8 2006, 01:41 PM) [snapback]316448[/snapback]</div>

Spoken like a true New Jerseyan!! I toast you! [attachmentid=4929]

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Ichabod @ Sep 8 2006, 01:22 PM) [snapback]316433[/snapback]</div>

What was really hinky was trying to correct typo's by manipulating Hollerith cards through an old IBM026 keypunch while holding the 'DUP' key!

 

What's a hinky?

The side of me that really enjoyed cutting film on a Steenback editing machine, and doing tape-to-tape linear video editing is jealous of your mainframe experience. The practical side of me says "good riddance to those days."

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Ichabod @ Sep 8 2006, 01:50 PM) [snapback]316457[/snapback]</div>

Per the onlline Merriam - Webster dictionary:

hinky
One entry found for hinky.


Main Entry: hin·ky
Pronunciation: 'hi[ng]-kE
Function: adjective
Inflected Form(s): hin·ki·er; -est
Etymology: alteration of argot hincty suspicious
1 slang : NERVOUS, JITTERY
2 slang : SUSPICIOUS

I used it in the 'jittery experience' context.

And I agree to the 'good riddance' thought!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Jeannie @ Sep 8 2006, 10:41 AM) [snapback]316448[/snapback]</div>

True, but on Wednesday I was on a road trip and I wanted some POIs set up. I used the voice command and after adding ski resorts (instead of gas stations or restaurants) and the like I ended up pulling over to the side of the road and looked over the manual to see how to do that manually. Easier than driving 40 miles to my computer, logging in and posting a question, that may or may not be answered.

It is easier on the computer as you may have a problem where you don't know where to look. PC has a better search feature than the manual, I admit.

 

Another 'advantage' of posting a question on PC is that when people answer the question, other people get to read the answer(s) - whether they need the information that instant or not. Then the answers are available on PC via the 'search' function when other people need the info!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Charles Suitt @ Sep 8 2006, 09:32 AM) [snapback]316404[/snapback]</div>

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Ichabod @ Sep 8 2006, 10:22 AM) [snapback]316433[/snapback]</div>

AND...chill, Charles! There is NO search function for the manual. And a LOT of topics one might EXPECT to find there ... aren't. Or they are called something other than what you search for. As a tech writer, yes, I PREFER people to RTFM, but know full well that they don't. AND...even when they do...do YOU have a photographic memory to locate where you saw WHATEVER in the FM? MY FM has more sticky bits than flypaper, but I can't always find what I KNOW is (or SHOULD BE) there. I've been using computers since the early 80s and have found that I can operate just about ANY program...IF I can figure out the syntax to plug into the search.

And, indeed, the FM is THERE and the computer is HERE. (Or one of the computers, anyway....)

 

I have a solution to the "can't search manual" problem. Go download it from http://techinfo.toyota.com. Then you can search the PDF at any time. When someone here has a question I usually just open my manual in adobe and do a search on the issue and in a few sec I have the solution.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Rufaro @ Sep 8 2006, 02:33 PM) [snapback]316616[/snapback]</div>

Oscar's repetitive advice that "[t]here's a great deal of helpful information in the Owner's Manual" is almost as useful as RichBoy's mantra recommending seeing your authorized Toyota dealer.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Rufaro @ Sep 8 2006, 04:33 PM) [snapback]316616[/snapback]</div>

And, if people in general universally read & relied on the manual there would be a lot fewer people posting to this forum.

Some of the most interesting questions I didn't even *think* to ask were asked by others & I benefitted from their curiosity. Most of us have, at some time or other.

Theforce, your idea, to d/l the manual was a good one but I wonder why this wouldn't be accessible in our library for this site. Would it be possible for you to upload it to the PriusChat File Library so we all could benefit from it without each one of us having to register with Toyota?