No problem, glad it helped, Simon.
To answer your questions.
The battery will last a reasonable amount of time, out of the cradle. How long will depend on how much you are using the device when it’s it’s not being powered. Think of it like a torch. The battery in that will last for months, even years, if you only use it occasionally. What though you will find is that the XT ‘times out’. What does that mean? It means that it shuts down into a sleep mode after a while, if the device is left on but not used, when out of the cradle. This can be a bit annoying if you are doing something, put it down to talk to someone or just look out of the window and it goes to sleep. You can alter the time out periods from within settings. Try it, it won’t blow up and you can always put it back to where it was. I use the function a lot if I am using my device to create a bespoke route, when I am also looking at a map or when I am fiddling with other bods’ devices at the same time.
https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/web...UID-4C97EE8C-2FE0-407B-A46C-58A06752E93C.html
Another useful trick to save the battery when it’s out of the powered cradle, is to switch it fully off, rather than it just resting in sleep mode.
https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/web...UID-BE66547E-AE97-45E0-891D-F8ADB2983BC5.html
This saves battery life but it won’t save it indefinitely. It has the slight disadvantage in that the restart from ‘Full off’ requires the device to wake up, get out bed and then hit the bathroom, as it were. This is a little bit longer than it just getting up from dozing in the chair. Try it, it won’t break.
Using the back button. As you have discovered, the back button takes you back, screen by screen, rather like turning the pages in a book. You can though go back to the Home Screen in one hit, if you press and hold the back arrow.
https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/web...UID-F02C32D7-90EA-4F39-95B1-C60D6702B94D.html
Try it, you can’t break it.
Like anything, the more you use it, the more you remember how to do things. I long ago gave up trying to learn everything at once. You know how to use cameras, with all the F stops and speed setting and ISO settings and can do it in your sleep. I forget and have to think what to do with a powerful camera. I don’t (or at least not very often) have to stop and think about GPS devices. We are the same really, just with different things.
One tip. If the device has been out of the cradle for some time, its battery WILL go flat. The quickest way to charge it is to do it via its USB lead and the house mains. Knowing this, I dug out a spare USB lead. One lead, I leave plugged in on my office desk, ready to use. The second I keep in a bag with other electrical goodies (plug adapters, leads for the phone etc etc). This means I don’t have to disconnect (and maybe forget) the damned USB lead each time. I can pick up the device and the bag and just waltz out of the door for my jaunt, knowing that I can deal with ALL my electrical items in one go, when I am away. Similarly, I have one lead which just stays in the car and one on my bike. It adds a couple of pounds cost but the time saved, not hunting for leads, pays for itself.
What’s the most useful things I have bought, besides a decent charging brick thing? Good quality long USB leads and the SKROSS plug adaptor. The latter is not cheap but it is very good quality, way better than the cheap Chinese copies. I bought one Chinese copy, which had naked live terminal metal, when the pins were extended…. A potential killer if you are unlucky. I smashed it with a lump hammer, which at least made me feel better. I think I have owned my SKROSS and a couple of their other adaptors for at least 20 years. They are as good today as they were when I bought them. Well made! If you see someone selling a genuine one, snap it up or hit the wife’s piggy bank.
https://www.skross.com/en