The present invention relates to a method for operating a navigation system comprising the following method steps: a) calculating a route from a point of departure to a destination, said route being composed of a succession of route segments and junctions between the route segments and being selected by means of a route calculation process from a database in which a geographical region is described by route segments and junctions; b) calculating at least one maneuvering instruction which contains instructions for the user to follow the route starting from the current position; c) optically and/or acoustically outputting the maneuvering instruction in an output device, wherein prior to and/or during the calculation and/or prior to and/or during the output of the maneuvering instruction, a configuration file is read and interpreted by an interpretation module, and wherein configuring preset data for calculating and/or outputting the maneuvering instruction are stored in the configuration file.