removing index.php (docs are kinda sucky for this)

[eluser]codeamanny[/eluser]
I have been trying to follow the docs and have hit walls the whole way

In the docs it says

removing the index.php file

By default, the index.php file will be included in your URLs:
www.your-site.com/index.php/news/article/my_article

You can easily remove this file by using a .htaccess file with some simple rules. Here is an example of such a file, using the "negative" method in which everything is redirected except the specified items:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond $1 !^(index\.php|images|robots\.txt)
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php/$1 [L]

In the above example, any HTTP request other than those for index.php, images, and robots.txt is treated as a request for your index.php file.

But it doesn't say the following:

where you should put the .htaccess file ( I put it into my apps folder)
however everytime I post a form, the index.php comes back. I have tried to remove the index.php using the $config option, however all my forms then post to the correct url, however it just goes to 404 errors!

Can someone help?
however