Computer tutorials for absolute beginners

janetmw

Hello

Quite a long shot, but does anyone have any links to tuorials/instructions on how to start using a computer for absolute beginners!

We are about to pass on a redundant computer to my in-laws.

For a few years they have had a very basic grasp of and use of a Bush Internet TV box mainly for emails.

We hope to set the computer up over a weekend and get them registered for with a PAYG internet account. The desktop has been well and truly 'decluttered' leaving big obvious icons for Email and Internet.

We have a fairly advanced computer expertise, so it is hard to comprehend that terms like 'left click', right click', 'drop and drag', etc. will need explaining in great detail. As we live 200 miles away, I can see the 'phone lines will be red hot for a while. We also hope that we can persuade them to enrol for a basic course at their local college.

We have already set up 'Remote Assistance', but a certain level of understanding will be needed before we can even get that far!

Any suggestions for suitable sites will be welcome.

Many thanks in advance

Janet Watkins

wurzelsar

They could ask at their local library about the free Learndirect courses which they could do at home.

They have a course for absolute beginners called "Switch On", and it assumes that the learner has no computer experience whatsoever,and once they have completed that there are many other courses which they can still access for free which cover the internet, word processing etc.......

A lot of the work can be done at home or in a designated Learndirect class which may be at your local library.

In our town, the Learndirect class have learners aged from 40 to 82 years of age.

harryhound

Hi,

We as a family tried this with my in-laws BUT she had convinced herself it was all too complicated; he did some classes but never really got a grip.

The poor old computer now sits in his "study" with a pile of mail on top of it, obviously unused for months.

When we are little kids we learn to talk because we are just bursting to say something. We were motivated.
Looking back, the real problem was getting them to understand that there is a whole new world in cyberspace and they can find something out there to fire their determination. It could be Email to the children/siblings in foreign climes. Chatting with like minded individuals such as MSE's (!) even doing the tax return !

If they cannot be motivated it won't work.

The other problem is internet access. Every site is designed now on the assumption that the user has broadband at about 3Mbps so dial up is a nastier experience now than it was in 1998. Broadband also allows them to ask advice on the phone at the same time as using the PC.

Finally, when they do something that you would think of as stupid - tip a cup of coffee into the keyboard, unplug it all for spring cleaning without labelling the cables etc. is there an intelligent 12 year old to help out ?

Quite frankly, I recommended that they got up to speed by cultivating their local library classes and only then instal their own kit.
However this was 4 years ago and I was judging by our standards of 7 day a week library access, computers supplied by Bill and Melinda's charity (there are some advantages in living in a socially deprived area here in S.Essex) and inlaws had retired to Dorset and when I tried their library, the computer service was rubbish in comparison.

Anyway good luck, let us know how you get on.

Harry

PS He has managed to upgrade the telly to NTL (!) but has given up on the PC.

toasterman

Sometimes I wonder if a mac is an easier starting point for someone who has no experience and little inclination to learn.

Something like an imac has everything built into the one screen - so you can't accidentally unplug the monitor. The keyboard and mouse (on the new models) runs off bluetooth so you can't unplug those by accident or be confused about how to plug them back in.

The older style mice with the one button meant there was no worrying about whether to left or right click, and theres no double click at all on a mac if i recall (i only dabble - i don't actually own one)...just click once.

Theres much lower risk of viruses, almost no chance of malware, and you don't have to worry about installing anything. If all you want is internet and email, it comes preinstalled and ready to use pretty much.
You'd have to setup a dial up connection no matter what you had...if that was the route you were going down.
Broadband with a preconfigured router wouldn't require changes to pc or mac.

sambo31

How about this i gave this to my mom when she first had her pc.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/webwise/course/

Or this one.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/computertutor/computertutorone/index.shtml

harryhound

toasterman wrote: »

Sometimes I wonder if a mac is an easier starting point for someone who has no experience and little inclination to learn.

Something like an imac has everything built into the one screen - so you can't accidentally unplug the monitor. The keyboard and mouse (on the new models) runs off bluetooth so you can't unplug those by accident or be confused about how to plug them back in.

The older style mice with the one button meant there was no worrying about whether to left or right click, and theres no double click at all on a mac if i recall (i only dabble - i don't actually own one)...just click once.

Theres much lower risk of viruses, almost no chance of malware, and you don't have to worry about installing anything. If all you want is internet and email, it comes preinstalled and ready to use pretty much.
You'd have to setup a dial up connection no matter what you had...if that was the route you were going down.
Broadband with a preconfigured router wouldn't require changes to pc or mac.

Good point toasterman, everytine I have to use a PC, the first thing I do is change double click to hover & click, so that the Microsoft stuff feels like the web. Then I forget to change it back again and its owner gets really upset !

I just cannot understand it but I suppose it is like the QWERTY keyboard, once you have struggled to learn it the last thing you want to know is that this hard learned skill is now obsolete.

Another thought is "thin client": why clutter up your own box with files and software, that you have to maintain and upgrade, when some large organisation is prepared to do those chores for you. This particularly applies to Web mail - sign up the oldies with Google or Hotmail or Yahoo etc. and they can always get at their Emails.
But no, most people love their Outlook Express.

Harry.

PS
I was in the library the other day, when I got into converstion with a merry widow on an adjacent terminal. She had tracked down an old boy friend (the curse of Friends Reunited ?) and he had sent her some photos but had misguidedly zipped them. The librarian did not understand the situation so I had to help her get them into a viewable condition. There was a powerful motivation !

david.harland1

http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/
try this site good reference and basic help for word any users

nickj_2

have you looked at the windows for dummies book , they are fairly straight forward to get to grips with

rogerpine

you could try this web site ,cost nothing and I have found it very useful as I am not perfect but manage to do most things.
http://newbieclub.com

opportunity_cost

On the subject of remote assistance, the best thing I've ever used is UltraVNC and, in particular, its SingleClick tool. Windows' Remote Assistance works ok but some less "savvy" users have trouble with the somewhat cumbersome 'Help and Support/Invite a Friend/Send Email' way of getting help in Remote Assistance. SingleClick has been a god-send for me. I give them the link, they download and run the small file and I get access to their desktop. No need for the user at the other end to mess around with IPs, passwords or anything else that may prompt them to give up before you can even start helping them. This is the article I came across one day that taught me about the joys of UltraVNC:
http://ajaxtricks.blogspot.com/2005/11/put-geeksquad-out-of-business.html

toasterman

harryhound wrote: »

Good point toasterman, everytine I have to use a PC, the first thing I do is change double click to hover & click, so that the Microsoft stuff feels like the web. Then I forget to change it back again and its owner gets really upset !
<snip>
Another thought is "thin client": why clutter up your own box with files and software, that you have to maintain and upgrade, when some large organisation is prepared to do those chores for you. This particularly applies to Web mail - sign up the oldies with Google or Hotmail or Yahoo etc. and they can always get at their Emails.
But no, most people love their Outlook Express.

Argh. It's the likes of YOU that change it to 1-click. You people make me sick.
To be honest, the only reason it annoys me is because I can't then work out how to do things like select 3 files from a folder.
In 2-click mode, you hold ctrl and left click each.
You're right though - 1-click should be better, and you wouldn't get RSI.

And gmail is fantastic. I do wish I could sort things into folders a bit easier, but it is very easy to find your mail regardless. And I can check it on my mobile phone too. And the way it organises everything into 'conversations' so you can find the email you sent to Bob as well as the ones he sent you.. brilliant.
I do download it to my pc as well though (but leave it online in case I need access from somewhere else) - and Thunderbird is better than Outlook Express. Built in phishing and spam filters, one click to mark mail read/unread. And when I fancy trying out Linux for the 3rd time this year, I can use the same mail client on both.