Help using library computers

Do you need help using email, viewing and printing photos from your digital camera, or scanning and saving documents?

Click the document links below to get advice about all of these services, including step-by-step instructions and pictures of the screens.

Although these guidance notes are aimed at people using our free library computers, they might also come in handy for computers you use elsewhere.

For more advice and computer courses, see getting started on computers.

Acrobat (PDF)
Using the accessibility wizard (78k) First try clicking 'Big Menu Fonts' on the People's Network screen - you might find selecting Larger Text Size from the View menu is enough for your needs. If you need more help, this document explains how to use the Accessibility Wizard to change the appearance of Windows if you have trouble seeing the text or mouse pointer clearly (1 page).
Frequently asked questions about using library computers (144k) Brief answers to some questions you may have. Please ask staff if the answer you need isn’t here (5 pages).
What can we do on these computers? (32k) Information about the features available on the library computers (1 page).
Saving files to CD (196k) How to save your files to a CD. There are two types – read-only (CDR) or re-writeable (CDR/W). CDRs can be bought at the library counter (4 pages).
Blocked files (103k) An explanation of why some files you try to download are blocked. See also 'Downloading i-Player or music files' (1 page).
Downloading i-Player or music files (67k) Gives advice on how to listen to or download BBC i-Player files and why you can’t download MP3 music files (1 page).
Setting up email (72k) General advice on how to set up any email account (2 pages).
Setting up Hotmail (71k) What to do if you want a Hotmail account for your email (1 page).
Using Hotmail (73k) How to use Hotmail to send and delete emails, and creating a list of contacts (1 page).
Printing in colour from PowerPoint, Publisher and PDF files (102k) Extra instructions for printing from these programmes to ensure your colour documents print properly (1 page).
Printing photo attachments (50k) How to print picture attachments in emails (1 page).
Printing pictures from your digital camera using the computer (122k) How to get files from your digital camera onto the computer to edit or print (1 page).
Using Picture Manager (354k) How to view, edit or print pictures (2 pages).
Using the scanner (181k) How to use the scanner to scan in pictures and send them as attachments via email (3 pages).
Scanning text and editing it (OCR scanning) (49k) How to scan in a text document and import it into Microsoft Word so you can make changes (1 page).
Ancestry Image Viewer (742k) How to use the Image Viewer on the Ancestry website to look at original records. (3 pages)