You can do IT is a regular feature of laterlife.com aimed at trying to help laterlife visitors make the most of Information Technology on or off the web.     

Jackie Sherman who runs the You can do IT Question & Answer section is an IT trainer and author. Jackie has spent her career in education and specialises in teaching IT to adults. Her courses for adults include such topics as MS Office, the Internet, e-mail and basic web page authoring.

Jackie has also written the four books shown here - you can find more details about these by clicking on the cover images above. Jackie has also been running a course specifically for over 50s.  

Via laterlife.com Jackie aims to particularly help those new to IT and the web to build up knowledge and confidence, so no question is too basic. At the same time she will cover Q&As for the more experienced user. 

So if you would like to ask a question of Jackie, why not email her jackie@laterlife.com

Or if you have discovered something which may be of interest to others in making the most of the web, then she would love to hear about that too jackie@laterlife.com

View previous editions of YoucandoIT for more useful Questions and Answers

July 2010

This month, I am going to introduce you to the Google Chrome browser. It is quite different from Internet Explorer and may be worth switching to. Download it by typing Chrome into the Google search box.

Here are some of the key features:

1. The Address box is ALSO a search box. This means that you can put any keywords into the box and you won't be told that "the website cannot be found"!

2. There are far fewer buttons than you may be used to. For help in using the software, press F1 or find the link on the Tools menu (showing a spanner).

3. Once you have visited a number of sites, clicking the New Tab at the top of the page (showing a plus + sign) will offer you thumbnail pictures of the sites to revisit. You can now just click an image rather than having to work through your Favourites listings.

4. To view your bookmarked pages, open the Tools menu and click the link to "Always show bookmarks bar" - or hold Ctrl and press 8. You will now see some of your bookmark folders at the top of the page and a small link to Other Bookmarks where you will find all your usual folders. These will have been imported from your previous browser.

 

5. Go to Bookmark Manager and click any folder to organise the bookmarked pages it contains. You can delete or rename them or drag them to a different folder. Make a new folder for future bookmarks by right clicking a top level folder and selecting Add Folder.

 

 

6. Add a bookmark quickly to the bottom of the list by clicking the Star button on the main toolbar next to the Address box.

7. To view pages in your History (recently visited sites) you need to click the History link on the Tools menu or hold Ctrl and press H. This will show you all the sites you have visited today or in the past few days.

8. On the Pages menu (the button showing a piece of paper) you will find the Find in page link. If you click this, you will display a box. Type in a keyword and you will be shown the first mention of it in the document text. Click the arrows to find subsequent examples of the word.

 

 

9. Also on the Page menu is the Zoom where you can increase the size of text on a web page. As an alternative press Ctrl plus ++.
10. As you browse, you will probably open several tabs as some pages will open in a new tab. To close any of these but NOT the browser, click the small cross next to the name of the tab. The cross will become coloured red as you hover the pointer over it. To close Chrome, click the main Close button in the top right hand corner.

 

11. When you are downloading a page, the arrow at the end of the Address box changes to a cross. This now becomes the Stop button if you want to cancel the download. Refresh is the circular arrow on the toolbar.

12. The old Internet Options is now labelled Options on the Tools menu. Here you can set a different home page and change other settings such as remembering passwords or completing online forms.

View previous editions of YoucandoIT for more useful Questions and Answers
 

For a wealth of books on the web and IT generally, visit Amazon and under the books section select Computers and Internet.

Don't forget to visit the general laterlife features section called laterlife interest