You can do IT in later life

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 several books - you can find more details about these by clicking here. 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, 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. Why not email her jackie@laterlife.com

LATERLIFE SEPTEMBER 2006

In case some of you have not tried it yet, I want to explain how to book a train ticket easily using the Internet.

1. Go to the National Rail website http://www.nationalrail.co.uk 
2. On the opening page, enter details of your start and destination stations and select a date and an approximate time for the train to leave or arrive. If you want a return, put both sets of dates and times in the boxes before clicking the Plan Journey button.

3. When the results appear, check for the most convenient journey e.g. with fewer changes or arriving earlier, or click the buttons to see earlier or later trains.

4. Now click the View Details link to see these journeys in more detail and find out which train company is involved. You need this detail when purchasing tickets.

5. Use your Back button to return to the summary and then enter the details at the bottom of the screen to find out how much tickets will cost and if there are any available for the journeys you want to take. If you have a railcard, make sure you select the correct type from the drop-down list in the box.

6. Check the details very carefully – for many journeys there are huge discounts on early bookings – in this case a return ticket can be ?70 rather than ?320! If there is no special offer for the journey you select, try one leaving earlier or later to save money.

 

7. Click in the circle option for the journeys you have chosen and then click the Purchase Tickets button. You will be offered a Vendors box so can now select the carrier you noted earlier. Click the purchase button again and this will take you to the company website where you can make your online purchase using a credit or debit card.

8. If you have booked early enough, you can reserve seats and have the tickets posted to your home so that you don't even have to wait in a queue or use the ticket machine at the station.

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