Been to visit some relatives who live right out in the sticks today, was trying to explain the internet to my father in law. Hes mildly interested in getting going with the web but cant grasp it really. Am going to post (snail mail ) some pages that I have printed off so that should appeal to him.
But how would you explain it to someone whos never used it?
.

Dragon

The Readers Digest 'How to do just about anything on a PC (XP Edition)' has helped my mum (who's 61 yrs young) no end on the web.

She's learned to send email using outlook, surf and book a holiday all from this book. This coming from a woman who found it VERY difficult to set the video or stop the flashing zero's in the past.

Well worth the £25 I paid for it :thumbsup:

For tha info, will get it ordered. Might do away with some 2 hr phone calls eh? tight git that I am

The best way is to get him on it, then show them, in real time.

My mother is 66 (still working too) and I've had her happily following instructions of the START>RUN>REGEDIT...... kind

I just wonder how if I'd nicked something as a kid, she'd have clipped me round the ear'ole but she's happily downloading Lanza, crosby and sinatra on P2P networks to her heart's content (with peerguardian on, and a firewall blocking known Recording industry IP's, naturally)

She's now got the eBay bug too.

All this was acheived by taking her down to PC World. Whilst not the best place for the new buyer to go, our combination of my knowledge of her needs, and her bartering skills, we battered the poor 16yo saturday-boy until we got an unbeatable deal on something with good enough spec to be upgradeable for a while yet.

A couple hours on 2 or 3 subsequent visit, showing her different things (and a long support session when the MS Blaster annoyance appeared) and she's reasonably competant behind a keyboard

I think she wants a digital camera/camcorder now, so a lesson in the finer arts of Photoshop and Premiere are due....

My grandparents (both in their 80's) went to some free sessions at their local community centre, and now happily surf and e-mail away!

Radio Sheffield has its 'Open Centre' that seems to specialise in this sort of thing.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/southyorkshire/fun/360/bbc_opencentre_new.shtml