I am trying to save some of my tapes - anyone know how to transfer them to the laptop - I have got Audacity put no idea how to transfer

you will need a small 3.5mm jack to jack cable. connecto the phones output to the input of your sound card.
on your PC set all recording levels (audacity, and whichever input your using) to maximum and your walkman to zero.
start recording while playing your tape and slowly increse the walkman volume until recording levels on audacity reach close to 0Db making sure no peaking occurs.
once your levels are good, restart and record the full track. you have recorded the track, highlight the while wave and use the amplify effect to normalise the wave (make sure the allow clipping checkbox is NOT checked).
export the final wave to an mp3 for space saving.
hth

I keep getting the message - error occurred opening sound device check input device settings and project sample rate - I am new to all this so finding it very complicated

go to preferences and ensure your I/O devices are setup correctly.
read the audacity wiki (http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page) for more info

i have a cd recorder on my hifi which makes it easier :)
then i just rip the tapes to the puter as any other cd