COMPUTERS (Intermediate)

This group is for those with some experience of computers. If you feel that you are a beginner, visit the Computers for Beginners page.

This group is really an 'intermediate computers' group, and it meets twice a month at St Ecgwins Club. Wi-fi is installed thus giving full internet and email access to anyone who brings their own laptop. We also have our lottery grant laptops which can be used by anyone who does not have a laptop of their own.

At each meeting we have either talks on topics of current interest, or software and hardware demonstrations, and on occasions the toolkits come out to fix hardware problems or to install upgrades

There is no single person responsible for these meetings as each member of the group brings their own expertise from which we all benefit. Nor is there any particular level of skill or knowledge required to join the group – just an interest in finding out how software and hardware works and a willingness to have a go.

When looking at software we keep a keen eye on software that is either free or cheaply available, for example, the free Open Office as a substitute for Microsoft Office and the Faststone photographic software as a substitute for the many paid for programs. Many currently expensive programs are obtained cheaply by purchasing the earlier versions still available from internet suppliers. We often find that small improvements in the current versions seldom justify paying the extra cost.

Past activities have included;
Fitting extra memory and bigger hard drives
Replacing failed power supplies,
Demonstrating new software,
Scanning in old photo slides and correcting the colour errors
Saving a photographic slide show to DVD to display on your TV
Converting old Long Playing records to CDs
Backing up and partitioning hard drives
Using shortcut keys to speed up your work
Investigating what is new in Windows 7

We have room in the group for 12 people, and there are vacancies. If you want further information please ring me on 765673.

Members showing off the Lottery Awards banner which was presented at the July U3A monthly meeting.

The award provided funds for Evesham U3A to buy equipment which is starting to be used by many groups including our own.