Computers - love them, hate them

Sitting alongside a novice while they got started with a new laptop today reminded me how confusing things must be if your knowledge is very limited. The first instruction in the very brief manual told them to go to the start menu. Fine if you are still using XP because there's a big button at the bottom left that has the Windows logo and the word start but on Windows 7 there's a big round button with no words. How does anyone know to go there rather than anywhere else on the screen?

But this site is about learning German so where might you go for computer and information technology language. I've already mentioned the TV series neues (see my post Computers, Internet and Politics) but if you're after a website to keep up to date then try heise online I have also come across NetComputer Lernen (NCL) which is an association of senior citizens offering advice and training. Perhaps we need more like that in the UK.

For free online videos on computer issues go to PC User Video This really is a significant video portal offering access to hundreds of videos. Why didn't I look at the video on Windows 7 before now?

You could also try some of the online stores for more vocabulary e.g. pc-superstore.de or http://www.dell.de/

A source I quite like is the online presence of a magazine CD_Austria because you can use there archive to view magazine articles in full. They also have some tutorial material that you can download. An example is Microsoft Word für Einsteiger and you can download it as a PDF file Step by step instructions are always a useful language learning aid.