How did you learn how to use computer fluently?

[mumtumsillybilly]

What I mean is I have always worked in a shop so I've never really had to be very good at using computers but I'm only 43. I'd like eventually to be able to get a basic office type job but without taking a course I'm not sure how did make that move. I know this is going to sound absurd to 99% of people on here but I'm just not very good I mean I can send emails from my phone and shop on line but if I was set in an office chair I just wouldn't really have an idea how to fluently use the computer in front of me. Am I totally alone?

You are not alone!

I’m 45 and have hardly any computer skills,I don’t have to use one at work (I work in the Arts).

I think we’re in that weird age bracket,we didn’t use them at school/Uni but are still quite young so people expect everyone of our age to be proficient!

I just use my iPhone mostly. I do my accounts on a spreadsheet excel thing that my accountant sends me but I find it stressful.

Do you have a handy 5 year old that could teach you? If not, there's bound to be a night class you could sign up for.

The thing is if you come across something you don't know how to do, you can just Google it.
If you can send emails, do internet shopping and use a smart phone you have some good basic skills there already. Did you use Teams over lockdown? If not download it and just call DH on it.... then bingo! 'proficient in teams' Definitely look into Microsoft courses, there's loads of free stuff about as well as great YouTube tutorials. I'm no whizz, all self taught, most people are in the basics then they maybe progress to do advance courses if their role requires it.

I built them from scratch for friends who specified what they wanted and paid for the bits

Good old days of DOS 6 and Windows 3.1 oh and 14.4K modems for the internet 😳😳👍

Do you have a women’s centre locally? They often have beginner computer courses.

I’m 30, we had a family pic with dial up from being about 4 or 5. I’ve always had smartphones and a laptop. Think I got a laptop when I started secondary. An ibm thinkpad lol. It’s basically just using them a lot. It becomes second nature

Family PC that should say

I learned on the job, I'm 51 and started office work at 16. I'm computer literate now. I remember when the internet came to be. In my day we had one computer between 10 of us and a micro film thing! Oh and a fax thing.
If you want to learn now, I suggest an evening class or library class.

Can you use YouTube? I've learnt loads of stuff of there to enhance my skills, I learned excel and PowerPoint by watching various tutorial videos and practising. I paise the video step by step and go through it a few times

I am three years younger than you and learned in school. I am quite surprised you didn’t?

I learned at school in the 1980’s, a green screen, we actually did some programming. Then I worked in library and information services in higher education from the 1990’s which was at the forefront of having access to the internet.

Your local library or community college should offer courses, probably totally free.

download a 10 finger typing learning programme.

what's probably useful for office jobs is word and excel.

possibly outlook.

sharepoint (a document storage and sharing platform)

possibly gsce maths (if you don't have that already). that will help with basic formula calculations in excel.

agree, librabry is probably a good starting point for basic courses.

good luck!