Jargon-free guide to the tricks of a tablet
TABLETS, such as Apple’s iPad and Samsung’s Android range, have become very popular over the past few years.
They used to sound like something from Star Trek — portable devices that you just touch to operate and can even talk to!
But now they’re everywhere — and with good reason.
They’re by far the easiest way to access the internet, send and read emails, keep in touch with far-flung friends and relatives, even make video phone calls for free.
Of course you could do all that on a ‘traditional’ PC or laptop, but a tablet is far more portable — take it to the cafe or park, curl up on the sofa with it or even take it out into the garden. Plus tablets are easier to use than PCs.
Instead of fiddling about with a keyboard and mouse you can simply touch the screen to tell it what to do.
It’s not all quite that simple, though. You see, most people find tablets easier to use once they have been shown how. There are ‘gestures’ and tricks that make using a tablet easy, but you’d never guess them and you can’t work them out — you need to be shown.
There are lots of features and useful bits hidden away on the tablet, as well. Unless you know they’re there, you’d have little chance of stumbling across them.
Even if there are things you’re managing to do, there might be easier, simpler ways to do it that you’d never know about unless someone told you — and ideally showed you, nice and simply.
Of course, if the devices came with a proper manual, it’d be fine. But usually you’re lucky to get a page or two telling you how to plug it in!
That’s where a popular guide published in the Lake District comes in. It doesn’t assume you’re an expert or a techie. It takes things from the start and explains them step by step.
It is written in plain English for the less technical, with plenty of illustrations to show what the screen will look like and where to tap.
More than 50,000 people have used these clear guides. An information pack explains how to tell which type of tablet a customer has, to make sure they get the right book, which is only available direct from the publisher.