Help

After consulting with patients, we have redesigned our website in order for it to be much more easy to use. However, we understand that you might not be a regular computer user, and you may have difficulties with certain things. Below are a few frequently-asked questions about the site - we hope they will answer your problems.

Many leaflets are in a 'PDF' format. What is this, and how can I read them?

A PDF is a file format that means documents can be read, but not changed. They are used across the Internet for leaflets, newsletters, and other readable documents. PDFs come with advantages, too - for example, they are extremely easy to read, to print, and to zoom in and out of.

If it is not already installed on your computer, we advise that you download the free 'Acrobat Reader' software. This software is almost as crucial as Internet Explorer for viewing many things on today's Internet. It is completely safe, and very easy to install and use. Please click here to download it.

What can I do if I cannot find what I am looking for on the site?

Although the UHSM website has been designed to be easy to navigate, you may still not be able to find what you need simply from clicking around the site. For that reason, we have built in a very powerful 'search' function available on every page.

If you look next to the UHSM logo at the top of the page, you will see a box. Just type in whatever you are searching for, for example 'Diabetes Centre', and it will list the pages on the site which include your search term, with the most accurate ones at the top - just like Google or similar search engines.

If the unlikely event that you cannot find what you are looking for via this method, you may have searched for something which isn't included on the site. Also, you may find that you have clicked on a link and it has not worked. If either of these things occur, please send an email to joe.paxton@uhsm.nhs.uk.

I can't read the text on the pages - can I make it larger?

We have used Arial, the font officially recognised as the most readable for people with visual imparements, for the website. However, we understand that you may still struggle to read the text. It is possible to increase the size of the text -

Internet Explorer users

Go to View > Text Size and select the appropriate font size e.g. larger.

Mozilla Firefox users

Go to View > Text Size and select the appropriate font size e.g. Increase, Decrease or Normal, or press 'Ctrl' and '+' together to increase the font size or 'Ctrl' and '-' to decrease the font size.

Netscape users

Go to View > Increase Font.

Is any text reader software available?

We are proud to say that we are among the very few organisations in the world to have purchased Textic software for our website. This is a revolutionary technology that can read pages and documents out loud, and even record this into audio files that can be listened to on portable mp3 players. It can also translate text into other languages.

This software is in the process of being added to the site, and will be available to use in the very near future.

My query is not listed here - what can I do now?

If your query is specifically about the website, please send an email to joe.paxton@uhsm.nhs.uk. For any other hospital-related query, please telephone UHSM's switchboard on 0161 998 7070.