Digital Literacy Quick-Start Eight short walkthroughs for the online steps that benefits, housing, court, and job applications now require

An email address is free, takes about ten minutes, and does not require an address, a phone, or an ID. Gmail (from Google) and Outlook (from Microsoft) are the two most widely accepted. Either is fine. The library computers listed further down have both.

1. Open the internet browser on the computer or phone. Type gmail.com in the bar at the very top and press Enter.
2. Choose Create account, then For my personal use.
3. Type a first and last name. It does not have to be formal, but if you will use this for job or benefit applications, your real name is easier for a caseworker to match to your file.
4. Pick a username. This becomes the part before the @. Plain is better than clever — a hiring manager and a case manager will both see it. If your first choice is taken, add numbers that are not your birth year.
5. Make a password you can actually remember. Length beats complexity: three unrelated words strung together is both easier to remember and harder to break than a short jumble of symbols.
6. Write the address and password down on paper and keep the paper somewhere separate from your phone and wallet. This is the single most common place people get stuck later.
7. If it asks for a recovery phone number or a second email, you can usually choose Skip. If you have a working phone number, adding it makes it much easier to get back in if you forget the password.

Public computers are safe to use for private business as long as you close the door behind you. Three habits do almost all of the work.

1. Say no to “Save password.” If a box slides in offering to remember your password, choose Never or Not now. On a shared machine, saving it hands your account to the next person.
2. Use a private window when you can. In Chrome or Edge, press Ctrl + Shift + N; in Firefox, Ctrl + Shift + P. A private window forgets your sign-in when you close it. It does not hide you from the library or your employer — it just does not leave your account logged in.
3. Sign out before you walk away. Click your initial or picture in the top-right corner and choose Sign out. Closing the tab alone does not always do it.
4. Log off the computer itself at the end, and take anything you printed off the printer.

An attachment is just a file riding along with the message. The paper clip icon is the whole trick.

1. Open your email and choose Compose (Gmail) or New mail (Outlook).
2. In the To line, type the address exactly — one wrong letter and it silently goes nowhere.
3. In Subject, write what it is and who you are: Pay stubs — Maria Lopez, case 12345. Caseworkers handle hundreds of messages; a clear subject line gets yours found.
4. Click the paper clip icon at the bottom of the message.
5. A window opens showing your files. Click the file you want, then Open. If you just took a photo on a phone, look under Photos, Gallery, or Recent.
6. Wait for the file name to appear inside the message with a small bar finishing. If you press Send before that bar finishes, the file does not go.
7. Write one line in the message body so it does not look like spam, then Send.
8. Check your Sent folder and open the message. If you can see the attachment there, they can see it too.

A clear phone photo is accepted almost everywhere. Most rejections are about the photo, not the document.

1. Put the paper on a flat, dark surface — a table, a car seat, a backpack. Dark behind white paper makes the edges obvious.
2. Stand so your own shadow is not falling on the page. Daylight near a window or a doorway beats indoor light.
3. Hold the phone directly above, parallel to the paper, and get all four corners inside the frame. A cut-off corner is the single most common reason a document gets rejected.
4. Take the photo. Then open it and read the smallest print on it. If you cannot read it, they cannot either — take it again closer.
5. One page per photo. Multi-page documents get one photo each, all attached to the same email.
6. Attach it using step 3, or upload it using step 6.

Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet all work the same way: someone sends you a link, and clicking it at the right time is most of the job.

1. Find the link before the day of. It is in the email or text as a long blue web address, usually with a meeting ID and sometimes a passcode. Write the ID and passcode on paper as a backup.
2. Join five to ten minutes early. Click the link. If it asks whether to download an app or continue in the browser, continue in the browser — it is faster and works on library computers where you cannot install anything.
3. The browser will ask for permission to use the camera and microphone. Choose Allow. Without this, you join and nobody can hear you.
4. You may land in a waiting room until the host lets you in. That is normal. Do not leave and rejoin repeatedly.
5. Find the microphone and camera icons at the bottom. A line through the icon means it is off. Stay muted until it is your turn to speak.
6. If your internet is weak, turn your camera off and keep audio only. Sound is what matters.

Uploading is attaching, just on a website instead of in an email. The button is usually labelled Upload, Choose file, Browse, or Add document.

1. Sign in to the portal and find the section named something like Documents, Verifications, or Upload proof.
2. Some portals ask you to pick what the document is first — proof of income, proof of identity. Pick the closest match; if nothing fits, pick Other rather than giving up.
3. Click Choose file, find your photo (usually under Photos, Downloads, or Recent), and select it.
4. Look for the second button. Choosing the file is not the same as sending it. Almost every portal needs a separate Upload or Submit click afterward. This is the step people miss.
5. Wait for a confirmation — a checkmark, a green bar, a reference number, or the file appearing in a list. Screenshot or write down that confirmation number.
6. If the page freezes or times out, do not assume it failed and do not send it fifteen times. Sign back in and look at the document list to see whether it landed.

You do not need to be technical to catch these. Nearly all of them break at least one of four rules.

1. Real agencies do not demand payment in gift cards, cryptocurrency, or wire transfer. Not one. If anyone asks for a Green Dot card, an Apple or Walmart gift card number, or a Zelle transfer to hold a benefit, an apartment, or a job, it is a scam every time.
2. Urgency is the tell. “Your case closes today,” “a warrant will be issued in one hour,” “three other people want this unit.” Rushing you past thinking is the entire technique. Real deadlines arrive in writing with time to act.
3. Do not click the link in the message — go to the site yourself. If a text says your benefits card is locked, do not tap it. Type the agency's real address into the browser, or call the number on the back of the card or on your paperwork.
4. Nobody legitimate needs your password. Not a caseworker, not tech support, not the housing office. A one-time code texted to you is also a password — if someone asks you to read them a code, hang up.

Everything in this section is either free or low-cost, and none of it requires an address of your own. Details were checked against each operator's own website on September 8, 2026 — call ahead anyway.