Help Using Our Website

Help
Using the A-Z
Problems Viewing Javascript
Searching for Information
Competing Online Forms
Debit Card Payments
Adobe Acrobat Documents
Customising the way you view the site
Using Browsealoud - the text-to-speech software

Help

We hope you find it easy to navigate your way around the Oswestry Borough Website, please feedback any comments or suggestions for improvements that you may have. Online Website Feedback Form

You can move to different pages by using main categories on the menu bar on the left of each page. You can then click your mouse to go to the page containing the information.

The most popular way of navigating the Website is the A-Z. Simply select the initial letter of the service you require. Each A-Z page lists the services in alphabetical order and has useful explanatory text to help explain the facilities available beneath the link. The A-Z can be accessed directly from the navigation bar on every page.

Problems Viewing JavaScript

To enable JavaScript in Internet Explorer go to the 'Tools' menu and select 'Internet Options' then click on the 'Security' tab. Make sure the 'Internet' icon (with a globe) is highlighted in blue. Click the 'Custom Level' button down near the bottom. Scroll down to the section entitled 'Scripting' and ensure that under 'Active Scripting' the button labeled 'Enable' is checked. Click OK. You will need to click the refresh button on your browser (or press F5) for the change to take effect.

The process to enable JavaScript in other browsers varies.

Searching for Information

Type the word or phrase that describes what you are searching for into the search box, and click the 'Go' button The search engine will look through the Website and return a list of every page that contains the word or phrase you specified. To help narrow down your search you have the option to scan the site in advanced mode, preform a normal search before using this option. The search box can be found above the menu on the left hand of every Webpage.

Completing Online Forms

Our online forms software enables you to interact with the Council services though the internet. This can be anything from reporting a breach of planning regulations to requesting a new brown bin. Where available, links to the appropriate forms will appear on a page under the "Online Forms" section. At this moment, most forms can be completed without the need to register on our system, however, as this system develops, you will be able to log on and monitor the status of your request.

Debit Card Payments

You can make a debit card payment using our online payment facility.You will be required to provide your personal details, details of the account you wish to make a payment for, plus your card details. Your details are submitted over a secure server which means that the transaction is encrypted from the moment it leaves your PC until it reaches our server. The transaction is validated on-line and the money will be taken by the bank within 24 hours.

View Oswestry Borough Council Payments Page

Adobe Acrobat Documents

Viewing Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Documents. Each link to a PDF document is identified by the PDF logo. The file size of the document will be displayed in some links. If you cannot view Acrobat documents you can download the free Adobe Reader here. You can also view our "Help with PDF" page for further information on using Adobe Reader & its built-in functions on our site.

Customising the way you view the site

If you experience difficulty reading the text on our Website, you may want to alter the size. To increase text size you need to change a setting on your internet browser or, for those who have a scroll wheel on their mouse, hold down the CTRL button on your keyboard and scroll up or down to change the size of the page you are viewing. For more information, please view our page on altering Text Size.

Using Browsealoud - the text-to-speech software

By installing a simple free download on your computer, you can have the text on our web pages and some documents read out loud. This can be a huge help to those with visual impairments, dyslexia, literacy difficulties or have English as a second language.

You can download this by using the link below, or by clicking on the Browsealoud image at the bottom of all the pages on this site.

For more help, the Browsealoud Video Tour explains the functionality of Browsealoud. Click on the link or image below to view: