Please check to see if your query is answered here before contacting us for help. This comprehensive help section details the solutions to the most common problems that users experience on our site and provides answers to the most frequently asked questions.
I would like to register on the site but I’m unable to see the 'Register' button
Unfortunately, some browser versions do not fully support all functionality of the NHS Resource Centre. You can register on the site by clicking here.
Why do I have to register with my NHS email address?
The NHS Resource Centre website is a “closed community” portal for NHS employees and Microsoft only. For this reason all NHS members will be asked to register with their NHS email address to identify them as NHS staff. No personal email addresses will be allowed to register (e.g. hotmail, yahoo, gmail, aol etc.).
I work for the NHS but don’t have an email address in my role
Most employees of the NHS are entitled to an NHS email address through NHSmail. Please contact the NHSmail team directly on helpdesk@nhs.net or 0845 300 8453.
I'm trying to register on the site but the page won’t open and I get an 'Error – page cannot be displayed' message
The registration page is probably being blocked by your trust’s firewall (it is the same registration page as hotmail and so is sometimes blocked by trusts for this reason). You need to ask your IT team to allow you to access the page - they will be able to do so easily.
I'm entering my NHS email address and password but am unable to access the site
You need to access the NHS Resource Centre using a Windows Live ID not your NHS login credentials. If you already have a Windows Live ID set up using your personal email address, you can use this and then add your NHS email address when required to the site registration page. If you don’t have a Windows Live ID you will need to create a new one, and you can do so by using your NHS email address and creating a password of your choice.
What is a Windows Live ID?
A Windows Live ID is a single sign-on service that enables users to log in to different Microsoft websites using just one account. Find out more here
How do I assign my NHS email address to my existing Windows Live ID?
From any page on the NHS Resource Centre scroll down to the grey bar at the bottom of the page and click on Manage your Windows Live Profile. Then click on My personal information and where it shows your email address, change this to your NHS email address and click to update. You will receive a verification message from Microsoft and will be able to sign into the site with your usual windows live ID, which does not change and will not be affected.
How do I create a new Windows Live ID?
On the Sign up for a Windows Live ID web page you need to use your NHS email address and create a password. You will then receive a confirmation email that your Windows Live ID has been created and you can then use this to register on the NHS Resource Centre.
I’ve used my hotmail address for my Windows Live ID and I now get an error message when logging in saying ‘You have not entered a valid NHS email address’
I’ve registered on the site but I haven’t received the confirmation email
First check that the confirmation email has not ended up in your junk email. Alternatively, please check with your IT department as it’s likely that your trust’s anti-spam filter is blocking the confirmation email. You need to ask them to allow the email through.
I’m unable to sign into the NHS Resource Centre as my e-mail verification limit has been exceeded
Verification emails are only sent 3 times. If you haven’t received them it is likely that your trust’s anti-spam filter is blocking them or they have gone into your junk mail. Check with your IT department and ask them to let the verification emails through. If you are unable to access any of the verification emails that were sent out, you will need to start again and re-register on the site with a different email address.
I work for the NHS in Northern Ireland and when I try to register on the site I get an error saying ‘email address is not valid’ or ‘incorrect sign-in’
NHS users in Northern Ireland are unable to access the NHS Resource Centre site and its benefits. This is because the Health & Social Care Authority in Northern Ireland does not have an enterprise licensing agreement with Microsoft. The NHS Resource Centre is a benefit of the enterprise licensing agreement that the NHS in England, Scotland and Wales have in place with Microsoft.
I’m a retired NHS employee – can I register on the site?
Unfortunately only current NHS employees with a valid NHS email address can access the site and associated benefits.
If you were unable to find the solution to your problem in this Help section, please contact us for further assistance.
Customising your homepage
Once you’re registered on the site you can customise the homepage content to suit your preferences by moving and adding boxes as required. You can drag and drop boxes into the positions you prefer, collapse them to take up less room and edit how many items are shown within them by clicking the edit link at the top. By clicking the plus sign next to ‘Customise your homepage’ in the navigation panel at the top of the page, you can add further boxes containing information personalised and relevant to you.
What’s my profile and why do I need it?
When you register on the NHS Resource Centre website the first thing you should do is set up your profile. This will display the NHS organisation you work within, your name, email address and job role, and is also your personal area where the contributions you make to the community will be displayed. You can also fill in some general information about yourself and choose a personal WeeMee avatar to represent you. Completing your profile will enable your colleagues, peers and friends to find you and contact you.
How do I search for people – friends, colleagues and my peers within other NHS organisations?
You can quickly and easily search for other community members in the People section. Click the People tab in the navigation panel at the top of the page and this section displays all registered users. If you are not a registered user, you will not be able to perform a people search within the NHS and will only have visibility of Microsoft registered users. Once you have registered as a member you will be able to search within this section to find out who else has joined.
Currently you can search people by:
- Organisation (NHS, Microsoft)
- The date when a registered user first joined (last 7, 30 or 365 days)
- Newest members or oldest members
How do I contribute an article?
Once you have registered on the NHS Resource Centre website you can easily contribute your own articles and review and add comments to other articles.
Once you have signed in you can contribute an article in a number of ways:
- Contribute link - click on the "Contribute" link found on the top right hand side in the Your Stats section, just above Edit content. From here just click on "Write an article" to begin!
- Articles tab - here, you will find a box on the right hand side entitled “Write your own article”. Just click the link inside the box to start.
- Your profile page - in the "My articles" section, just click on the link "Create an article" to start.
Writing and publishing your articles:
Writing an article couldn’t be simpler, in fact it is much like writing a document in Microsoft Word, as the tools you have available are very similar, just more limited.
Click on the blank document to start writing. To enhance the style of your writing you can bold certain areas, italicise and underline and choose headings and subheading styles using the drop-down menu in the Style box.
If you need to save your article and come back to it later, just click ‘Save as draft’ at the bottom of the page.
When you have finished writing your article, you can click ‘Preview’ to see how it will look once it is published on the website. If you’d like to change it at this point, just click on ‘Save and continue editing’. Once you are happy with it just click ‘Publish’ and it will go into the moderation queue (What is moderation?).
Important! When writing articles you must add a title and tags as you won’t be able to publish without them (What are tags?). The more tags you add (within reason), the easier it will be for other members to find your article and read it. Just make sure that your tags are as specific as possible. For example, using a generic tag such as NHS will not get your article maximum exposure on the website.
How do I contribute a tip?
When you have registered and signed in you can contribute a tip in a number of ways:
Contribute link - click on the “Contribute” link found on the top right hand side in the Your Stats section, just above Edit content. From here just click on “Share a tip” to begin!
You will be able to write tips in exactly the same way as you would an article as the document editing options and layout remain the same. Once again do remember to add a title to your tip and tag it accordingly, so that your peers can find it more easily when performing searches on the website.
Go to "How do I contribute an article" to find out more.
How do I contribute an event?
Site members can view and add details about upcoming events. If you are aware of an event that is likely to appeal to your fellow colleagues then why not add it to this section of the site, it is a great way to connect with potential attendees.
To add an event you must first make sure that you have registered to use the site. Enter the events section by clicking the tab on the main navigation panel and then click to post an event on a particular day. Alternatively, you can click on the contribute link on the top right hand side of the page in the Your Stats section.
Fill out the event details making sure times and dates are accurate. Please note that events cannot be added after the time has elapsed.
Saving, editing, previewing and publishing content
Saving
When writing content you can save it while you are writing and continue to edit the article by clicking the ‘Save as draft and continue editing’ tab at the bottom of the page. Alternatively, if you’re happy with your article/tip/event, but feel that you want to re-visit it before submitting it for publication, you can save the draft and find it again later in your profile or in the Edit Your Content link at the top of every page in the Your Stats section.
Editing
You can go back and edit saved content by clicking the Edit link at the top right hand side of each page in the your Stats section. This will show all of the saved drafts and content that you have submitted which is awaiting moderation. It will also show all of your published content to date.
Previewing
To see your article, tip or event in the way it will be displayed once it is published on the site, click the ‘Preview’ tab at the bottom of the document. If you are unhappy with the way it looks, you can click onto the save and edit button to keep modifying the content until you are entirely happy with it.
Publishing
To publish an article, tip or event, all you need to do is click the green ‘Publish’ tab. Once you have performed this action your content will be added to a moderation queue. What is moderation?
How do I add a comment?
As a registered member, you can add comments to articles, tips, events or e-learning exercises and the number of comments you have written will be shown in your profile section as part of your statistics.
To add a comment just click on the 'Leave a comment' link found at the bottom of all articles, tips, events and e-learning exercises. A box will appear within which you can leave your comment.
Once you have finished, just click on the 'Leave your comment' button. You will then see your comment saved at the bottom of the content. All comments are also submitted for moderation, so they will only appear to other users once moderated.
You can also subscribe to receive all further comments left for a particular article, tip or event of interest via RSS. All you have to do is click on the ‘Subscribe via RSS to this articles’ comments link. What is RSS?
How do I create and manage groups?
Users can create groups within the NHS Resource centre as a way of engaging with other site members. Upon creation of a group, events, tips and articles can be assigned and forum discussions can be started.
To create a group, click on the Contribute link found on any page on the top right hand side in the Your Stats section. Select the ‘Start a group’ option in the left hand column. Then complete the form with a group name and description to give other community members a clear idea of what the group is about. Once this is done just click ‘Start the group’ to create your group.
Adding content to your new group is simple. When creating new content, you will find the option at the bottom of the form to associate that content with groups.
If you no longer want to be associated with your group, or any group you have joined, it is possible to leave. Go to the group you wish to leave and in the left hand navigation there is a link to leave. Select this and you remove yourself from the group. If you are the group owner, you will need to agree and assign ownership to another group member.
How do I search for content?
There are two main ways of searching content:
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Search box: On all pages within the site there is a search box at the top-right of the screen. You can enter key phrases or words and a list of intuitively organised results will be returned. The results can be broken down further by content type so you can easily see the articles, tips, events and e-learning exercises matching your original search criteria. The results can also be filtered by time using the dropdown boxes.
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Tag cloud: Content can also be explored via the tag clouds located on your homepage, and throughout the site toward the right-hand site of the page. These provide a powerful new way of interacting with content. For a detailed description please see What are tags?
What are tags?
Tags are an easy and intuitive way of organising and exploring site content. They work like keywords or category labels and are simply a word you use to describe your article.
Unlike categories, you make up tags when you need them and you can use as many as you like. The result is a better way to organise your content and a great way to discover interesting things on the site.
When contributing to the site, articles, events and tips can all be tagged. Simply click the contribute button and select the content type you wish to contribute. Once you have entered your new content there is an area of the form specifically for tags.
You may enter as many tags as you wish separated by a comma; however try to keep to the most relevant keywords as this ensures that your new content will be seen by the users searching for it.
The outcome of users tagging content can be seen on your homepage. The tag cloud shows at a glance what the most popular tag assigned to content is and gives an overview of the up-to-minute issues and topics users have contributed to the site.
The amount of tags displayed can be customised by clicking the edit button. The larger the words within the tag cloud, the more pieces of content exist with that tag. To view all content that has been tagged with that keyword, simply click the word and view the result.
For more information on tags please refer to this website: Wikipedia entry for tags
What is moderation?
All content submitted (articles, events, tips and comments) is moderated prior to it being published. Moderation occurs daily, but please allow for a 24 hour turn-around. The editor will not moderate spelling errors or grammatical errors so please do check your content thoroughly prior to submission.
We do advocate freedom of speech and opinion but scurrilous and inappropriate language will not be allowed, nor will slanderous and libellous comments. Use of any of the above will result in your content not being published.
If you are quoting from second or third party sources, always credit the original author and publication/organisation. Failure to do so will result in your content not being published.
If you were unable to find the solution to your problem in this Help section, please contact us for further assistance.
What is the Home User Programme?
The Home User Programme is a benefit available to NHS staff in England, Scotland and Wales under the Enterprise Agreement the NHS has in place with Microsoft that enables you to purchase Office 2007 and Office 2008 for Mac for £18.
What is the Employee Purchase Programme?
The Employee Purchase Programme is a benefit available to NHS staff in England, Scotland and Wales under the Enterprise Agreement the NHS has in place with Microsoft that enables you to purchase a selection of discounted Microsoft software.
What software can I buy under the Home User Programme?
What software can I buy under the Employee Programme?
Currently the software available under the Employee Purchase Programme comprises of some PC and Xbox games and packages such as Windows Vista upgrades, Money, Encarta etc. Please enter the Employee Purchase Programme site to view the entire selection of software available.
How do I purchase my discounted software under the Home User and Employee Purchase Programmes?
To take advantage of these offers you must have a valid NHS email address in order to access the relevant Home User and Employee Purchase sites.
I work for the NHS but don’t have an email address in my role
Most employees of the NHS are entitled to an NHS email address through NHSmail. Please contact the NHSmail team directly on helpdesk@nhs.net or 0845 300 8453.
I’ve got my Programme Code, what do I need to do now?
Once you have entered your NHS email address and been assigned your Programme Code, you are ready to order your discounted software direct from the Home User and Employee Purchase Programme websites. Click to continue and you will be taken to an online form that displays your email address, programme code and organisation. Then sign in. If you are purchasing from the Employee Purchase Programme, you will be automatically taken to the relevant website where you may browse the products available and make your purchase.
If you are purchasing from the Home User Programme website, after you have clicked sign in, you will then see a page that says your email address has been authorised. At this stage an email will be automatically sent to your NHS email address. When you receive the email click on the link within it to verify your NHS email address and proceed to order.
I ordered and paid for my copy of Office online several days ago but haven’t received it yet
Please allow 15 working days for delivery. If your order has not arrived in that time, e-mail your order number to hupvalue@msdirectservices.com and they will be able to track the status of your order.
I bought a copy of Office and installed it on my home PC; can I also install it on my laptop?
Yes, the licence you have purchased enabled you to install the software on one desktop and one mobile device.
I've installed my copy of Office on my PC but what happens when I buy a new computer?
You have to uninstall the software on your old computer and then install it on your new one. You cannot run it on both PCs at once.
I bought my copy of Office a while ago but have had to wipe my PC due to a virus. I now need to reinstall it but have lost my key code, can you send me new one?
The nurse in my GP surgery doesn’t have an e-mail address but uses a generic office one. Can I order Office for her use via my own NHS e-mail address?
Yes you can do this but as only one copy is allowed per email address, you will not then be able to order a copy for yourself. However, most employees of the NHS are entitled to an NHS email address through NHSmail. Please contact the NHSmail team directly on helpdesk@nhs.net or 0845 300 8453.
I am a retired NHS employee doing contract work for a local trust without an NHS email address, am I eligible for the Home User Programme?
A valid NHS email address is required to sign up for the Home User Programme. You can try contacting your trust’s IT department to see if they can assign you an email address or the NHSmail team on helpdesk@nhs.net or 0845 300 8453.
The software I have received is faulty/in a foreign language, what can I do?
In both of these circumstances please contact the Home User Programme team for advice at hupvalue@msdirectservices.com. If the software is faulty they will probably ask you to return it and they will then send out a new one to you. If you accidentally ordered your software in a language other than English, they will most probably ask you to send it back to them so that they can replace it with the appropriate copy.
Can I buy Office 2007 or Office 2008 for Mac as a present for a friend?
The Home User Programme entitles only NHS employees in England, Scotland or Wales to purchase one licence per employee so you cannot purchase this software as a present for a friend.
I have previously ordered Office 2003 or Office 2004 for Mac under the Home User Programme, can I order the newer version now?
Yes you may, as long as you destroy the previous version as you cannot run two Home User Programme licences at the same time.
Can I still purchase Office 2003 via the Home User Programme?
No, I am afraid that this is no longer possible. You can purchase the latest version of Office though, Office 2007. Training resources are available free on the NHS Resource Centre for all NHS members here.
What's included as part of Office 2007?
The version you receive is Office 2007 Enterprise Edition, and this includes: Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher, Access, InfoPath, Groove and OneNote.
Is Office 2007 compatible with Windows Vista
What happens if I leave the NHS?
The licence is only valid while you are an employee of the NHS. However you are perfectly entitled to keep using the licence as you move around within different NHS organisations.
I am having problems installing my copy of Office, who can help me?
I'd like to purchase the new version of Office 2007, but I am not sure how to use it?
If you were unable to find the solution to your problem in this Help section, please contact us for further assistance.