N.B. In summer 2010 the Scotland's People site layout was significantly modified.  These Notes have not been updated since that event and may be out-of-date, particularly regarding the sequence of screens and their layouts.

This set of pages are specifically to provide personal tips for accessing The Scotland's People website at

www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk

These notes and tips are not intended to supplant the Scotland's People Help pages which are excellent.  Rather we hope to be able to provide a basic introduction to the site and give what we hope are useful tips on getting the best from it.

If you have any helpful suggestions you would like us to add to the site, or amendments/corrections, please use the Contact Us button on the left.

Note: Scotland's People have a facility to notify problemsto their staff.  It is rather hidden on the website.  The categories of problems are listed on one page, see ScPContactUs,and a link is then available to the proforma to send in. 
Please make sure you check the ScP site FAQs and Help pages thoroughly before sending you query in.  They will NOT do genealogical research for you.

Caveats - Our purpose is to help amateur genealogists make best use of Scotland's People and possibly saving you money, although we think the site is one of the best value-for-money sites on the web.   We make no claim for accuracy in these notes. The Scotland's People site is continually being updated and our suggestions may be out of date.  We hope to avoid misleading anyone and apologise if you should feel that we have done so.  Please do let us know if we've got it wrong.

The Suggestions and Tips are provided on the following pages:

1. ScPOverview - Introduction and Overview

2. ScPStarting - Getting Started

3. ScPPayments - How to Pay, and what you get

4. ScPSearching - How to Optimise Searches

5. ScPImages - How to Download Images

5a. ScPDownloading - George Brander's hints on downloading problems