Describing a problem so it can be fixed

The five facts

• What you expected to happen.
• What happened instead.
• The exact words of any message, copied or photographed, not remembered.
• When it started, and whether it happens every time or only sometimes.
• What changed just before it started.

Can you make it happen again?

Write the steps that make the problem appear: "open the email program, click Send, the message stays in the Outbox". A problem you can repeat on demand is far easier to fix than one that "just happens".

Take a screenshot

On Windows, the Windows logo key + Shift + S opens the Snipping Tool to capture part of the screen. On a Mac, Shift + Command + 4 lets you drag around the area to capture. A clear phone photo of the screen also works.

Narrow down where it lives

• One website or all websites? If only one site fails, the problem is probably that site, not your computer.
• One device or all devices? If every device in the house has no internet, look at the router, the modem or the provider, not the laptop.
• One program or everything? One program misbehaving points at that program or its settings.
• One user account or all? If it works when someone else signs in, the problem is in your account's settings.

Use the worksheet

The free problem worksheet on this site asks the five facts in order and prints them on one page you can hand to whoever helps you. Nothing you type there is stored.