Who needs advice?

I prefer my advice from the hip – no messing, tell me what to do and why. These two websites pass the test.

How to… where to…

Including How To Books on the Gateway was a tricky proposition. Where to put it? The scope of these guides, every word of which seems to be available free online, is mind-boggling. The home page mentions these broad categories: business, employment, property, living abroad, family and leisure. So that’s enough to justify putting it into at least six Gateway categories – dig down and it gets worse… I mean better… oh, read on!

Take "family" for instance. The guides under this heading range from buying stocks and shares to coping when someone dies, taking in debt management and the menopause on the way. So we can feel the width, what about the quality?
It’s good, very good. In clear, uncluttered prose, the guides give sound advice – the sort of commonsense advice that might leave you thinking that you could have worked it out for yourself, given enough time. Don’t take the time – read the guide and feel the benefit.

Two quibbles about the set-up of the website. To reach the free online content, you have to scroll right to the bottom of the home page (not surprising, really, that the rest of the page is about trying to sell a few of the guides in print form). Secondly, you may find you have to "tease out" the full text. It’s divided into separate bits, and it’s not always obvious that there’s more. Look out for the menus and breadcrumb trails. And let’s not be too churlish about these drawbacks – we’re getting a shedload of top quality free stuff here.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Advice & help" – yes, that’s our compromise choice for a billet. How To Books is a Key Link.)

But can you eat it?

How long will your favourite food or drink stay safe and tasty? What’s the best way to store it? Simple – but vital – questions, simply answered by StillTasty. Fruit, veg, bread, meat… whatever you’ve got in the fridge or the food cupboard, this website will tell you whether it’s festering or fine, long-lasting or lethal.

This is an American site, a point I make only because some names for foodstuffs vary from what we’re used to. Its benchmark is the recommendations of the US Food & Drug Administration, but there’s no stuffy bureaucratic preaching here, just clear advice that even I could understand. Now I even know where to stick my bread (so I don’t need suggestions!).

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Home & garden". StillTasty is under "Food & drink".)