On-screen instructions for using software that are available within the application or from a website. Users in general, and particularly first-time users, are always complaining about the quality of online help. For decades, no matter how big or small the company, online help has been spotty at best, if not downright useless. Quite often, help on the vendor's website is not up-to-date.
Online Forums
The many user forums and articles on the Web are often more beneficial than the official help from the application or vendor's site. Perhaps this is one reason software publishers put so little effort into keeping their own guides up-to-date.
An Insane Omission: Which Version Is It?
User-submitted help creates the same problem as official help because it rarely indicates which version of the software the help is for. Menus and functions may change with each new version of software, and the very first statement on any help article should be which version of the application the help is for. This "absolutely essential" information is almost always missing, and after following the help by clicking several menu selections, the next menu item is nowhere to be found because that option is not in the version the user has. See
help,
first-time user,
user interface,
help system and
RTFM.