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How to Help Thyself

39 ways to make online help systems more helpful--or find better answers elsewhere.

Harry McCracken

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Help! That's not just the name of a menu in virtually every Windows application. It's also what most online documentation makes you want to holler for. The information you need is in there. Somewhere. You hope. But typical help files are so haphazardly organized and tough to traverse that the search for answers can feel like a quest that's destined to end in frustration. You might as well go hunting for a Red Sox fan at the Steinbrenner family reunion.

So help yourself--to our secrets for making online help less of a hindrance to finding what you need. Read on for tricks you can use in Windows, Microsoft Office, and other software products, plus places to go when their built-in assistance fails you.

Harry McCracken is editor of PC World.
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