Perhaps I'm simply too old, but my first decade of computing was spent using software installed from CD-ROM drives, which you would typically purchase in a bric

Perhaps I'm simply too old, but my first decade of computing was spent using software installed from CD-ROM drives, which you would typically purchase in a brick and mortar store, drive to your house, and install once. We had dial-up at the time, but it was painfully slow and as a kid I wasn't allowed to use it all that often. HTML help files were the only way I had to really discover the hidden features in any of the software I had. I dove deep into those manuals and read every section, sometimes more than once, just to familiarize myself with what was possible. If I couldn't figure something out, the option to "just Google it" wasn't on the table; the help feature built into the program was the best shot at finding the solution. It was also relatively standard: just about every bit of software, even lots of games, used the same format and had the same basic UI to navigate and search the text. Maybe times are different now, and internet-based help really is the way to go, but for a long while they were the next best thing to a paper manual: easy to ignore, but incredibly handy when required.