Basics - GIMP 2.6 for Photographers: Image Editing with Open Source Software - page 45

1.5.7 Real Help - GIMP's Help Function
With this topic at hand, you should easily get along with GIMP. But if you
would like to go into more depth and learn about all of the possible settings,
you might try using the Help function.
It must be rather tedious for software programmers to develop help
programs and documentation. They seem to be written after the fact. For
GIMP, this definitely has been the case. Sometimes you may rely on the
Help function and it responds by opening a window that says Eeek! The Help
function is missing here. Fortunately, this doesn't happen much anymore. Since
the release of GIMP 2.0, the Help function has continuously been extended
and is rather comprehensive. The user manual recently has been updated to
GIMP 2.6. In any case, it might be worthwhile to have a look if you have any
questions. It is great for information concerning tools and functions.
Using the Help Function
You can find the Help function for GIMP by using the Help menu in the image
window. Various help topics are available.
Initially there is the actual Help function, which is the documentation of
the program. This user manual can be downloaded from the Internet as an
installation program (see section 1.5.1). It will be installed on its own and is
immediately available. The program is stored locally in HTML format on the
computer. Clicking the Help > Help menu item opens up in your standard web
browser. If you scroll down the page, you will find the complete index of the
user manual. Since it is in HTML format, you can maneuver just as if it were a
web page.
If you choose Context Help , the second entry in the Help menu, your
mouse pointer will turn into a question mark. Click with the question mark
(left mouse click) on a tool or tool setting in your tool palette, in a dock, or in
another window of GIMP. The Help function opens the chosen information in
a browser window.
Figure 1.22
The Help menu in the image window