Once upon a time, every Apple product shipped with a big manual (well, some were bigger than others). Even software - I remember the first time I got the pro audio software Logic, most of the box was filled with extensive manuals. And yes, I did read them. Most people didn't, though.
Finally, it must have dawned on Apple that most people weren't reading them and that a lot of paper and ink, and weight and packaging, was being used for nothing. At the same time, of course, Apple was shifting to an online delivery model. Indeed, whereas Logic once comprised several densely-packed DVDs you had to put in the optical drive one after the other over an hour or two, now you can just buy it in the Mac App Store for NZ$256.99 - which is much cheaper than it used to be.
The savings come from online delivery, principally. No boxes, no shipping, no stock to be held in shops, no DVD encoding and production, no complex packaging to design, print, fold, pack - and no manuals.
Trouble is, how do you get any help if you have an Apple device or software? On Macs, of course, there's built-in help. The Help menu is always at the right of any other application menus (File, Edit etc). It works in two ways: if you type in a help topic, and there's a menu item that relates to it, a blue pointer appears when you mouse over the first selections in the drop-down menu and points, literally, at the menu item in question, showing you where it is. At the same time, by the way, every menu item shows you which corresponding command-key combo initiates the same thing, if there is one. Learning even five or ten of the common ones will speed up your Mac use dramatically.
The second part of the Help menu is the Help system itself, listed under Help Topics. These may be for the application you're in or several - for example, type in 'cut' and you also get the help library for Final Cut Pro X listed, should you have that. This launches a help library window that lets you specifically search through a manual (by proxy, anyway) for the topic. Perversely, that window stays on top and in front of everything else on your screen. I've never understood this behaviour as it's bloody annoying, especially if you only have one little screen. In other words, if you click on a window you can see behind the Help window, the Help window still stays in front of it, unlike for any other situation when the window you click on immediately takes precedence. I've always found that bizarre, but there you go. The only way to manage this is to minimise the Help window into the Dock by clicking it's orange button at top left, which means it's instantly accessible without having to reload should you be requiring some repeated looks at the help files.
