Agreed with pyremius. The manual is confusing if you've never used RW before.
People might see it and go, "that's too complicated, I'll stick with my handy journal book" and not buy. when in reality, it's really easy to use, really difficult to master is all.
Once you have the software, open any realm and go to help. The manuals are there.
Though, they should be available in the splash screen. Just sayin'
LOL that's the case with any new software... the manual was for propping doors open!
Seriously, RW isn't as bad as say..... WordPerfect in its hey day.... There was a whole sub-market created for keyboard overlays, tip books, etc to effectively use it. IT was (at the time) the most sophisticated word processing program, combined with computer power that effectively killed the typewriter. It was by NO MEANS user friendly.
RW, IMO, is not nearly so "challenging". Meaning I have yet to find anywhere asking me to simultaneously hold the CTRL & the ALT & hit F1 to get some feature (yet anyway)
Except maybe to some that have never been exposed to building a database. As database software goes, RW is compartmentally simple, you can learn in in progression. Probably the only easier database application conceived was a DB called Alpha4 that was the poor mans Dbase III & RW is 100x more elaborate.
The core challenge is the fight against "instant gratification".
People are under the general delusion that you can buy the perfect "anything" right out of the can, and have it do EXACTLY what you want without any effort.
Building a Realm=WORK folks hehe... That is why there are far more players than DMs... Most want the "big chair" at the end of the table, till they find out how much work is involved in creating a good long lasting campaign. Even Most "modern" DMs (GMs for you hairlings) have lost the concept of what the difference is between a game, a series, a closed campaign & an open ended campaign. WOC (and others) have misused the word "campaign" for years.
As for mine it started in 1980, (less time working cross country & overseas) it has been continually running for 30 years this June (yes REAL years) as one continuous ongoing campaign. Dozens of players, thousands of hours, loads of fun, and a wonderful backlog of history.
RW can manage all of these, but where it will truly shine is in the long running open campaign.
SHAMELESS CALENDAR PLUG AHEAD>
Even better when calendar management and character reveal become reality.
Not to derail thread, it is curious that the forum would not have the ability to at least link to a point in the reference materials when illustrating questions / answers. The prose that its to protect from competitors is unlikely, and if true is flawed. Any competitor could simply buy a copy and see all of it at their leisure. If it were a concern simply tie it to login procedures for users, not guests to see who is accessing it....
I'm hunting those docs down when I get home.