michael diemer
 I tried consulting the manual, but after the first day or two it wouldn't open

Not sure which format of the manual was a problem. If the local documentation installer was run there should be a User Reference pdf and a SONAR.chm installed in the folder with the program. By default SONAR will try to access the web-based help if the internet is available. The Always Use Local Help setting in Preferences > File > Advanced forces SONAR to always use the chm file instead of trying the internet. The User Reference may be added to the tools menu but lacks the context help feature of the web and local help files.

scook

michael diemer
 I tried consulting the manual, but after the first day or two it wouldn't open

Not sure which format of the manual was a problem. If the local documentation installer was run there should be a User Reference pdf and a SONAR.chm installed in the folder with the program. By default SONAR will try to access the web-based help if the internet is available. The Always Use Local Help setting in Preferences > File > Advanced forces SONAR to always use the chm file instead of trying the internet. The User Reference may be added to the tools menu but lacks the context help feature of the web and local help files.

On my copy of Home Studio, the 'Always use local help' option was grayed out by default, even though Command Center was showing it as installed.
 
I had to go into Command Center and request 'Reinstall' for Sonar Local Documentation. 

The local documentation is the same for all versions of SONAR but it installs in the program folder. If the documentation is not in the appropriate program folder, the preference is grayed out.

Aha, that must be it. I tried opening the local or offline docs, and it indeed was greyed out. And the online wouldn't open (except that it did the first time or two). I'll go looking for the local docs and see what's up.
 
Thanks scook!
 
Edit: I located the doc folder in Michael/Favorites. I moved it to the Cakewalk folder. It now opens, but only online. The local option is still greyed out. Only a problem if I can't get online, which is pretty rare.

I just checked and I have the "use local documentation" checked in preferences.  So my help menu opens the Documentation just fine. 
 I went looking for it. I have 3 versions on this laptop. So you can see the file path in the screen shot. There are 3 help files. Documentation, User guide and Reference guide. That's all was in this folder for Pro. The same place with Splat has a lot of other stuff too. But they are repeated there. The Home Studio Folder is just Called SONAR. The folder for 8.5 has no help files in it. 

Thanks Cactus, that helps a lot!