One question I'm often asked by students in my classes is 'how do I choose a good manual?'.  Hopefully your trainer will have provided you with good notes, but sometimes you want to buy a manual, especially where you can't get to a training course for whatever reason.  If you can't get your employer to pay for a training course you may be able to persuade them to establish a mini library of manuals that you and your colleagues can refer to.

My advice is to pick something that you know how to do (e.g. how to indent a paragraph in Word) and look up that item in each manual on the shelf. The one that you feel 'speaks' to you should be a good fit.  Pick a couple of things to check. Maybe you are looking for a photoshop manual because you don't know how to use the programme.  Look up the section that tells you how to save your files. You are likely to have some understanding of how to do this, even if you know nothing about file types.  Look up that section in each of the manuals on the shelf.  Of course that means actually going in to a store to look them up.

By the way, don't forget your local library - some libraries have a good collection of manuals.  It's worth a visit.  Libraries have changed a lot in the last few years so check it out!!