In every family gathering there is always the one person people go to for help assembling toys, hooking up electronic equipment, or setting the clock on the VCR. What is the secret of these people who seem smarter than everyone else? They read instructions!

You too can have this aura of omnipotence by investing a few minutes now to read the Google Earth documentation. Though it may be Keyhole's best-kept secret, the new-user and reference information available to you is about as good as one could hope for: easy to read, thorough, illustrated, well-indexed, and concise.

Launch Google Earth,
select "Help" on the menu bar,
and select "Contents..."

This will launch the documentation directly or else download it from a Google Earth server and then launch it for your reading pleasure. Where to start? At the beginning. Open the "Getting Started" topic and you will find answers to just about everything, a comprehensive index, and even the ability to search for specific topics.

You will learn Google Earth features in a few minutes that you will use for a lifetime.

Read the documentation now, then learn about the latest news.