Architect, thanks for your thoughts,

the F1 help menu has been on maya throughout it's incarnations, it's just that now it it the only point of reference for users as there is no printed documentation when purchased. In one respect you're right about buying books you need them to learn and for future reference, I have plenty of Maya literature to keep me going, I don't however have a problem with buying them.

The books that used to come with the package were just paper based versions of the help files, very useful but they just cover the basics of each tool, function or menu. For more in depth knowledge you need to pay, I think that's fair, the software is, after all, what you buy (well the license to use it at any rate) but I believe that it should come with the necessary paper based documentation!!

All that said, I have no problem with version 8 (the software side of things) now that I'm getting used to the new menus (well after adjusting them back to how they used to be!) and the new names for stuff, the fact that there are 2 duplicate options (regular and special) and the Max-esque way you create objects to name a few of the myriad changes. Better to keep with the times if they are a changing than fall behind!

Cheers,

Mat.