Bryce 4 or 5 is a very easy program to use for newcomers... I remember when I got Bryce 4 2 years ago, I didn't know anything about 3d graphics and crack out of the box, without reading the manual, I was getting beginners scenes with ease... all I knew was that I had seen pictues people had made with bryce and I wanted to do that... I got Bryce 5... Crack out of the box, I created trees, did the metaball thing, no opening of manual... If you want to do a complex scene, that starts resembling art, you're going to have to read the manual, like I did, learn the program, like I did... But that's true for every program... As for the pdf manual, scaramouche, just load it into a laptop and carry the laptop around... I've printed 400 page manuals in the past... it's not that bad... Just punch holes into it, put it in a binder and forgetaboutit... :)