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Here's another reason for third-party manuals, and it's perfectly legit.
My mother did temp work a couple of years ago. She was trained on several
different WP packages, but didn't have them all at home. She bought several
third-party books, as home study guides.
When on an assignment, she'd take the relevant book with her, so that she'd
have a familiar resource available while on the job. (Employers would
sometimes ask why, if she was an "expert," she had to bring a book. As we
all know, different jobs mean different emphasis on features, so a temp
has got to look things up from time to time.)
Rick Lippincott
Eaton Semiconductor
Beverly, MA
rlippinc -at- bev -dot- etn -dot- com
