On the iPad
Your iPad comes with a built-in, interactive guide. Look for it in the Safari browser bookmarks. Start Safari and tap the bookmarks button
Select the link for the iPad User Guide. This interactive guide uses clever navigation tools to help you learn about the features of your iPad.
Want quicker access to this onboard iPad guide? Create a web clip to add it to your home page. A web clip appears like any other application icon, but instead of starting up a little program known as an app, a web clip starts Safari and jumps you right to the site of the web clip. Click the plus sign (+) then tap “Add to Home Screen”
Geekspeak – This online manual was built by Apple using a framework called AdLib, and is currently available only for development within Apple. However, this API promises a new way to build interactive web apps for the iPad and perhaps the rest of the Apple mobile platforms.
Apple’s iPad User Guide pdf
Apple has a 154 page pdf user’s manual online
How to Search the iPad User Guide
Though you can view the contents of this manual in your browser on the iPad, you can’t search within it for specific terms or phrases. However, a site called Tizra has a searchable web version of this same manual.
Another Way to Search the iPad User Guide
You can search within Apple’s pdf file if you download (save) the file to your Mac (not the iPad). Save it from Safari or Firefox or other browser, then open it in Preview and use the search tool (Spotlight) in the upper right.
By the way, the table of contents in that pdf file contains live, clickable links. While in Preview, just point to the item in the table of contents you want to jump to, then click. No need to look it up in the Contents and then scroll down to the page or topic.