(FORTUNE Magazine) – It's easy to master new software, computers, and telecommunications devices if you can call on an outside expert, as Regis McKenna does regularly for his company and his home computer room. Or send an E-mail message to a specialist on your payroll; Philippe Kahn does that when something new stymies him. Barring such access to expert help, an average user can find the battle pretty rough -- although hardware and software makers are trying to ease the pains of learning. Where they've been least successful is in instruction manuals. John Lavine, the Northwestern University journalism professor, finds them ''too dense.'' But good general books are available. Two for beginners by John C. Dvorak are remarkably lucid and even entertaining: PC Crash Course and Survival Guide and Guide to PC Telecommunications. Each comes with a helpful floppy training disk. Lavine is a fairly typical user, not an addict with unlimited time to spend on computers. He finds books like Dvorak's helpful in mastering new software. He has never taken any classes, which some find useful. Instead, he buys programs that teach him how to apply the software -- there's one for Microsoft Windows, for example. ''When I see a new piece of software,'' he adds, ''I learn what I need from it. I don't need to know all the functions, just enough to get my work done. It may be five commands or 50.'' Increasingly, software and hardware manufacturers offer free help via 800 telephone numbers. A sampling for some laptop and notebook makers: Dell System 320N (800-289-3355); IBM PS/2 L40SX (800-IBM-9397); Northgate SlimLite (800-548-1993); Toshiba T1000XE (800-457-7777). The same applies to such popular E-mail services as MCI Mail (800-444-6245); AT&T Mail (800-624-5672); CompuServe Mail (800-848-8990); and SprintMail (800-736-1130). When customers sign on, E-mail providers guide them through the necessary steps by phone. Specialists at the companies can also help with more complex questions. When they upgrade hardware, subscribers to such on-line services as CompuServe can seek advice from dozens, even hundreds, of fellow subscribers. For $12.50 an hour plus a $2 monthly maintenance fee, CompuServe users are able to get in touch electronically with people who have bought -- and perhaps discarded -- say, the latest palmtop. That way, other users can help them make up their minds how well a particular machine suits them. Wired executives agree that the single most effective way to learn and keep up to date is through colleagues and friends who are more knowledgeable than you are. And if that fails, suggests Bernard Krisher, ''ask your kids.''