Thanks LynB
The buttons in the help panels didn't give me anything but the error message that I referred to above. In order to make them functional as you indicated I had to download and install the Windows help program from Microsoft. The Microsoft page indicates that it is the Windows Help Program (Winhlp32.exe). The actual name of the file that I installed was:
windows8.1-kb917607-x64.msu
I guess this is for 64 bit systems. It's probably different for 32 bit.
With that installed the help buttons work fine.
However searching the help system still has a great deal to be desired.