Recommended patterns for help cues/hints/documentation

I've been scouring the web, but haven't been finding much with regards to different options on how to present help text and/or documentation. Obviously, there's an established pattern of just having a Help or FAQ menu item and then linking to some giant document, but I'm looking for something a little more context-sensitive and/or integrated within the content (but non-obtrusive, of course).

Can anyone point me to some good examples of alternatives to the traditional Help menu item? I've got some ideas of my own but would like some inspiration or validation.