Guiding students while they explore educational software is important in order to convey the pedagogical pragmatism that many programs seem to lack. This article points out some characteristics that we believe educational software exploration guides must contain for students to benefit from using these programs. The supporting information includes an example of an exploration guide for a chemistry educational software program about chemical equilibrium. We also briefly describe a pilot study of Portuguese high school students; the study's conclusions show the advantages of using exploration guides. (Contains 1 table.)