diff --git a/hledger/Hledger/Cli/DocFiles.hs b/hledger/Hledger/Cli/DocFiles.hs
index 7a9b4af31..3b98ef609 100644
--- a/hledger/Hledger/Cli/DocFiles.hs
+++ b/hledger/Hledger/Cli/DocFiles.hs
@@ -109,9 +109,11 @@ runInfoForTopic tool mtopic =
 -- less with any vertical whitespace squashed, case-insensitive searching, the $ regex metacharacter accessible as \$.
 less = "less -s -i --use-backslash"
 
--- XXX should use the more robust Hledger.Utils.IO.runPager.
 -- | Display plain text help for this tool, scrolled to the given topic if any, using the users $PAGER or "less".
 -- When a topic is provided we always use less, ignoring $PAGER.
+--
+-- This is less robust than the newer Hledger.Utils.IO.runPager,
+-- but that one doesn't yet support scrolling to a topic.
 runPagerForTopic :: Tool -> Maybe Topic -> IO ()
 runPagerForTopic tool mtopic = do
   withSystemTempFile ("hledger-"++tool++".txt") $ \f h -> do
diff --git a/hledger/hledger.m4.md b/hledger/hledger.m4.md
index 7e8107d5d..3966b4110 100644
--- a/hledger/hledger.m4.md
+++ b/hledger/hledger.m4.md
@@ -767,9 +767,11 @@ While it is active, usually `SPACE` shows the next page, `h` shows help, and `q`
 The home/end/page up/page down/cursor keys, and mouse scrolling, may also work.
 
 hledger will use the pager specified by the `PAGER` environment variable, otherwise `less` if available, otherwise `more` if available.
+(With one exception: `hledger help -p TOPIC` will always use `less`, so that it can scroll to the topic.)
+
 The pager is expected to display hledger's ANSI colour and text styling.
-(If you use a pager other than `less`, you might need to configure it to handle this.
-Or you could disable colour as described above.)
+If you see junk characters, you might need to configure your pager to handle ANSI codes.
+Or you could disable colour as described above.
 
 If you are using the `less` pager, hledger automatically appends a number of options to
 the `LESS` variable to enable ANSI colour and a number of other conveniences.