Using aids for online chess

I was wondering who here at chess.com uses any sort of outside assistance for playing online chess. I have considered doing so, but I don't feel like it will help me to get any better, to use book openings or engines to help me decide on my moves. I was wondering,who here looked at this from another perspective, that maybe I am not giving the proper consideration to? I welcome your thoughts.

Well, books are fine, but, using engines during the game is considered cheating here. I won't get into a discussion of cheating, as this isn't the place for it, I just wanted to point that out.

I had thought that I read you could use them for online games, but not live chess. Besides, is there really any difference between choosing a line that is already well documented for variations due to is effectiveness/popularity or using an engine that will tell you the same moves. Playing against someone who is, is probably going to win unless you do also, whether they use the book(s) or the engine?

Opening books (and other opening references) are allowed, analysis board is allowed, engines are not allowed.  Those are the rules.  As I understand it, they are that way because that is how things have traditionally been done in correspondance chess, which "online chess" kindasorta is.

Dead on. Exactly right.

I find it interesting that the forum topic hasn't crashed with all of the volunteers coming forward to say they use books... nor has anyone sated how they think it is more useful to help them play than to try to figure it out on their own....hmmmm

Correspondence chess has always allowed the use of books.  Of course it isn't "real" chess, it's "training wheels" chess, but it allows you to explore new openings and get a real feel for them.  You still have to figure out which line to follow and eventually everyone runs out of "book" and has to play chess.  It's always amusing when someone feigns outrage over players using databases when chess.com provides a link to the game explorer right from the game screen.

I am not outraged at the idea of someone doing it. I guess I am asking would be doing myself more harm or good one way or the other? I feel like somehow I cheat my opponent and myself if I were to use it, but what if I did get an extensive opening book full of variations, so no matter what your opponent throws at you, you can make a book reply and try to remember the response. I am sure if I did my rating would go up.

You have touched on a major problem which is the wildly inaccurate ratings that result from essentially 3 different pools of players sharing the same system.  There are the folks who play fast even though they have days to figure out their move.  Some of these players would be playing blitz except they have bad connections and are forced to play "online".  Others just prefer the convenience of having moves to make whenever they feel like playing chess.  Many have at least 30 games going at once.  Then you have 2 classes of slow players: those who take advantage of the books, videos, and databases allowed and those who don't.  Not that ratings mean anything here, but clearly the results are not going to be accurate.  Anyway, my apologies if you thought I was talking about you specifically when I used the term "feign outrage".  I wasn't, but there have been many previous threads on this subject where people have. 

I view the whole "online" chess experience as a golden opportunity to learn more about openings.  Like many of us, I'm a little lazy and it is hard to motivate myself.  An ongoing chess game gives me great incentive to learn everything I can about whatever opening is being used.  Sometimes my opponent cooperates and we get 15 moves deep into a system way too sharp for either of us to play without the help of a database.  Sometimes we're out of book almost immediately.  My goal is just to learn enough chess to be able to play OTB at a local club and "training wheels" chess is just one of the tools I'm using.