General :: Acer A100 - Device Doesn't Have Hardware Menu Button?

I've installed several apps that are supposed to have features that I can't even find. For example, I installed "Writer". This is supposed to have text formatting features (bold, italic, font size). But, after highlighting some text, I can't find anything that triggers a "Format" menu. A long tap on selected text will bring up a Cut & Paste menu. But if there's a Format menu, I haven't found it, yet.

I'm using Writer as an example, but I've tried half a dozen apps now that are listed as having certain features. Sometimes the program menu is the little checkerboard icon next to the Honeycomb task switcher at the bottom of the screen, but on many apps this menu is empty of anything useful. Some programs have an icon on the top of the screen that triggers a menu, but on others I've tapped on everything I can find and found no extra controls.

Is there some common screen gesture that I haven't discovered yet? Are developers listing future features that don't exist yet? Did Gingerbread have some context menu feature that's missing in Honeycomb? And is there some reason developers don't bother to provide a paragraph or two explaining how to use their product?

btw - I have an Acer A100 7 inch tablet, running generic Honeycomb 3.2 and downloading apps from GooglePlay. My device doesn't have a hardware Menu button, maybe that's the problem?