When I click on "load image" while holding down the "control" key in order to see thumbnail images, my Blender program crashes. Is this a known bug or just happening to me?

Also, if I add a color and texture to an object, then export it as an .obj or a .3ds, then import it into Bryce, the color shows up but no texture. Am I doing something wrong?

Blender never crashed on my computer in the last two years. Check if you have the last version of Blender (v.2.41) and maybe try with another video drivers. I don't know if .3ds format includes the textures too, but I try with the .obj format and it works. Maybe you should have the texture(s) file in the same directory with the object. Check the .mtl file for the paths. And don't forget to press the texture button in the export pannel. (sorry for my english) :)

I didn't know about that thumbnail image thing, but I tried it just now and it didn't crash. Took a while to load the images though, maybe it's a ram thing? Or video driver, like criss says--see if you can update your drivers? When you're exporting, is it a procedural that doesn't export? It wouldn't surprise me if procedural textures wouldn't be exported, it would have to be turned into an image texture in the process because procedural textures in bryce are not the same as the ones in blender. Image textures should export just fine though.

It is possible to turn Blender's procedural textures into uv textures with the very handy Texture Baker script which can be accessed from the UV window. Just unwrap your object in the UV window (a whole other subject in itself!), then with the uv map selected, click the UV tab and select Texture Baker. It will then ask for a name for your texture, then ask if you want to replace an existing image or not, then ask you for the texture resolution. The perfectly aligned texture map will be rendered to your output directory (c/temp by default).

You can then load the image up into Gimp or Photoshop or whatever to add any details you might like. Then load it into Blender as a uv texture it will align perfectly. Then I am sure Bryce will recognise it.

As for seeing the thumbnails while holding control that is an excellent tip! Im sorry about your crashing problem, it seems to work fine for me. I think haloedrain may be right on the ram subject. Check to see how much free ram you have available, or try it with Blender as the only open application.

Thanks for the tip!

"When I click on "load image" while holding down the "control" key in order to see thumbnail images, my Blender program crashes. Is this a known bug or just happening to me?"

I feel your pain, the same thing happens to me, though only when I already have an image loaded.  Hopefully it'll be fixed in the next release...

Thanks for all your suggestions. I still have a lot to learn about Blender. I'm still on Chapter 13 and now I'n forgetting what I learned in chapter 2. LOL

My video card sucks so that may be the reason for some of my problems.

The baking method may work when I get to that chapter. :) I hope there's a chapter on the UV window and mapping.