Thanks guys for all your comments.

I do appreciate that a manual can't cover everything, but the supplied Poser 7 manual doesn't even mention some of the parameters that are part of some of the functions. Check out Roughness as a parameter of the Glossy shader node, for example.

It looks like Practical Poser 7 for me then, especially when it comes recommended by a Poser guru like PhilC ;)

Thanks again :)

Isaac