I had done the save as in poser 7 so that I could reopen the file and work further on it.   When I reopened it in poser, the character was turned backwards meaning that she was no longer facing toward you on the workspace but instead her back was facing you.     I had rendered it before saving and not sure what I have done incorrectly causing it not to open as I originally had it on the workspace before saving. 

Any help would be most appreciated as to what I'm doing wrong and the correct method to save the work so that it can be reopened to the pose that it was before saving it.   Being new to poser, I'm admit I'm lost as to the correct way to do things. 

try clicking on Edit -> Restore -> Camera while you have the main camera selected
That will restore the camera to it's default position in case you had rotated it around the figure.  The camera position is saved when you save the PZ3

Quote - Being new to poser, I'm admit I'm lost as to the correct way to do things.

There's usually more than one way to do things in Poser :biggrin:

Did you by chance do a cloth room simulation or animation? If so that is the problem.  When you do a cloth room simulation and save the file, when you next open the file it will look differently.  To get it back to the way it was when you rendered, drag the sliding bar at the bottom to the right and the scene will restore itself.

I haven't learned enough to attempt the animations and I am not sure what the cloth room simulation is so I am assuming I haven't on either one. 

I proceeded as instructed and that didn't work to turn her back around nor reset the lighting,   Although I can manage to get the figure turned around  with her face toward me using the dials, I can't get the lights right as they were before.  

I've searched for the saving instructions but haven't found anything other than to export as a png. 

Would someone be so kind as to explain to me in steps how to save in poser 7 when you can't sit in one total session to complete the work and wish to reopen it onto the workspace later to work further?    What I did before was to click on File>Save As and gave the file a name and the only option was saving it as a .pz3.    

Although I could manage to get the character turned back around face forward, then when I tried to pose the arms and hands,  then use the dials to pose them,  she'd turn backwards again so that I couldn't see how the hand and arm was being positioned and once I stopped turning the dial, then she'd turn back around face forward again.    What causes that to happen when using  the dials? 

I know that I have to be doing something wrong, but I just don't know what I'm doing wrong to cause it. 

That's how you save - I've never come across your particular problem before.  One thing that might be worth trying is to turn off  "Use Binary Morph Targets"
You find that under Edit -> General Preferences -> Misc tab
I know that sometimes causes odd effects with saved files in Poser.  If I remember rightly though that may cause problems opening the file you just saved.  It might be worth trying disabling that then starting over afresh.  It seems like the saved file might have some corruption in it

No, you aren't necessarilly doing anything wrong.  Poser sometimes does things like lock up Windows, reboot my machine or does something a bit odd with a pose.
Not sure why it isn't working for you.  I always save exactly as you did, often reopen files to continue work and never have a problem and I'm running, gulp, Vista, with an odd Poser setup.  It's installed on my D: drive instead of c:program files.  don't think this is much help but if either of us should be having problems it's me and I have no problems at all.  (Except for the odd glitch that is)
I have had some posing problems that were resolved when I saved off the pz3, exited and restarted and reloaded.  My best guess is something went seriously wrong with some portion of that work.
I used to do computer troubleshooting and repairs and it sounds very like you hit some glitch that not only affected your work in progress but the save file when you saved it.
How big and complex is the scene?  Did you have "Limits" set to on?  Is the Pose extreme?
Do you have a lot going on in background while you're working in Poser?

Those are all questions about things that might cause an odd glitch now and then.  If a scene is extemely complex Poser could be running out of memory.  If you don't have limits set to on you could be putting the figure into an anatomically impossible pose.  If the pose is extreme for some odd reason Poser sometimes modifys it slightly seamingly without reason.  If you have E-mail going, are serfing the web and trying to play an online game or such at the same time you may once again be running out of memory.
In your caseit sounds very like one of those nonrepeatable bugs that do crop up from time to time.  If the scene isn't too complex it may be easiest just to recreate it.

I was working on daz 3d's lost realms and only had the character in the scene and had posed the arms, head and mertail as I wanted the mertail to go to the side and back a bit so that I could hopefully find a clam shell prop to be able to use to pose her as kneeling inside the open clam shell.   I hope that makes sense.  It's quite possible that I did pose her awkward for poser as I'm learning all this and as you mentioned, a glitch someplace possibly occurred when saving it. 

I have a paint shop pro tube  that is in png format of a clam shell that I'd like but it's 2d and I can't find any way to bring it into poser to be able to pose her in the open shell. 

I had nothing else open at the time other than poser and wasn't online.   I have 2 320 gb internal hd's  ,  3gb ram,  Intel  core 2 quad processor,  Vista Premium,   I still have 231 gb free on the c drive and 249 gb free on the E drive.  

I will  begin all over again and save it and see if all goes well this time. 

Not all that familliar with Photoshop but you should be able to render the Lost Realms scene seperately.  Export the render  as a PSD file, bring it into Photoshop, apply the clamshell, save the whole as a jpeg and import it into Poser as a background.  You should then be able to put the figure in possition with the clamshell.  I think you could also make the clamshell a second layer.  That would allow you to easilly move it if you find that it isn't in the right place.  
     The hard part will be making sure that the clamshell is an appropriate size and distance into the setting to allow you to pose the figure where you want it in the overall scene.

Quote - I was working on daz 3d's lost realms and only had the character in the scene and had posed the arms, head and mertail as I wanted the mertail to go to the side and back a bit so that I could hopefully find a clam shell prop to be able to use to pose her as kneeling inside the open clam shell.   I hope that makes sense.  It's quite possible that I did pose her awkward for poser as I'm learning all this and as you mentioned, a glitch someplace possibly occurred when saving it. 

I have a paint shop pro tube  that is in png format of a clam shell that I'd like but it's 2d and I can't find any way to bring it into poser to be able to pose her in the open shell. 

I had nothing else open at the time other than poser and wasn't online.   I have 2 320 gb internal hd's  ,  3gb ram,  Intel  core 2 quad processor,  Vista Premium,   I still have 231 gb free on the c drive and 249 gb free on the E drive.  

I will  begin all over again and save it and see if all goes well this time. 

The only way I can figure something happening as you describe is when you have the wrong camera selected. If you have a hand camera selected and you turn a dial the camera viewpoint may change, some other cameras have similar behavior. Make sure you always have the main camera selected. Whatever strange pose you use Poser will make no difference; if you save a scene it will always reload as saved (but do note what camera you were using).

A 2d picture can be used in Poser as a background picture (this may create several problems) or as a texture on a prop (a cube of the correct size is often used for this). Be warned that combining a 2d picture with 3d figure rarely works out well. It is difficult to get the lighting and shadows right. You are better of looking for a 3d shell (I'm not into that type of picture so I can't help you there).

Work slowly towards your goal. You have to learn to crawl before you can start running. Begin with the character, pose an arm, save, terminate poser and start again with loading the saved scene. Now try this with a leg (and find out that IK is creating problems). Then load the mertail and use as per instructions (these vary depending on the mertail). This is often a separate character (meaning the posing camera will appear to jump around). Pose this correctly. Render and notice the lights are probably not to your liking. Play with this until you begin to understand how this works. Then bring in the shell. Get everything looking right and render.
Now its time to add a background and all other elements to build a complete scene. If you're still hanging around by this time, you have probably been bitten by the 3d bug and spare time is bound to be in short supply from now on.

Good luck