I am using Poser 8 and Sydney. I create a face in the face room, then click the "spawn morph target" button. Sure enough, there is a morph dial for the head. I rename it, and then re-load Sydney to test it. The dial disappears. I also tried saving the morphed figure to the library palette, it doesn't work.

Is there a way of making the face room changes permanent short of saving and importing the whole figure?

I feel embarassed asking such a basic question but I am really stuck.

You don't need to save the whole figure, but I'm pretty sure you do need to save
and re-import the face.

File: Export: Wavefront Object
Check only the Head in the hierarchy
Check only "As Morph Target" in the little list of options.
Give it a name.

Select the head on the figure.
In the Properties panel, hit the "Load Morph Target" button.
Browse to the OBJ file you just saved.
Give the morph a name.

You can then delete the OBJ file if you want.

This will bring in the real "deltas" from the morph, and you
can then resave the figure as a new CR2.

(There may be a simpler way, but I know this way works!)

Thank you Ockham, that is what I shall do. I think I was misled by the Poser 8 Reference Manual, which suggests that this is no longer necessary.