Okay, had some time to play with things a little bit. I read the responses to my last thread, and thank you all, it's a big help. But I now have two more questions:

1). I'm wondering if this isn't a problem so much as I'm using 8 and what I'm playing with is intended for, say, 11 or something more recent that what I have. I found a free Poser model with a bunch of accessories (figure, hair, armor, etc.). I decided to try to install manually, since, if I can grasp that, then the shortcuts will be much more intuitive since I will understand what is going on. I copied everything over the way I was supposed to, moving everything from the subfolders in the download into the folders in the Runtime on the desktop (please note, this is just an experiment to make things easier to find, I know I will have to put things in their proper place when things get serious).

On the bright side, it worked. I clicked Add Library, selected it, and everything is there. Figure, hair, props, everything. Just one thing missing -- color. The figure, props, etc. are all white instead of blue and gold like they should be. A couple of the clothing downloads had files at the top of the file tree, right next to the Runtime folder, so I moved them to the corresponding place in the Library file. But that doesn't explain why those that didn't have those files at all are still turning up white. I did a test render, because sometimes, like with my model of the Enterprise D, it shows up as white in the work area but a render shows it properly colored. Is there something I'm missing, do I have to find a way to color the model myself, or is the model intended for a more recent version of Poser and this is just something I'm going to have to deal with until I upgrade?

ETA: I only downloaded a couple of the prop files, one of which was casual wear. That is colored fine. The armor and such was its own file, not part of the figure download, and that shows up as white.

And as long as I'm on the subject, I downloaded another model supposedly for Poser. It's a low-res DVa from Overwatch. This thing has several files in it, 19 total, with names like 0.dae, 0.fbx, 0.mtl, 0.obj, DVa_D.tga, generic_item.mesh, and so on. There are no subfolders or README's in here. Is this not a Poser model at all (it was free, so it's not like I'm out any money if I got it wrong), or is there a way to create a library and put this in there? (It is supposedly rigged, if that makes a difference.)

Not sure knowing where you got those free products from but it sounds like the product that is white in review and renders in color is a shaded item .. that means no image maps are attached .. if you want to see the color in review you can add it in the materialsroom > diffuse .. the second item you mentioned I think is model only that are mostly used to develop games .. but you can import the .obj file in Poser through the menu

Hard to tell for sure .. but hope this info helps a bit

3Dpixi posted at 1:58PM Sun, 18 October 2020 - #4401728

Not sure knowing where you got those free products from but it sounds like the product that is white in review and renders in color is a shaded item .. that means no image maps are attached .. if you want to see the color in review you can add it in the materialsroom > diffuse .. the second item you mentioned I think is model only that are mostly used to develop games .. but you can import the .obj file in Poser through the menu

I decided to try a couple of things and watch a couple of tutorials. And it appears, in this case, it is a quirk of 8 as far as coloring goes. The tutorial shows that, after you load the figure, you go to the Materials tab in the content library and select MAT * whatever you just added *, and that will color it. This was done on 11, so I know the figure works, but 8 doesn't like it for some reason. Not a problem, I'll upgrade eventually. But at least I know I can add things made for Poser and they will work...eventually. ;)