Ok, I'm sure this has been covered a million times already in this forum (and it's not DIRECTLY Poser related...well in a way) But anyway, I need to reformat my comp and noticed when backing stuff up that my Poser folders are a MESS! I'm also upgrading from 98SE to Win 2K Pro! jumps for joy How do you guys keep all these files organized in a clear manner? (Ok, the real question should be, is it POSSIBLE to organize in a clear manner) I tried keeping clothing textures together (sub categorized by clothing item) and hair textures matched in folders corrosponding to the hair, and poses alphabetized by who they were for and whatnot (P4fem together, P4male together, etc) But with installing some things they go to their own folders and create a TOTAL mess of stuff to dig through. How do you guys keep stuff sane? Just curious for when I reinstall everything to try to keep a better organized computer.

Im sure youll get a different answer to this from everyone. My personal way is to have a blank runtime in a temp folder and unzip into this, even the ones that use an .Exe zip, I just tell it to zip into this temp folder. My blank has empty "geometries" , "libraries" "textures" etc and when Ive unzipped a file I go through the files and place them where I want them, not where they want them. The only one I dont touch is the "geometries" folder, it can cause too many problems if you move them. All read-me`s are split into a "Readme" folder. Doing this I get a chance to rename and reorganise stuff. Slightly time-consuming but ultimately I know where everything is and have only the minimum number of folders in my Runtime B)

ponders Actually that's NOT a bad idea Routledge...not a bad idea at all, I had never thought of that. Thanx :) I'll have to keep that in mind

I do something similar to Routledge, and separate my folders by type. For example, clothing for Victoria is clearly marked on a clothing folder, and the P4 Woman's clothing is in a separate file. That way I don't have to worry about pulling up the wrong item and wonder why it won't conform correctly. The same thing is done to model-specific props.

Another trick with characters is to create totally white bodies of my favorite models. That way I don't have to reset the material information each time.

If you can gather your props under one category, like "plants", "furniture", "weapons", etc... you will be much happier.

It is possible to get so much of one type of item that you can get lost. I've divided Victoria's clothes into categories such as dresses, swim wear, shoes. It helps a lot.

I do exactly as Ron does with Victorias clothes, as she is my main focus and she has a wardrobe you could live in. Ditto with Tygercubs props. As Victoria 2 is such a big file I only have one character and apply textures using MAT pose files and body and face shapes with Poses. My own human characters use a stripped Victoria 2 with all the "Emaciated" "Old" "Elf" etc morphs removed (I`ve never been partial to old emaciated Elves anyway).

Well I know it's gonna be a time consuming task to reinstall/organize everything (but hey, I have to do it anyways...stupid corrupted files...) Thanx for the input, hopefully this will make a better, more organized way to work. (And possibly even faster which is always a good thing when you're in school LOL) Thanx for the help guys. :)