@TrekkieGrrrl
Right. I tried 3DMax version ...uh...4? in 1997 and felt part of my cerebellum pop.  Haven't touched a 3D program until now :-)

Yes, I imported a model that I purchased here at Renderosity and it comes up un-textured.

My steps:
Import model (OBJ). Click materials tab.

Main camera to the left, materials window with simple/advanced tabs in the middle and a texture map loaded, library on the right.

On main view: Click a portion of the model with the eyedropper. Nothing happens.
As an experiment:
Move to library view, click materials > Poser 8 > Procedurals > Brick and tile > Brick 1

Double click Brick 1.

Poser loads the material into "Diffuse Color" block, but model stays grey. Clicking eyedropper does nothing. Clicking the materials brings a "texture manager" pop.

Everyone reading this is going, "dude, it's so easy, what's the prob? " aren't you :-)

So the learning challenges today are:

1. swapping one texture on a pre-built imported model and
2. adding a background texture (I have the JPG)

If you're interested, you'll eventually see some of my work over here:
www.battleclinic.com

 @darkedge, thanks, i'll click around based on those notes. I'm importing max files.

@markschum - i understand all the words you used but not in that order :-)   I'm not a modeler. I just bought Poser today :-)

Yeah thanks for the bump. Just not wrapping my head around how to get materials onto model surfaces. Might be old age finally kicking in...