finally got the full school theater.pz3 prop open. looks great as far as I can tell, because I have not mastered the right techniques to move around and see different areas.  been working on it 3 hours and no difference except I've learned a lot of things not to do. is that the only way to learn an older, complex prop or is there somewhere a simplistic guide for poser idiots?

woebegone drawn,

Unfortunately, there is no guide like that. Asking here can help or trial and error. And remember for next time.

What issues are you having with navigating?

Until we know specifics, it's hard to help.

2 tips I can offer is to try turning on the Orbit select mode. It will make the camera rotate around a selected figure or prop rather than around the center of the scene.

It makes it easier to bring someone off to the side into better visibility

Also, try hiding things like walls if they are getting in the way of focusing on something in the scene.

good advice, Red, I'll try both of those. the walls do get in the way often as I try to explore...

drawn

Check if the set has camera settings.  Sometimes, vendors will included camera settings to navigate around a scene.  Using the top camera will give you a general view where everything is located.

well, orbiting selected figger is a good idea but it don't work for me...and camera settings is too but the top camera shows me a gray scene and I can't figger how to make it see something, anything!

Hide the ground for the top camera. The default ground is a dome so it will block everything. You might also need to hide the roof of the theater.

It doesn't look like you have the orbit selected turned on. Maybe you turned it off before doing your screen shot?

And if you've moved the camera around a lot, you might need to restore it Edit>Restore>Camera

Sometimes, to navigate in a scene with a lot of stuff, I find easier to select a part of a body and to orbit + zoom in/out from there.
Selecting a full body create larger movements, not always centered. Selecting a hip/head will force the cam to turn around it ( activate the orbit mode, else you'll have a kind of inversed effect.)
The shortcuts I use the most:
- space key + left button: pan
- alt key pressed + mouse's left button = orbit around the selected object
- ctrl + space keys pressed + mouse's left button = zoom in/out

With the last tip: by alternatively pressing / relaxing only the Ctrl key, you may rapidly position your cam.

To focus on a specific figure within a scene, you can make use of the Pose Camera. Simply select the figure you wish to highlight and switch to the Pose Camera mode.