Packaging Up Your Files Like a Pro
One of the things that makes Poser great is all the community support it has. People from around the world are spending time creating things for other people to use. This tutorial is designed to show how to package up a file in .zip form to make it easier for others to unzip and immediately start using.
First, always make a readme.txt file. It's best to create a file with a descriptive name such as Cres-VickiCaucasionTex1-readme. This allows people to be able to identify the creator of the file and the file that the readme belongs to.
Readme's should contain contact information, the names of the files in the .zip, and a short description of what they are for. (Trust me, what seems logical to you will not always be logical to others. Where do I use uppertrans.jpg vs. secondtrans.jpg?)
Second, package up your WinZip files so that they will upzip automatically to the correct directories. Please, do not have the .zip file pointing to c:\program files\.... Not all of us put Poser on our C drives! The best place to start is the Runtime folder. True, not everyone puts all their stuff there, but the majority do. Those who do not put their stuff in the Runtime\... folder are used to moving things to their new locations, anyway.
An easy way to have things zip properly is to create a folder somewhere called Runtime. Create the subfolders to match the file locations for your files. Please be careful to use Uppercase and Lowercase folder names exactly like Poser has them! Runtime and runtime are different to Poser. In this example, I'm packaging up a dress called MoonDress. (Sorry, I don't actually have one ready for download!)
Between Windows and WinZip, I can right click on the Runtime folder and Add to Zip. When I select this, the WinZip dialog box comes up. Make sure to have Recursive Folders and Save Extra Folder information checked. Do not check Store Filenames in DOS 8.3 format. It will truncate the file and folder names, making a big mess! (The technical term for this is Hose Your Work.)
From here you can see that all the files are ready to unzip in the correct directories. (Yes, the files have no size. They're dummy files.)
Now when someone unzips the file, all they need to do is click on Extract, point the WinZip file to their Poser directory, and make sure that Use Folder Names is checked. (I'd advise you to put that in the readme file as there are still a few people who are new to WinZip.)
Yes, it's a small bit of extra effort, but it is well appreciated by the community, and required for some sites if you decide to sell your work.