People putty HTR files playing in Hal 6.0

[bnason]

I am trying some new htr files I made in people putty. I am having 4 questions.

1. How do you make a .jpg file for a preview?
2. How do you get rid of characters you don't want listed in the character preview window?
3. How do you create a start picture for Hal showing your favorite character?
4. Most important, I am having some trouble getting my homemade .htr files to load in Hal 6.0

[GrantNZ]

These answers are only guesses, you may need to experiment.

1. and 3. Look in the Program Files->Zabaware->Ultra Hal Assistant 6->Characters folder, where you put your .htr files. Check out the Sandy files - Sandy.htr is the People Putty character, Sandy.jpg appears to be the preview picture, SandyBack.jpg is probably the background image that loads when you load Sandy, and SandyStart.jpg looks like the start picture. Try creating similar .jpg files for your character. Note that they may need to be the same size and type as those examples, again you'll have to experiment (unless someone else here provides confirmed answers!).
2. Haptek characters: Do not use on characters supplied with Hal. Try deleting the character's .htr file (better: move it somewhere safe, so that you can restore it later). Agent characters: Do not use on characters supplied with Hal. Try deleting (again, read: move somewhere safe so that you can restore it) the .uhp file from the Program Files->Zabaware->Ultra Hal Assistant 6 folder. Again I stress that this is only a guess, and I take no responsibility if this breaks your Hal install []
4. Presumably you're putting them in the Characters folder? Otherwise, give more info - are you getting an error message? What's happening exactly?

Hope this helps, and hope it doesn't break anything []

(Edit: Added notes not to delete supplied characters, to avoid misleading anyone, thanks to Art's update below.)

[Art]

To offer a quote from Robert M.:

"You may add any additional characters and background that you wish. However, don't modify the characters and backgrounds installed by the expansion set. You may make copies of them and then modify them, but don't modify the original files."

You can make a preview image by using a screen capture program (there are several free ones available), then save the file.

Your .htr file MUST have the same name as the screen capture image in order for it to show in the preview section.

If your homemade .htr files are placed in the Characters directory and your same named preview files are also there, it should work.

[Duskrider]

Don't forget,
on characters change your .haptar extensions to .htr for use in Hal

[GrantNZ]

Thanks for the clarification re the built-in characters, Art - to avoid confusing anyone, I've edited my post to say not to delete supplied characters.

Cheers []