Tonight I have a bunch of questions for you which are really noobstyle and actually I am quite embarrassed not to have them figured out by myself and I am even more embarrassed that I havent found anything on it in this very forum, so if you feel inclined to throw links at me, you are very welcome to do so.

Ok so for the first time I wanted to create a poly~ object. For that, I first have to save a file in the .pat format. I am using Max 5 and .pat is not a saving option in the normal savings dialog. So here is the first thing – are .pat-files saved in a different way rather than using the usual save-dialog? Anyway, I checked the *.*-option and named my soon-to-be poly~-content xyz.pat. Then I wanted to do the cool stuff from the help file and load that thing by typing the file name as first argument directly into the poly~-object. The Max window quietly informed me that xyz.pat didnt exist. I tried some stuff and eventually managed to load the xyz.pat into the poly~ object after renaming it into xyz~.pat and only via the inspector, not by typing the argument in the poly~-object. Still, the ploy~-object did not have as many inlets as correctly specified in the subpatcher xyz~.pat (by using in~ and out~-objects). For no apparent reason I added an ezdac~-object, and by thereafter locking the patcher, suddenly the missing inlets of the poly~-object appeared, but no outlets. When I turned audio on, Max crashed and continued to do so when I repeated the procedure.

While checking in some forums I thought maybe abstractions would work better. So I read the tutorial for abstractions. Well, it didnt mention anything on how you either save something as abstraction (if this is the way to go) or load something as abstraction – all it did was mentioning the file browser, which I usually don’t use for the same reason that I do not use iTunes (stuff on my computer is organized). I hoped to find enlightment there, but oh my, stuff just got worse. Somehow I just couldnt access my Max files, which are not saved on the boot drive (which was the highest level I could the file manager take to) but on another hard drive. Failing at the simple task of file browsing, my explorer spirit collapsed and in despair I turn to you, dear Max community, with those questions:

How can I access another hard drive with the file manager?
How do I save a (sub-)patch as .pat?
How do I save a patch as abstraction respectively how do I load a patch as abstraction?
What do I have to do to make poly~-objects work?

I know, this questions are like “How can I turn my monitor into a mirror? Scanning an actual mirror didnt work …” and I will be thankful to all eternity for every bit of wisdom that you might want to share.

Cheers
Seba

Max 5, Windows Vista, Samsung Q210