Saving / backup in ESF Editor ?

[kesa82]

So I have finally worked out in my head what modifications I want to make , what experiments I want to try.
I'm eager to start !!

So I go to windows start, go to downloads, go to ESF editor, click on ESF Editor.

I am now in ESF Editor, looking at the first screen.

WAIT !!

Rule number 1 , Step number 1 : Back up / save game files .

Ok, like I said, I'm in ESF Editor, I'm on the first screen that pops up after you load ESF Editor .

In the upper left-hand corner of the screen is a drop down menu that says " FILE "

I click on that.

The menu drops down

It reads :

Open ESF
Open Savegame
Close ALL
-----------------
Save
Save As...
Quit

Is THIS WHERE I SAVE / BACKUP ? ( the sections highlighted in red ? )

And do I save / backup under "Save", or under "Save As... " ?
Does it matter which one I save under?

ONE MORE question please .

Can I just make alterations / edit the startpos directly, and leave it at that, or do I need to somehow transfer the alterations I have made in startpos to a ( my name )_mod. pack ?
( you can just answer this question " yes" or "no" , though a link to the relevant tutorial needed for this step would be nice. )

[Isabelxxx]

Is THIS WHERE I SAVE / BACKUP ? ( the sections highlighted in red ? )

About this: you only have to make a copy of your startpos before open the ESF editor. Copy/paste.

And do I save / backup under "Save", or under "Save As... " ?
Does it matter which one I save under?

Save: you will overwrite the startpos when saving.
Save As... : It gives you the option of saving with other name and in other folder.

Can I just make alterations / edit the startpos directly, and leave it at that, or do I need to somehow transfer the alterations I have made in startpos to a ( my name )_mod. pack ?

This hurts my ears.
You save the changes (after editing) and put the modded startpos (with this name and extension: ''startpos.esf'', if not: CTD) in your folder : Empire/data/campaigns/main
Make a copy (backup) of your original (vanilla, not modded) startpos after doing that.