Last time I had an install I belive I messed things up pretty bad by not cleaning/not cleaning with a proper program my mods.
So far from what I've gathered, Escog, Enchanted Editor and TESTool are the big three. It would be very helpful if some of the community here could weigh in on which is the most effecient if it's not too much of a bother.
I'm trying to do things right this time, so I'm going slow and steady, cleaning and checking everything I put in.
http://code.google.com/p/mlox/wiki/Tes3cmd clean --replace --hide-backups "modname.esp"
After cleaning with tes3cmd.exe, better clean a few things tes3cmd may skip (usually starting/ending dialog entries in double-linked dialog lists which can be reconstructed on the fly by Morrowind engine, and some other junk cells created by TESCS) using TESTool.
Be sure to have testool.exe in your Morrowind directory, and confirm if it asks to use your Morrowind.ini settings instead of registry setting. Then go to the Options panel and set these options ON: "Don't change plugin filenames", "Retain file name when cleaning"
Keep everything else OFF.
Now choose the "Clean ESP/ESM (save results in Clean subfolder)" option. This way you will modify just a copy of the mod, but you will be able to open and study the generated all-important Morrowind\TESTool.log, and decide if you want these changes.
To be absolutely safe even with not perfectly clean dialog mods, keep also "Restricted dialog cleaning" ON. If you are sure your mod is not changing original topic infos, you can keep it OFF.
To be absolutely safe even with rare mods using empty interior cells as garbage storage, keep also "Restricted cell cleaning" ON (you will possibly miss some junk cell cleaning though).
Now choose the option "Clean ESP/ESM" to clean your mod for good.
What I usually do and suggest is just to add any static to the empty garbage storage cell, so TESTool will avoid cleaning it even with "Restricted cell cleaning" OFF.
Note: for all this to work as intended, you obviously have to use TESTool Execute button, NOT the JUST FIX IT! one, else all our carefully chosen TESTool settings will be bypassed using potentially dangerous default instead.
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