Installing Custom Content

I thought it would be handy if I posted a how-to of sorts on installing custom content. The only reason I knew how to do this myself in the first place was because of Dafont.com and my helplessness when it came to all their pretty little fonts. There are probably instructions on site and things, but I go a little bit beyond and add in a few extra steps. So here goes.

It is always more than handy to have The Compressorizer - I regress, it is imperative, as once you begin to download a million and a half items, your folder will get pretty heavy. This makes those items smaller. Just do it. You can download it here.

Also get Delphy's Download Organizer. This is super super handy, as it allows you to search for something and it is easier to see what everything is than if you just have a downloads folder and that's it. There is a ton of info about this programme here and here. You can download it here.

Okay. What you want to do is create a folder that will hold your downloads for the first stage. Name it something funky and put it on your desktop. I named mine aaaa not compressed yet! I just thought it would stand out more or something ... idk.



Anyway, next. Choose what you want to download. I am downloading Buggy's Sweet Slumber set, as I've been meaning to anyway. Click Download. Usually this will take you to an other page, so open it in an other tab if you want to stay on that website site, that way you aren't in danger of closing it down. When you click the actual download button, there is probably going to be a little window that opens and looks something like this second picture, depending on what you use to open downloads. Chances are it is WinRAR, but if you know that it isn't then you probably do not need this tutorial anyway. If something else comes up, just make sure that it is similar to the following photos or do some research, or leave a comment and I will do some research and amend this post : )

The folder where your downloads wait for unzipping should have appeared by now, so go ahead and double left click the folder you want to unzip. This folder should appear, and there maybe be a little screen that says something about help or buying the programme, but just close out of it. I've been using WinRAR for a few years now, and I've never had to purchase it, so it shouldn't give you any problems either. Select the files you want to download (you might want them all or even just a few, so be sure to read the names to make sure), forgoing any that do not look like the ones listed above. You can download terms of use if you want, but chances are if you don't know how to do what I am explaining, you aren't going to be recolouring or anything so you won't need those just yet. Take the files and move them into the folder I had you create earlier, e.g. aaaa not compressed yet!

When you have finished moving all of the custom content you want into this folder, you can open The Compressorizer. Click Add Files To List and choose your folder from the desktop, or wherever you put it. Once the files have appeared in The Compressorizer's screen, click Go, and it should start working its magic! If you want to see how much a certain file was compressed, all you need to do is click on it and it will line up the before and after numbers and you can see just how much space you saved. I've seen this programme cut a 1000 or more kb item down to 200kb. It is a real life saver.

Now you need to open the actual downloads folder for your sims game. Go to your documents folder, open the one labeled 'EA Games', open The Sims 2 folder, and choose the folder called 'Downloads'. If there isn't one there, you may have to create one. Move all items from your version of my aaaa folder into this folder. Once you have done this, go into the Delphy's Download Organizer folder, open the organizer itself, and it will scan all the packages into the programme. And voila, you are done!

If you have any questions or problems with this tutorial, feel free to leave me a comment. Otherwise, I hope this helps!