I'm so frustrated with XML tuning and I have a lot of questions that I can't seem to find answers to anywhere. I also already read through EA's guide (in case you were going to suggest that ). If you could answer any of my questions, I would be so greatful!
1) When I'm making a stand-alone file with strings (to be referenced in other files) can I save that file (with the strings in it) as an XML file or do I have to convert that file into an STBL file? How would I go about converting a file into an STBL format?
2) What is a binary file?
3) What is the purpose of a DATA file and can I get away with ignoring them? Otherwise, do I have to learn how to generate them to accompany traits that I make?
4) I'm trying to override a couple of "Try for Baby" file interactions with my modified version. I managed to copy over a couple of XML files and change some values, but when I throw those files into S4PE I get an "Index is out of range" error. What should I do?
5) Why does S4PE keep taking in my XML files (traits/buffs, mostly but not from Zerbu's trait/buff maker--those work perfectly) as type "Unknown" instead of as XML files? I'm using Resource > Input > From File. Is there a specific naming convention that I should be adhering to or is it something else?

Seems like it's actually taking me longer to deal with S4PE then it did to do all that tuning.

bump please

1. No, strings need to be STBL -- I don't know about any converters; what I do is add a new resource in s4pe, with type STBL / group 0x80000000 / instance hashed from something like pbox_stuff-thing-whatever_stbl.

2. Which kind of binary file? There are some links to descriptions from Maxis listed under "Documentation" in the sticky in Tools.

3. The DATA contains information for the user interface of the game -- no, you cannot ignore these or the result will be quite confusing (like when your trait does things that aren't properly being reflected in the interface) or not working at all (like when you change things that you cannot actually select in game since the interface doesn't know about them). The values in your DATA should be in sync with what you have in your XML, in other words.

4. Please post about this in Modding Discussion with a little more detail on what you mean by "throw those files into S4PE" (step by step, what are you doing exactly?) and the verbatim error message you get.

5. Most likely this is because the respective wrapper doesn't know about that particular type. This is only a cosmetic issue, but you may want to try reporting it here: https://github.com/Kuree/Sims4Tools/issues