1. The Maid herself - On the left. If you drag items onto her she just complains that she doesn't know what you want to do with them
2. The Lawn - The "green space" in between The Maid on the left and The Rack on the right. You can drag Sim's files, zips containing Sim's files, folders containing them, folders in folders, etc. Anything you drag here will be "installed" into The Sims.
3. The Rack - On the right. AFTER installing clothing skin files (eg. using The Lawn) you can drag individual or multiple clothing skin .BMP files from your GameData/Skins folder onto The Rack. For every file you drag onto The Rack, The Maid pops up a friendly dialog box (See Figure 2) to help figure out what this particular garment is (for proper sorting).

That's all there is, there ain't no more.

Ok, I lied. That's all you need to know. For the more adventurous souls, try right-clicking on the interface or click on the "?" button and you'll see something resembling Figure 3.

• Help - Opens a notepad-esque window that lets you view the README file (possibly in your own language if it has been translated).
• Sim File Maid Website! - The Maid tries her darndest to figure out which browser you're using, where it is, and point it at the Sim File Maid website.
• Check for Updates Now! - Allows you to check the Sim File Maid website for updates, which The Maid can download for you (Figure 8 shows the download-in-progress box).
• Rack Options - Brings up an interactive dialog box (similar to Figure 4) that lets you choose which rack you'd like to use.
• Language Options - Allows you to interactively select which language pack you'd like to use (by way of Figure 5). If you're multi-lingual and would like to translate The Maid into one or more languages, first read the language docs and then e-mail me the language pack and/or README when you're done! I can't pay you, but as the language docs say, you'll get a spot in the credits and +25 to Karma!
• Logging Options - The Maid keeps track of what happens while she's working. She has various "levels" of record-keeping and this interactive dialog (that looks suspicously like Figure 6) allows you to change how much or little is logged. I might also ask you to set the logging to "debug" if I'm trying to find a bug that is biting you. "Verbose" is the default and is fine for most people.
• Other Options - (See Figure 7) Allows you to set 3 options:
  • Confirm File Overwrites - The Maid will prompt you before installing files that have the same name as files you already have installed.
  • Skip EXE Files - The Maid will skip over .EXE files altogether instead of asking you what to do.
  • Allow The Maid to Check for Updates - Unleashes The Maid to check for updates to herself every 3 days. This is off by default. Read "Get Updates" for more information.
  • The Rack - If unchecked, this removes "The Rack" from "The Lawn". If you're not using Hot Date/Vacation, then The Rack is useless to you.
  • Where The Sims is Installed - This is where Sim File Maid has found The Sims. This value may be overridden if incorrect.
  • Force This Value - If you've moved The Sims from where you originally installed it, you may find that the "Where The Sims is Installed" path keeps getting "reset". If this is the case check this and it will use the path you specifiy regardless of where The Sims reports itself as being.
• Credits - Where you can get a look at who has helped with The Maid, done language translations, etc.

There is, of course, more to The Maid. But I'll leave you to explore find out the rest on your own if you're interested.

- Matthew (M@) Keller