According to ChatScriptBasicUserManual.pdf if you want to make simple changes to the demo
chatbot you excute the following procedure:
1.  Find the executable program titled “chatscript.exe” located in your windows folder \ChatScript3.2a\
2.  Double click on the “chatscript.exe” program.
3.  Now a command console window will appear on your desktop.
4.  Now find the document titled “simpleTopic.top” located in your windows folder \ChatScript3.2a\RAWDATA\
5.  Double click to open that document
6.  Do a manual search or CONTROL KEY + F search to locate the words “My name is Harry”
7.  No you can change that sentence from “My name is :Harry” to “My name is Harry Potter” with whatever word editor you want.
8.  Next return to the command console window titled “chatscript.exe”
9.  At the command line type “:build 1”
10.  Next type at the command line “What is your name?”

Unfortunately I did this and it worked once or twice but now mostly the response is:  I don’t know what to say. I don’t really keep track of that.  So I imagine I need to either restart everything from scratch or I need to modify that particular topic so it aways “keeps”  and it also always “repeats.” 
1.  Am I correct?

So files to modify for beginners are:
files1.txt = small changes to existing topics to change the dialogue (Harry Potter name example)
skeleton.top = when your ready to create entire new topics that don’t conflict with pre-existing topics

2.  Is that the best way to start and test my own modifications?
Thanks in advance.  :- )

Oh you should know that before I did any of the above I followed the instructions in “ChatTutorial.pdf”  I guess I should have done one or the other but not both at the same time.  If I am building “:build 1” it is irrelevant to the steps I took to create “files2.txt” and the file “topic.top”

According to “ChatTutorial.pdf”  I should:
1.  Open a word editor(notepad) and create the document “topic.top”

2.  Select the file “chatscript/files1.txt” copy it, paste it, then change the name of the document to “chatscript/files2.txt”
3.  Open a word editor(notepad) and open “chatscript/files2.txt”
4.  Search for the line “RAWDATA/simpletopic.top” and a line that refers to the file you just created “topic.top”

3.  Is there a distinction between “RAWDATA\simpletopic.top” for Linux and “RAWDATA/simpletopic.top” for windows?  Could / versus \ be a problem?  The .pdf manuals specify / as do the files in the “RAWDATA” folder yet I am pretty sure windows xp requires “\”

1. you are correct.
2. depends on what you mean. Certainly editing the sample file, building it, and trying the answer are needed. Whether you need to “keep” anything depends on how often you want to try it in a row. You can also :restart and log in as a different user to test it.  Or if you want you can just do   :retry immediately after your previous test.
3. windows and Linux both accept /    Windows also accepts \ 

Ok thanks Bruce.  I will figure this out.  My learning curve will be very steep, lol.  Happy 4th.  I thought of living in HI, no money so I would have had to live in a trailer.  Yet living in a trailer in Paradise is better than living in Mansion stateside.

Is it me or do the “old ways” of modifying playing with files2.txt not work in new version 3.64?  How should I modify the procedure I wrote up above on Jul 1, 2013?  Thanks for taking the time to keep chatscript fresh.

files1.txt is now called filesHarry.txt and harry’s files are no longer top level but inside the HARRY folder. 
You can duplicate that folder, rename it TEST. Then duplicate filesharry.txt and rename it files2.txt . And edit inside it to say TEST instead of HARRY. then you can :build 2

I revised the tutorial doc to read like this:

Create a folder called TEST inside the RAWDATA folder.
Create an empty file named “tutorial.top”, and put it inside this TEST folder.
Copy the file “chatscript/filesharry.txt” that comes with the zip file into a new file “chatscript/files2.txt”.
In files2.txt, insert a reference to your newly created file and revise the reference to HARRY. Files2.txt looks like this:
RAWDATA/HARRY/simplecontrol.top   # default bot control
RAWDATA/TEST/tutorial.top       # tutorial bot data
From now on, we will work with the file tutorial.top.