Importing materials

I am new to Blender, but not new to 3D.

There are many sites where you can download blender materials and you get a .blend file. Some of these textures are complicated, like procedural wood or stone which includes bump maps etc... As far as I can tell all these are separate elements. I cannot see how to import them all in and get a complete material from the .blend file.

If I go to Append in the file menu I can see files in both the texture and material folders. However importing those does not give me the texture surface I see in the example image of the files I downloaded.

Is there a way to load in everything, the bump map, the node setup, etc.. etc... to get the complete complex material from a blend file?

Thanks for any help.

Good evening,
Regarding the maps, I wonder if you just need to tell the textures or nodes where to look for the images. I was able to append a material that used a node and the node came with it. I have only had trouble when I have moved stuff and they do not know where to look anymore.
Good luck.
Scooter

Thanks for your reply. I found that if import both the nodes and the material they do seem to find each other. I have to relink these to the object though. I can't seem to import an object and have it remember its material even if they are in the same location.

Good evening,
I have a feeling that the re-linking need is due to how the file with you material library was originally set up. You may not be about to get around it.
Good luck.
Scooter