Good point.

Someone else on the forum pointed out to me that you can manually clean mods within the editor. At the data load screen, you can click on details for you mod and then hit delete/ignore for the lines you won't need, and when you reload the mod, those lines will be deleted. So dilly-dally with vanilla cells all you want, just clean up after yourself, and keep a record of which cells you DO want to modify so you can delete everything else. I hope modders will get into this habit (or use cleaning programs, I hear Skyedit does this well, but I haven't used it), but I imagine most mods out there so far are inadvertantly as dirty as the driven slush.

A word of warning, though, save a backup copy before manually cleaning the mod. For example, I discovered that outdoor navmeshes will need the navmeshes of the cells in the four cardinal points connected to any cell you alter the navmesh for, even if you didn't change them. If you delete one of those extra navmeshes because it's in a cell you didn't intend to modify, it causes the CK to crash. So just in case you delete a line that shouldn't really be deleted, have your backup ready, because otherwise you might not be able to load your mod and lose it. (Thank Boethiah I made a backup in this case!)

There's also the possibility you could axe something else the mod needs and end up with a corrupted pile of sludge even if the CK can load it. The details screen isn't the most user friendly thing and it's quite dangerous if you're not absolutely sure of what you're doing.

True enough, Arthmoor, but it does have a certain logic to it, at least for finding object references. Backing-up and thorough testing are still needed.

Thank you! Saved my butt. I created a couple of different ESPs that both added items to the same vendor. I was not aware they would not be compatible until I started getting some angry feedback from downloaders. I tried just manually moving my items to a different vendor in one of the ESPs, but the original vendor was still asterick'd. Luckily this tip is just what I needed to solve the issue. Thanks again!

Yeah that's what I do as well. Also, if you delete stuff, it still hangs around as "junk" so instead of deleting Items, I drag them off to the side and then when I need to add another item, I just take one of the uneeded items and swap it out (ctrl+F) for whatever I need to add.

Very helpful to know, thanks!

What I do is create a 'blank'.esp file, named appropriately for the changes I'm going to make, and then poke around as much as I need to in order to see what's what (or where, as the case may be), while taking notes as I go. After I have the information I need, I close the blank without saving, then restart the editor, open the blank again (which, because I did not save, has no changes recorded), and get to work.

This method is a bit slower than using TesSnip or another utility to clean the plugin, but it insures I have what I need to do it properly in the first place; that's very important to me, as it means I get to skip the later headache of tracking and cleaning out 'bad' edits.

This is why FNVedit and FO3Edit were so crucial. As long as we have tools like these to clean up our mods (Which EVERYONE should do), we will be fine.

Yeah I think copying stuff also give the items an *.

I cleaned up an .esp in TESVsnip without editing the cell records. When I loaded it again in the CK, I got an error about headers but it offered to fix it for me, and didn't close it. I take it this is a past issue that's been fixed now?

just to be clear, i've noticed that if you select an area of a cell and click edit/copy render from the the taskbar (rather than right clicking), you can paste the selected items in to your own cell without flaging the previous cell with a *. does this really work? or is there a silent dirty record kept?

has anyone got TESAME to work? i tried using it with my mod but it only loads and nothing shows up on the screen. is it even compatible with skyrim?

I have to say the easiest way, although the most time consuming, is using the details tab under the date load menu. It looks like alot but if you actually try to decipher how it works it actually becomes simple. or at least it was to me. I couldnt get TESAME to work on my computer or with Skyrim, and the other mods i was not too familiar with and such warnings as having to update a cell count or actually deleting everything in the mod instead of the data, well it just seemed like a hassle and a pain in the ass.
The details menu you dont actually delete anything. what it does when you press delete is it "ignores" changes you made to that specific data line so that the next time you start the game or open the creation kit (granting you pressed the save button), those changes have been removed.
Now as far as a breakdown of the data lines i think i have it down pat as i been going through my mod, which is rather large and removing items i dont want changed. the break down is simple. from the top it starts off with Any static objects, items or references YOU created. These are labeled "Stat". this means, any statics used that were under the vanilla naming convention, dont fall under this. So if you grab an existing static and rename the reference ID for it, the mod saves it as a seperate file and it shows up in the begining. im assuming this goes for scripts, references etc... i am not sure what the TES4 is considering this is TES5...
After those all the interiors you have created and/or altered show up. its actually pretty consistent too. as long as you havent clicked on the above tabs to sort the items, when you first bring up the details menu, it sorts everything by the cells. So, anything within the cells you have altered will show up below their cell reference labeled "CELL". All the items that are in that cell and altered show up thereafter as "REFR".
After the interiors Comes the worldspaces and they are broken down by first worldspace, objects in the world spaces, then the cells under these worldspaces, and then the objects in these cells.
I am not sure what the "GRUP" items are underneath each cell, im only assuming this is the cell reference to show that there are conjoining cells in reference to this cell but pretty much all of them have it. The Navmeshes also show up as well in particular to their cell, "NAVI".
"ACHR" are character items, im assuming all the ones in my mod look to be that way. The editor ID's should be whatever you have them as in the game, unless you created one under the reference IDs.
Also, the order of the items also seems to be in chronological order because of the ID's that are assigned to them at the point of creation (example, 00012FE8).
there are also land data entries "LAND" but i dont know if that is in reference to landscape detailing. I tried removing one of these and the landscape alteration was still in the creation kit the next time i started it. is there another way to revery certain cells back to their vanilla landscape?

okay this is crap. that logic did not work at all. i deleted for the whole ignore thing and when i reloaded the mod, the damn changes were still there. do you need to not have the file active in order for the changes to take effect?

Edit: scratch that. that didnt work either. Once i am done make my changes I hit close then i hit Okay and it asks me if i want to save the changes to my plugin. i say yes and it reloads. when i come back in those changes are still there. i even tried hitting cancel and just manually saving without close, STILL THERE. WTF?! anyone else having this issue?

Edit2: I have tried everything. If this isnt a known bug then something is wrong with my system or i am doing it wrong. the layout is understandable BUT Most things arent being removed. I was able to delete certain things like location marker but major cells interior and exterior and the items, WONT GO AWAY! in fact i have this huge mound in the middle of the tundra, god knows where from and i been meaning to remove it. i thought this would be an easy step but it isnt! what am i doing wrong?

i know when i keyboard it (CTRL+C and CTRL+A) it alters it.

uhm just an update on my situation for those concerned... so i was doing it wrong. When you make the changes in the detail menu if you hit cancel on the data load screen it removes the changes u made so you have to click "Ok" to reload the mod. then once you reload hit save then close out and reload ur mod and the changes will take effect. unfortunately i ran into some problems removing the data fields for exterior cells in tamriel that had landscape effects. in fact upon saving i would get an error message saying that it could not find a file. it would then crash the creation kit. upon loading the mod again, i would get a message that the cell at 0,0 already existed and it would be discarded. upon checked the details, all the data lines were still ignored, and when you went to hit save it would crash again.
i went ahead and tried out TESVsnip and deleted the cell entries around 0,0 (where my mysterious mound showed up) went back into the creation kit and those errors disappeared.
weird, but interesting.... i can only say while using any method to clean your mods always create a back up. the creation kit seems still a bit buggy and can corrupt your files so beware!