Hi Burr, what I thought eric was asking about was that he was expecting to see the styles list in that same "Object tree" panel and didn't know that you had to go to a whole different panel (the materials one) to see them instead... From your help I think he's probably got enough information now.
Yes, I played with it yesterday and with your helpful suggestions can now easily make and identify all the materials of the same style as a group and render them properly.
