Once you have created and assigned a material to an object, you can edit it in different ways, such as duplicating it, renaming it, or removing it from an object.
To edit a material's properties, do any of the following:
In the material manager, double-click a material's shaderball in the shelf.
Right-click on a material's shaderball and choose Properties.
Use the explorer to find the material and click its icon to open its property editor.
Select the object with a material and choose Modify 
Shader from the Render toolbar.
If you are editing a shared material, you may or may not be prompted to create a local copy, depending from where you open the property editor.
If you open a material's property editor from its material library's hierarchy, you are not prompted to create a local copy of the material. Changes that you make to the material are applied to every object to which the material is assigned.
If you open a material's property editor from the scene's hierarchy, you are prompted to create a local copy.
If you say yes, a copy of the material is created in the current library and assigned to the inspected object. Changes that you make to the material are only applied to the local copy.
If you say no, changes that you make to the material are applied to every object to which the material is assigned.
You can create as many duplicates of a material as you like. You can either create unused duplicates of a material or you can duplicate a material in a library or used by an object and immediately assign it to another object. In either case, the duplicates of the material are added to the current material library.
You can use either the material manager or the explorer to duplicate materials.
Open the material manager by pressing Ctrl+7 or choosing Modify Materials from the Render toolbar.
Open a material library and select the material you want to duplicate by clicking its shaderball in the shelf.
Do any of the following to copy the material:
Choose the Materials Duplicate Material command or click its icon in the command bar.
You don't need to paste the material anywhere in particular: the duplicate is added to the current material library as a new unused material with a number appended to the original's name.
Right-click on the material's shaderball and choose Duplicate Material.
In the material manager, select the material you want to copy by clicking its shaderball in the shelf.
Find the object onto which you want to copy the material (such as in a 3D view or an explorer).
Ctrl+drag the material onto the destination object.
The material is copied and the copy is assigned to the destination object. The copy is added to the current material library with a number appended to the original's name.
Because all of your materials are owned by the material library and can be assigned to multiple objects simultaneously, you can remove a material from an object without deleting the material itself. When you remove an object's material, it inherits the next propagated material.
Select the objects whose material you wish to remove and choose Get Material UnAssign Material from the Render toolbar.
If the material was assigned in branch mode, you must branch-select the object to remove the material.
Choose Get Material UnAssign Material from the Render toolbar to start a pick session. From the explorer or a 3D view, pick the objects whose material you wish
to remove, then right-click to end the pick session.
If any of the picked objects' materials were assigned in branch mode, you must middle-click the objects to remove their materials.
In the explorer, expand the object whose material you wish to remove. Then right-click its material and choose Delete from the menu, or select the material and press Delete.
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