Materials to faces and UV mapping?

[digitaldavinci]

I am in need of a simple answer here.
I have a complete object.
I was assuming I could select faces, apply a material, uvMap and create text, then hide those faces and move on to another set of faces to do the same thing constantly moving around the object assigning faces this way till the whole model is matted and uv mapped.
I rename the created textures to something relevant.
I have seen Wings 3d drop the multi face materials next time I enter wings.
Face selections also change.

My question is 'Can I work with a subset of faces of an object in this way that are not whole objects?'
Or do I need to make those facial subsets separate objects to keep the work in the outliner stable?

I found this problem as I was working the wings interface and started noticing work was disappearing. Either I found an operational back door that isnt valid or wings has problems or my workflow concept is incorrect.
I am working the current Mlab version to use the boolean functions.
I also would like to know if it is safe to switch between the current wings and mlab version on the same project file?

I hope I was clear in my explanations.