Editing a material without assigning it to the active object I'm trying to work on the materials for my scene without touching the rest of the scene for now. When I try to switch between scenes by clicking the outlined thing, it automatically applies the selected material to the active object.
Is this the wrong button? Should I be clicking something else in order to edit the material properties without applying it to my objects? 

Thanks for the help in advance.
Presently there is no experimental area to create materials before assigning them to an object. This leads to workarounds, and they may be obvious. Ways that come to mind are:


script it, and assign it.
or, create a dummy object like a suzanne (because it's shapely) and create the new material for that and tweak it until satisfied. Then assign the material to the object(s) that you do want to use it with.
or, start a second instance of blender, create suzanne, create a material for it (give it a good name), then save the blend. Then in the original blend go to File > Append > (select file with the material) > Materials > (select the named material) Append . This will append the material to your current .blend file. Assign the new material to the desired object.


Remember, Giving a fake user (the F button) to a material tells blender not to delete that material if it isn't assigned to any objects, when the .blend is saved.

ps. I don't like to use bold letters often, but good names are very handy.