So, I began playing Diablo on the free shareware site, and I just bought the full version. From what I gather there is a way to continue my save from the shareware version in the full version. Does anyone have any idea how to do that, if it's even possible? I assume it is, since I was able to download my save as a .sv file.

Did you try to throw the .sv file into the relevant diablo directory and see if the character populates when you launch the game?

IE: C:/Diablo

They are encrypted with different keys and have slightly different item tables so it won't work that easy

Is he talking about Diablo spawn? Just start a new character if that is the case.