It's like a standard windows app with a menu. It supports multiple documents and it has several toolbars. You see the map from the top and there is no 3D display of the map right now. It can open two kinds of files: W3M and W3E.

• The "Edit mode selection" toolbar helps to switch between editing modes. Each editing mode uses specific toolbars and view mode. When you change the "Edit mode" combo, it'll automatically hide and show the appropriate toolbars and switches to the appropriate view mode.

• The "Toolbars selection" toolbar allows to show and hide toolbars so you can quickly switch from an editing mode to another without using the "Edit mode selection" toolbar.

• The "Zoom bar" is used to zoom in,  zoom out and go back to the original scale. Note: to zoom in and zoom out, you can also select the window and use the mouse wheel.

• The "Map window" displays the map using the "view mode bar" settings. Each square (8x8 pixels) on the map represents a "TilePoint". A "TilePoint" is a corner of tile (therefore 1 tile is made of 4 TilePoints). Doodads are represented as green crosses and units as little circles (start positions are red, gold mines are yellow and others are white).

• The "View mode bar" buttons allows you to hide and show map elements. "Level" and "Tiles" work together. In "Level" mode, the ground level is shown using gray scale (lighter is higher). In "Tiles" mode, tilepoints colors correspond to the tileset used for this tilepoint (also here lighter is higher). Note: both "Level" and "Tiles" modes can be unselected at the same time (just click again on the selected one and the background will be black). The "Doodads" button hides/shows doodads. The "Units" button hides/ shows units. The "Path" button hides/shows pathing. Pathing uses color codes and is shown as transparent colors added on the map. The "Shadows" button hides/shows shadows on the map. The "Tiles" section of the "View mode bar" allows you to hide/show tilepoints flags. "Layers" shows layers (one color per layer), "Ramps" displays ramp tilepoints in blue, "Blight" displays blight tilepoints in transparent red, "Water" displays in transparent blue tilepoints with the water flag set and the water level above the ground level, "Boundaries" and "WE Boundaries" display darker tilepoints where these flags have been set. (See below for more details)

• The "TilePoint bar" is used for tilepoints editing. (See below for more details)

• The "Tilepoints tools" bar is used for tilepoints editing.

• The "Doodad bar" is used for doodads editing. (See below for more details)

• The "Doodads tools" bar is used for doodads editing.

• The "Unit bar" is not implemented yet. (See below for more details)

• The "Path tools" bar is used for path editing.

• The "Shadow tools" bar is not implemented yet.

The "TilePoint bar" and the "Doodad bar" are used in combination with their respective toolbars. You can read and set parameters with these bars. Usually, the right click is used to get the value of an element and display them in its bar. Some tools use the bar values to do their job and in some cases, some values can be randomized or not changed even if they appear as fixed in the bar.

To "write enable" a filed, it must be red as shown here (right click on the text to change check boxes status):
for buttons: or
for check boxes:

To "write random values enable" a filed, it must be orange as shown here:
for buttons only: or

To "read only" (keep it unchanged) a filed, it must be green for buttons or black for check boxes as shown here:
for buttons: or
for check boxes:

"View mode" examples:

Normal view (without boundaries)	No doodads and no units	Levels	No tiles
World Editor boundaries	Boundaries	Blights	Ramps
No water	Layers	Path map	Shadow map

Fields description:

• "Map Width" and "Map Height": these are the number of tiles you want for the width and the height.
• "Playable area": width x height (in tiles units) of the playable area.
• "Map type": select the map type. The W3E type is the one used by the map while the W3I one is used in the War 3 menus.
• "Use custom tilesets": check it if you want to modify the "Ground tilesets" and/or the "Cliff tilesets" lists.
• "Ground tilesets" and "Cliff Tilesets": list of tilesets (IDs) used on the map. One tileset ID is 4 letters. The tilesets IDs can be found in the "\TerrainArt\Terrain.slk" and "\TerrainArt\CliffTypes.slk" files of your war3beta.mpq or war3betapatch.mpq or in "SLK packs" (like Skizot and Cookie's one). Because of tilepoints definition (tilesets are indexed using 4bit), you can't use more than 16 tilesets.
  Also, some tilesets have special properties and War3 may not like to have 0 or more than 1 tilesets using these properties.
• "Map name", "Map author", "Map description", "Suggested players": these are text fields used in the War3 menus.
• "Number of players": is the max number of players allowed on this map.
• "Map version" and "Editor version": these are version numbers of the map and the editor version used (v1.21 World Editor is 4073).
• "Camera Bounds": theses are coordinates of the camera limits on the map. If some parts of the playable area are not inside the camera bounds and units go in these areas, the game will crash!
  Here is how to find the right values:
  Get the map width and height (tiles units) and multiply these numbers by 64 (why 64? answer: you got the map size in tiles units, to convert it in "real" units so you multiply them by size_of_a_tile=128, then you have the with or the height but you want the 0 coordinate to be in the middle of the map so you divide your numbers by 2 --> 128/2 = 64.). Keep the signs and just replace the x values by the "width*64" and the y values by the "height*64".
  Example: map_size=96x128
  96*64 = 6144
  128*64 = 8192
  

  	X	Y
  bottom left	-6144	-8192
  top right	6144	8192
  top left	-6144	8192
  bottom right	6144	-8192

Now go to "File->New" and fill the "Map Property" dialog box like shown here and click ok:

Your map will look brown because all the tilepoints are using the first tileset which is Ldrt aka "Lordaeron Dirt".

Let's just switch tilesets in the "Map properties" dialog box. To do so, hit Alt+Enter and change the ground tilesets line from "LdrtLdroLdrgLrokLgrsLgrd" to "LgrsLdroLdrgLrokLdrtLgrd". Since we have modified the tilesets list we need to check the "use custom tilesets" check box.

Now click OK. It's done!

Let's learn the selection tool! Click on the selection tool . Now you'll have to place the 4 corners of the selection tool. The two firsts are red and the two lasts are blue. Warning! Selection order is important! You can hit Esc at any time to cancel a selection. Now click on the upper left corner of the map once (the tilepoint should become red), then on the upper right corner (red also), then the bottom right and finally the bottom left. The whole map should appear in inverted colors and there should be a red line at the top and a blue line at the botton.

(zoomed out)

As you probably noticed, some tools are now available on the tilepoints tools bar. Try to find the "Randomize height" one and click it.
Now your tilepoints should not have all the exact same color. Hit Esc and you'll see some tilepoints are lighter and others darker because of the gound height difference.

Now re-select the whole map like you did before and use the tool called "flatten height" . It'll reduce height difference between two neighbouring tilepoints.

Note: you can select several time the same tilepoint (to make a triangle selection for example).

Let's make a little hill in the middle of our new map. Select the tilepoint pen tool . Then on the "tilepoint bar" set write enable only for the ground type and the ground height and set these fields as shown here:

(red) ground type = 'Ldro'
(red) height = 9728
(other fields green)

Then left click on a tilepoint in the middle of the map. Now use the selection and click once on the tilpoint you just wrote. Click again on that tilepoint and click on two other tilepoints as shown:

Then click on the first bent slope button . Unselect the area and do the same process again but this time change the two blue tilepoints as shown:

... and again... ...and again...

...and finally:

If you don't like the "lines" that appear between two selections, jut select the area and use the randomize height and the flatten tools.
Now what about making a nice top? Select the Ellipse tool , select the ground type 'Lrok' and "write disable" the height of tilepoint bar (the circle near height must be green ). Just draw the circle arround the top of our hill like shown (mouse left button down->upper left corner of the ellipse, mouse left button up->lower right corner of the ellipse):

Now select the tilepoint fill tool and click in the ellipse. It should now look like that:

What about having snow a the real top? :) OK! Let's do it! First we need the snow tileset. Hit Alt+Enter and add 'Wsnw' to the ground tilesets. Click OK. Make sure "ground type" is still the only "write enabled" field in the tilepoint bar and change the ground type to 'Wsnw'. Now simply use the tilepoint pen tool to put snow on the top and it's done!

-->

Now let's make a river! Right click on the tilepoint bar and go to properties. Use the same values as above except for the tilepoint pen size. Set the size to 12. Then click ok and go back to the tilepoint bar. Write enable the ground type, the cliff type, the layer and the water flags. Check the water flags and set details to random value. Then select the ground type 'Ldrt' and the cliff type 'CLgr' and change the layer to 0. Your tilepoint bar should look like that:

Then just draw the river!

• "Random types list" contains the list of possible doodads type used when the doodad bar type field is set to random value.
  Tree types can be found in the "Units\DestructableData.slk" file.

• "Random variation" set the random range used for random variation values. It'll be between 0 and the value set (here: 8).

• "Tree spacing" is the minimum distance between two trees.

• "Random scale ranges" sets the scale ranges for random scale values.

• "Random life range"  sets the life ranges for random life values.

• "Doodads pen size" is the size of the pen. It defines a square area arround the mouse cursor where trees can be placed respecting the minimum distance between two trees. When this value is above 1, trees are randomly placed arround the mouse cursor. The size also applies to the rectangle and ellipse tools.

To put trees on our hill select the filled ellipse tool. The edit the doodad bar properties and set the doodads pen size to 256. Then click ok and make an ellipse arround the hill using the tool.

-->

Now we're gonna remove the trees on the top. You don't need to change the doodads pen size since it does not apply to the remove and update doodads tools. Select the remove doodads tool, click and move the mouse where you want to remove trees. Keep a few trees in the snow area.
What about having winter trees at the to of our little hill? Select the update doodads tool and make sure that all the fields are set to "read only" on the doodad bar. Then set the doodad type to 'WTtw', edit the doodad bar properties and put 'WTtwWTst' in the random type list. Then set the doodad type field to random value .

You can now click and move the mouse over the snow part of the hill and it's done.

Our path should look like that:

Don't forget to add the boundaries! Go back to the ground editing mode, select the tilepoints where you want boundaries to be set using the selection tool. Then set the tilepoint pen size to a big value like 20 and make sure only the "WE Boundary" flag is set and checked. Then write the tilepoints with the pen, changes will apply to selected tilepoints only.

Open the World Editor and create a new map (same dimention or close because of units placing). You just need to save the new map without editing it to a temporary name. Then open the map with a mpq editor and extract the following files:
war3map.j
war3map.mmp
war3map.w3c
war3map.w3r
war3map.wct
war3map.wtg
war3mapMap.tga
war3mapUnits.doo

Open now your map made with my map editor with a mpq editor and add these files into it. You should now be able to open the map with the World Editor and play it on War3.

Get the map here!