Here's a few notes you'll need to remember when working with XWE. You'll notice there is no 'save' button to save the wad on XWE. Every change you make is made and kept that way. If you add a new graphic then the graphic is, pretty much, automatically saved on there and you have no need to save. This is a real time saver but can also mess stuff up because once you make the change, there's no "Oh, I didn't save it so it's not messed up." So make sure to make a copy of your wad, just in case.

Make sure that when loading, making or moving new entries, make sure you're in the 'all' tab.

If you decide to make your own texture, sprite or flat, make sure you set the palette to the DoomPalette. The DoomPalette can be found by going to your XWE folder and going to Palettes folder.
To change the Palette using Photoshop, go to Image - Mod - Indexed Color. In the new window select Custom from the Palette drop down list and a new window will open.
Select Load and select the DoomPalette.

The types of image files Doom supports is .bmp, .jpg and .pcx.
Sound files are .wav
Music files are .mus, .mid, .it and .mp3.

Let's take a quick look at the main interface.

ToolBar:

1. File:
   
   • Merge - Takes an existing wad and add the level, textures, flats, sprites to the wad you currently have open.
   • CleanUp - Re-writes the entire wad file. This will get rid of 'gaps' in the file (if any). Use it when done editing.
2. Entry
   • New - Makes a new blank entry or marker.
   • Load - Loads new sprites, textures, music, graphics, flats.
   • Replace - Replaces the selected entry and replaces it with a file of your choosing. Useful if you loaded the wrong sprite, you can simply click on the sprite and go to edit-replace and replace it with the correct sprite.
   • Save As - Save the selected entry. EX: Opening Doom.wad with XWE and going to the patches and selected a certain patch you want in your wad, then entry-save as. Save it to a file on your computer then opening your wad and entry-load and load the patch into your wad.

1. All
   • Displays everything in the entry window.
2. Graphics
   • This will display entries with the G icon beside it in the entry window. These are graphics. These include your title screen, help screen and status bar among other things.
3. Sprites
   • This will display entries with the S icon beside it in the entry window. These are sprites. These are your monsters, ammo, weapons, health and pillars. Basically any object in the game is a sprite.
4. Sounds
   • This will display entries with the speaker icon beside it in the entry window. These are your sound files of things like the imp's fireball noise and the cyberdemon's walking sound.
5. Music
   • This wil display entries with the music note icon beside it in the entry winow. These are yours music files that are played during, after and between maps.
6. Map
   • This will display the maps in the entry window. I recommend that you don't want to use the map editor with XWE, so it's best to leave this alone and stick to DoomBuilder or whatever you're using.
7. Textures
   • This is display your Texture1 (and in some cases there's a Texture2) entry. I'll explain this a more later.
8. Patches
   • This will display a list of entries with the I icon beside it. These are the patches. Let me explain a bit.
     A texture in Doom is not one solid image, it's actually made up (usually) of a few small images, these small images are your patches. Take the texture SW1METAL for example. This is actually two patches, one patch that is the metal image and another patch that is the switch image placed ontop of the metal. This will be explained more later.
9. Floors
   • This will display a bunch of entries with a square icon beside it. These are your flats. A flat any image that can be used as a ceiling and floor texture.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Graphics:

   I don't really know how to describe what the game's graphics are so I'll just name a few. The TitlePic, the background you see after the beat a level, the credits picture, the help picture, the status bar, the DoomGuys face... basically any image that is not in the level it's self. That is to say any picture that is apart of the level (the level and the wad are two different things mind you.)
   
   To my knowledge, you have to replace an existing graphic in order for a grahpic to work, you cannot just add a new graphic and expect it to work.
   If you notice when you have your wad loaded on XWE and you go to graphics and there isn't a single graphic, that means that the wad will just use the default graphic from the port you're using. So you have to make a new graphic, let's say for example you made a new title picture and want to use that, name it TITLEPIC then load it, that will make the wad use that picture instead of the default picture. If you decide you do not like the graphic and want to change it back to it's default, just delete the graphic.
   Graphics do not need to be placed into any certain group or behind and markers, just load them and leave them.

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Sprites:

   Any object you see in the game is a sprite. Your weapon infront of you, the weapon on the floor, the zombieguy, the healthpack, the techno pillar, the lamp, the torch, the dead body, the list goes on and on. Those are all sprites!

   To load a sprite you'll need to make two new entries by going to Entry - New.
   Name one of them SS_START and name the other SS_END.
   Now, load your sprites and move them between those two markers. This can be done by either holding leftclick and dragging it, going to entry-move up/movedown or by pressing Crtl+U for up and Crtl+D for down.
   
   Now if you click on the sprite you'll notice in the big box to the right of the entries window there is a picture of your sprite and what looks like cross hairs.
   The vertical line is just to show the middle of the sprite, the horizontal line is to show the ground.
   On the top of this window you'll see a blank box, another box that will have a number in it (usually 2), two arrow buttons, a check box, and two more boxes with numbers in it.
   Those last two boxes are the positioning boxes. The first box is for the horizontal line, putting in a new number will either move the sprite left or right. The second box is for the vertical line, changing that number will either move the sprite up or down. To the right of these boxes you'll see the dimensions of the sprite.
   Those two arrow buttons are just zoomin buttons.
   To learn about what to name new sprites so that your new monster will know which sprites are it's attack sprites, walk sprites, etc check on ZDoom.org's Sprite Guide
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Flats:

   Flats are both floor and ceiling textures. They are called flats because they can be used for both the floor and the ceiling, which ever you choose.

   Create two new entries by going to Entry - New and name them FF_START and FF_END.
   Load your flats and drag them between those two markers.
   Select the flat and you'll notice it is in the crosshairs much like the sprite was.
   With the flat still selected go to Image - Save as Doom flat. This will make the crosshairs dissapear and the picture should now be in the upper most left hand corner (0,0).
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Texture:

   A texture is any picture on wall. The bricks, the metal sheeting, the computer screen are all textures. Textures are made up of a few smaller pictures called patches.
   For example let's look at texture SW1METAL. The switch in the middle was actually not drawn onto that metal sheet background. The took the patch image of the switch and placed it onto of the background, that way they can use the switch patch for another texture without having to draw it on everytime.
   To make a textures first you must first load the patches.

   Make two new entries, one named PP_START and one PP_END.
   Load your image and drag it between those two markers.
   Right click on the image and select 'add to patch names.'
   If you only want it to be a patch and use other patches (which I will explain how to do in a second) do nothing more. But if you want that patch to just be a whole texture select 'set image as texture.'
   
   Now let's say you just wanted to load a few patches then put those together to make new textures.
   Select the Textures tab and select your Texture1 entry. If this is not here make one by going to Entry - New and naming it Texture1.
   On the right lower window you'll see a black screen and above it are two more windows.
   Go to Textures - New. On the right upper window (the one with the name, width, x scale etc) you'll see a new set has been made named UNTITLED with the default width and height of 64 and the blackscreen with now have a little gray outline box in it.
   Rename this to whatever you want. And set the Width and height to the same dimensions you want the texture to be.
   Go to Texture - New Patch. This will add a new patch to your texture. In the upper left window you'll see the new patch's properties.
   If this is not the patch you wanted, click under PatchName and change it to whatever the patch's name is.
   If you want the patch to be in a different position simply click on the image in the black window and drag it to were ever you want it to be. You can also use the xPos and yPos box in the upper right corner window to change the position. Keep in mind the only thing the player will see is what is in the gray outline box.
   Now, let's say you want to add another patch in the middle of this texture. Go back to Texture - New Patch. Change the name and drag that image into the middle or where ever you want it.
   Patches work sort of like layers in image editors. If there is a layer on top of a layer, the top layer will cover the bottom layer.
   Let's say that the patch that you wanted in the middle of the texture is covered by the first patch. Simply select the patch in the upper right corner and go to textures - move patch up or move patch down.
   
   EX.Let's look at texture SW2STON1.
   We're gonna pretend like this texture hasn't been made and we're gonna make another just like it.
   We go to texture - new and name it SW2STON1, we change the width to 64 and height to 128.
   We go to texture - new patch and set the patch name to W28_8. We want this to be in the middle top so we change the xPos to 0 and the yPos to 0.
   We go to texture - new patch Now we make another patch and set the patch name to SW1S1. This is the actual switch. We center this patch by dragging it until we find were it looks nice.
   Then we make another patch and set the patch name to W28_8. We want this patch to be in the middle but at the bottom of the texture so we change the xPos to 0 (that makes it in the middle) and the yPos to 64 (that makes it at the top).
   Ut oh! The bottom brick patch covers up the switch patch! click on the SW1S1 patch in the upper right hand window and go to texture - move down. This will move it down on the list making it on the top!
   
   ShortCut!!! But, like I said you don't really need to do all that except in certain cases. You can just make an image that is 128x128 or whatever you want the dimensions to be and just draw your whole texture then load it, drag it between PP_START and PP_END and select 'add to texture' along with 'add to patch names'.

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