Here's a brief tutorial that will allow you to get up and running as fast as possible. If you wish, you can print this file out, and follow the simple walk-through below. Note that this manual contains a complete reference section farther towards the back.
Run Ultima III Editor by double clicking on it from the Finder. A splash screen for the program will appear, followed shortly thereafter by the menu bar. Choose the "Open Scenario…" command from the File menu. Select the sample scenario file that came with Ultima III Editor.
At this point, a window entitled "Scenario Window" will appear. The window contains a list of Castle, Towne, and Outside maps that can be edited.
Double click the list item named "Lord British Castle". A window named "Map Editor" will then appear; this window contains the map named "Lord British Castle", as well as the tools used to edit the map. Note that this window is moveable, scrollable, and re-sizeable.
Click the pencil tool in the tool palette found on the left-hand side of the window. Click and drag the cursor across the grass at the top of the map. Each tile the cursor passes over will be changed to a water tile. Click the picture of the water tile found just below the tool palette. This invokes a popup menu from which you can pick what map tile you want to draw with. Select the thick forest and draw over your new river. You can click on the eraser tool in the tool palette to erase the changes you just made to the map; simply click and drag the cursor across the newly changed map tiles.
Click the eye-dropper tool; it's found just below the eraser on the tool palette. Click on the water in the moat surrounding the castle. The water tile will then become selected in the tile popup menu. Click the paint-can tool; it's just to the right of the eye-dropper. Move the cursor over the grass outside the moat and click once. After a brief pause (depending on the speed of your system, a watch-cursor may spin on the screen to tell you the program is working), that grass area will become water.
Click on the selection tool; it's found next to the arrow tool on the tool palette. Drag a large rectangle in the newly enlarged moat. Choose a different tile type from the tile popup menu; for example, choose dense forest. Using the paint-can tool, click on a water tile inside the selected box. Only the water inside the selected box will be changed. Similarly, if you had clicked on a tile outside the box, the fill would have affected only those water tiles outside the box.
Click on the tool shaped like the letter 'A'. Click in the upper left corner of the map; this causes a single tile to be selected. Type the words "Happy Camper" on the keyboard. While you could have drawn the words "Happy Camper" using the pencil tool and frequent trips to the tile popup menu, this typing tool makes text entry much easier. A brief note about this tool: Ultima III doesn't know how to draw all 26 letters in the English alphabet; some letters are conspicuously missing. These letters will not appear in Ultima III maps under any circumstances.
Close the "Map Edit" window. Choose the "Save As…" command from the File menu. Name your new scenario file.
Installing scenario files into Ultima III is not difficult. Even so, whether you are editing a scenario file or modifying the Ultima application directly, you should always work with a COPY of the application. In case of human error or a software malfunction, you'll be glad you have a backup to fall back to.
While the scenario file is still open, select the "Install…" command from the File menu. In the file selection box, choose the copy of the Ultima III application into which you wish to install your scenario. There will be a short pause as the Ultima III Editor installs your scenario into Ultima III.
