As has already been noted, the animated GIF export box is similar to the GIF export box with a few extra options along the bottom. Leaving these extra options aside for the moment, the standard GIF options will be applied to each frame in the animated GIF in turn. For instance, if you specify a width and a height, all GIFs in the animation will be stretched to fit (which is why it's a good idea to make them all the same size in the first place).

Although it is technically possible to have interlaced animated GIFs, it isn't a good idea. Interlaced GIFs are designed so that browsers can display a low-resolution version of the GIF as they are downloading the full file - not really the effect you want in frame-by-frame animation.

The extra options for animated GIF export are found at the bottom of the dialogue box. Before describing them in detail, a word of caution is needed: different web browsers treat some of the options differently. It is not possible to give here a comprehensive list of what the behaviour is in all circumstances - the only way is to try it and see.

• Delay: gives the delay in centiseconds between each frame. If you want a delay of a second between each frame, enter a value of 100. Remember that many browsers display the frames quite slowly and may not be able to keep up with the value you set.
• Restore: sets what happens after each frame has been displayed.
  • 'Nothing' means no action is taken, though many Web browsers take this as meaning the same as the 'Background' option.
  • 'Leave as is' displays the frames one on top of another. If a frame has transparency, areas of the previous frame will show through.
  • 'Background' restores the area covered by a frame to the background color. Frames with transparency will therefore be displayed against the background of the Web page, rather than against the frame before.
  • 'Previous image' restores the area covered by the frame to what it was before the frame was displayed. When creating GIFs with Xara Webster, this option will be applied to the first frame in the animation, which gives unpredictable results. This option should not normally be used when creating GIFs with Xara Webster.
• Loop: the number of times that the GIF should be displayed. A value of zero means 'loop forever', but note that Netscape Navigator also takes any value other than one also to mean 'loop forever'. Therefore, in Navigator your animation will play once, or forever. Other browsers may take more notice of this field, though, so if you mean 'loop forever', use zero.

Note that the way browsers interpret these values can vary, you may need to experiment to achieve the desired result. As a general rule, if you want your animated GIF to be displayed against a tiled background on a page, you should use the 'Background' option. If you are masking off areas of your GIF which don't change to keep the size down (as in the tutorial) then you will need to save using the 'Leave as is' option, otherwise the masked areas will be blanked to the background color. If there is no transparency in your GIF, both options will give the same result.

The animated GIF on the Xara Limited home page uses the Background option to allow the background to show through.

Below is a pair of simple animated GIFs in which the areas which don't change have been masked off to save space. The frames in each GIF are identical. The only difference between the GIFs is that the left one has been saved using the 'Background' option, and the right one using 'Leave as is'. As you can see, in this case, 'Leave as is' works best.