In regards to the no label problem on the terrain tab. You won't have any until you save a terrain, then shut down the TE, and then relaunch the program. After you do that you should have labels again. I just downloaded the editor again and put it into a different directory to confirm that process instead of relying on memory.
To rule out that you any configuration issues from maybe a bad install, reinstall the program in a new directory (for my test I installed it in a directory I called 2291a). You might even want to do a complete uninstall and then a fresh install to rule out any corruption of files. AHEDIT2291.EXE should be 379,972 KB; if it is not you had an issue with the download and should download the .exe again.
However, this is how the process should work if you have a good install.
1) Open TE and it should look like this.
2) Click on file, click on save as and save a terrain for the first time.
3) After you save the terrain your view should change to a grid view over water but you still won't have labels. You need to close the TE now.
4) After you close the TE, launch the program again. You should now have labels.
5) Switch over to the "water" tab. Click on erase water. Move the brush slider to about the half way point. You should see a large red circle where you mouse pointer is. Click and drag and you should erase water and create land (when you erase water to create land the texture applied is grass.
6) Switch back to the terrain tab. Select a terrain (click on beach). Move the brush size slider halfway and again you will see a large red circle where you cursor should be and the size of it (which is set by the Brush size slider). Over the green land you created in step five click and drag your cursor to paint the land with beach.
