2 Exercise 1: User interface of QGIS

Exercise content

This exercise acquaints you to the user interface and basic features of QGIS.

The goal of the exercise

After this exercise you know how to use the QGIS user interface.

Preparations

Open a website and navigate to the QGIS website

http://www.qgis.org/fi/site/

On the main page you’ll find a link where you can download QGIS. Download the latest QGIS Long Term Release (LTR). The long term release is the most stable QGIS version, but may lack the newest features. QGIS can be installed on Windows, Linux or Mac operating systems. The differences in QGIS between operating systems is mainly visual and with file paths.

2.1 Downloading course materials

Datasets used during the course can be downloaded from Google Drive following this link:

course_directory.zip

Open the link above and click Download. The data directory is compressed as a .zip- file course_directory.zip. Extract the data directory a suitable location on your computer. The directory should be easily found during the exercises. In the following exercises a reference to ../course_directory/ means the file path chosen by you. Ask for instructions if needed.

2.2 QGIS user interface

Start QGIS. The QGIS user interface may open in a local language different language from English. You can change the language from Settings → Options → General, Click Override System Locale → User Interface Translation → American English. Finally press OK.

In order for the language change to take effect you have to restart QGIS. Add the first vector dataset by clicking Open Data Source Manager: The same tool can be found in the Layer- menu Add layer -> Add Vector Layer (Ctrl+Shift+V). A new window should open. Choose the Vector- tab on the left. Add a dataset from the data directory (..course_directory/geofabrik/). Choose the berlin_roads.shp file. Finally, click the Add button and close the window. The dataset should show up as follows (the color might be different):

The QGIS user interface

2.2.0.1 1. Toolbars

As the name suggests, Toolbars include sets of different tools. Your QGIS might have a different number of toolbars compared to the screenshot above. You can hide or view different toolbars by right clicking the toolbar section. You can also drag toolbars to different locations on the screen.

2.2.0.2 2. Map View

The Map View displays the geographic data sets that are set visible in the Layers Panel. You can zoom in and out and pan the map with you mouse (Also try the scroll wheel on your mouse, use CTRL + scroll for more subtle zooming).

2.2.0.3 3. Browser Panel

We already used the Browser Panel briefly. In this panel you can find different file paths and navigate to your data.

2.2.0.4 4. Layers Panel

The Layers Panel displays the data you have added into your project. One set of data is referred to as a Layer, so currently we have one layer in our project. In this panel you can for example switch the drawing order of the layers or set them to be included or not included in the Map View. 

2.2.0.6 6. Status Bar

In the Status Bar you can find the coordinates of your mouse cursor (either in meters or in latitude and longitude), the scale, the magnifier, the rotation, the coordinate reference system and QGIS’s log messages. The status bar is handy for example when you need to quickly change the coordinate reference system of the project.

2.3 Try the tools yourself

Try at least the following tools in the Map Navigation Toolbar and in the Attributes Toolbar:

Locate these tools from the aforementioned toolbars and recognize their functions:

Zoom Full
Zoom to Layer
Identify Features
Open Attribute Table
Measure Line Length


Also try the functionalities of the Status Bar and the Layers Panel.

Try the functionalities in the Layers Panel:

2.4 Attribute table

Choose the berlin_roads map layer and open its Attribute Table. You can do this by clicking the icon or by right clicking with the mouse over the layer and choosing Open Attribute Table. You can order the table by any of its fields in to either ascending or descending order.

When you’ve inspected the Attribute Table enough, close the table window.

Finally save the QGIS project in to your data directory and name it ../course_directory/QGIS_exercise_1.qgz.

Psst! Always save your project file at the end of the exercise.