Intro to QGIS User Interface

Launch QGIS

  1. MENU BAR provides access to all the functions and plugins
  2. TOOLBAR provides one-click common functions
  3. LAYER LIST shows all data layers currently added to the project
  4. MAP VIEW provides a dynamic visualization of the active data layers that can be mapped
  5. STATUS BAR provides some vital information about the current project settings
Explore the MENU BAR
  1. FILE menu is for Opening, Saving, Printing the data layers, and closing the current project
  2. EDIT menu is for adding, modifying, deleting spatial features within an editable data layer
  3. VIEW menu is for primary Pan, Zoom, Feature Selection, and Toolbar Controls
  4. LAYER menu is for Adding, Removing, Visibility of data layers, and for changing Layer Projections
  5. SETTINGS menu controls the basic Project settings, Project projection, Language Locale, & other defaults
  6. PLUGINS menu lists the installed Plugins and their sub-routines, and can Add or Remove Plugins
  7. RASTER menu is for Raster processing functions (more are enabled with GRASS)
  8. VECTOR menu is for standard Vector GIS spatial operations -- buffering, dissolving, point-in-polygon query, etc.
Proceed to TOOLBAR instructions