Setting Up

About

QGIS is a free and open-source software that runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux operating systems. In order to complete the tutorial part of this workshop, you will need to download the software and install it on your personal computer.

Installation

If you haven't already, download and install the appropriate version of QGIS for your machine from http://www.qgis.org/.

Setting up

A couple of tips!

• Right-click in the toolbar area, and uncheck any of the toolbars you are not using to free even more screen space - for example you won't need Digitizing in this exercise

• To make the icons smaller and get more screen space, go to Settings > General > Icon size

• To change the language of the UI, go to Settings > Locale, then check Override system locale, and choose the locale to use (you will need to restart QGIS to see the effect)

• Right-click in the toolbar area, and uncheck any of the toolbars you are not using to free even more screen space - for example you won't need Digitizing in this exercise

• Close any panels in the main screen you don't need - most people just use the Layers for normal work