I just released a new edition of my introductory QGIS manual for QGIS 3.16 Hannover (the current long term release), and as always I’m providing it under Creative Commons for classroom use and self-directed learning. I’ve also updated my QGIS FAQs handout, which is useful for new folks as a quick reference. This material will eventually move to a Brown University website, but when that happens I’ll still hold on to my page and will link to the new spot. I’m also leaving the previous version of the tutorial written for QGIS 3.10 A Coruna up alongside it, but will pull that down when the fall semester begins.

The new edition has a new title. When I first wrote Introduction to GIS Using Open Source Software, free and open source (FOSS) GIS was a novelty in higher ed. QGIS was a lot simpler, and I had to pull in several different tools to accomplish basic tasks like CRS transformations and calculating natural breaks. Ten years later, many university libraries and labs with GIS services either reference or support QGIS, and the package is infinitely more robust. So a name change to simply Introduction to GIS with QGIS seemed overdue.

My move from Baruch CUNY to Brown prompted me to make several revisions in this version. The biggest change was swapping the NYC-based business site selection example with a Rhode Island-based public policy one in chapters 2 and 3. The goal of the new hypothetical example is to identify public libraries in RI that meet certain criteria that would qualify them to receive funding for after school programs for K-12 public school students (replacing the example of finding an optimal location for a new coffee shop in NYC). In rethinking the examples I endeavored to introduce the same core concepts: attribute table joins, plotting coordinates, and geoprocessing. In this version I do a better job of illustrating and differentiating between creating subsets of features by: selecting by attributes and location, filtering (a new addition), and deleting features. I also managed to add spatial joins and calculated fields to the mix.

Changes to chapter 4 (coordinate reference systems and thematic mapping) were modest; I swapped out the 2016 voter participation data with 2020 data. I slimmed down Chapter 5 on data sources and tutorials, but added an appendix that lists web mapping services that you can add as base maps. Some material was shuffled between chapters, and all in all I cut seven pages from the document to slim it down a bit.

As always, there were minor modifications to be made due to changes between software versions. There were two significant changes. First, QGIS no longer supports 32 bit operating systems for Windows; it’s 64 bit or nothing, but that seems to be fairly common these days. Second, the Windows installer file is much bigger (and thus slower to download), but it helps insure that all dependencies are there. Otherwise, the differences between 3.16 and 3.10 are not that great, at least for the basic material I cover. In the past there was occasionally a lack of consistency regarding basic features and terminology that you’d think would be well settled, but thankfully things are pretty stable this time around.

If you have any feedback or spot errors feel free to let me know. I imagine I’ll be treading this ground again after the next long term release take’s 3.16’s place in Feb / Mar 2022. For the sake of stability I always stick with the long term release and forego the latest ones; if you’re going to use this tutorial I’d recommend downloading the LTR version and not the latest one.

I just posted an updated version of my QGIS tutorial / workbook manual, Introduction to GIS Using Open Source Software. This version was written for QGIS 3.10 A Coruña, which recently superseded QGIS 3.4 Madeira as the current Long Term Release (LTR). The LTR is intended to be more stable than the current releases and is supported for at least a year.

The workbook was designed to accompany a day-long introductory workshop that I teach and is divided into five chapters. Chapter 1 is a broad and concise overview of GIS, chapters 2 to 4 are hands-on exercises that cover: the basics of using the interface and the difference between vectors and rasters (chapter 2), a site selection analysis that demonstrates geoprocessing, spatial selection, table joins, coordinate plotting, expressions, and spatial analysis (chapter 3), and a thematic mapping example that illustrates coordinate reference systems (CRS), data classification, and mapping (chapter 4). Chapter 5 summarizes data sources and resources for learning more about GIS. In chapters 2 to 4 the steps for doing the exercises are kept concise with many screenshots, while detailed commentary explaining how everything works follows.

The manual and tutorial data are freely available for personal and classroom use under a Creative Commons license. I’m providing the material for both 3.10 A Coruna and 3.4 Madeira for now, but will take down the latter at the end of the spring semester (late May 2020).

The changes between 3.4 and 3.10 are not dramatic as far as the basic tools and principles that I cover in the book go, but I thought an update was worthwhile as there are just enough changes that could trip up new users (see the 3.10 visual change log for a full list of software updates).  In addition to incorporating changes to the interface, I also took the opportunity to tighten up and condense the material. In particular, I consolidated the coordinate reference system (CRS) exercises in chapter 4 from two sections to one, because in practice I found that it was overkill for a one-day session.

Here are a few noteworthy changes to the tutorial and software that impact novice users:

1. The default setting for the toolbar buttons is rather small, so during the setup phase in chapter 2 I inserted an optional step to make them bigger. Go to: Settings > Options > General tab, and under the Application section change the icon size from 16 to 24.
2. In 3.10, when new files are generated from geoprocessing operations and added to your project, the layers appear in the layers panel with the name you give them. In 3.4 they were assigned generic aliases like “Clipped” and “Buffer” based on the process you ran.
3. In 3.10 the “Quantiles” classification scheme has been replaced with “Equal Counts”. Same scheme, different terminology.
4. There’s now a dedicated north arrow button in the map layout screen. In 3.4 and earlier versions you added an arrow by selecting the add image button.
5. In 3.10, every time you add a layer with a CRS that doesn’t match the existing CRS of the window, you’re presented with a datum transformation screen to modify the file you’re adding. This is a helpful warning if you already have existing layers in your project that match the window and your new file doesn’t, but it’s annoying when you’re trying to add files to a blank window in a new project. You can turn this feature off under: Options > Settings > CRS tab, under Default Datum Transformations uncheck the box for Ask for datum transformation.

It’s hard to believe that this is the 10th edition I’ve published in the past ten years. QGIS has certainly come a long way during that time. For a trip down memory lane, look at the 1st edition I wrote for QGIS 1.5 Tethys in 2011! Back then I wrote the whole thing in HTML… thankfully I “discovered” LaTeX a year later, and have used it for writing tutorials ever since.

If you wanted to learn GIS in general and QGIS in particular, spend a day with the manual and work through the exercises and you’ll have a good foundation. All the basics are there, as well as best practices and the “gotchas” that tend to trip people up.

I recently released an updated version of the manual and data I use for my day-long GIS Practicum, Introduction to GIS Using Open Source Software (Using QGIS). The manual has five chapters: a summary overview of GIS, basics of using the QGIS interface, GIS analysis that includes several geoprocessing and analysis functions, thematic mapping and map layout, and a summary of where to find data and resources for learning more. Chapters 2, 3, and 4 are broken down into sections with clear steps, followed by commentary that explains what we did and why. We cover much of the material in a single day, although you can space the lessons out into two days if desired.

I updated this version to move us from QGIS 2.18 Las Palmas to 3.4 Madeira, which are the former and current long term service releases. While the move from 2.x to 3.x involved a major rewrite of the code base (see the change log for details), most of the basics remain the same. While veteran users can easily navigate through the differences, it can be a stumbling block for new users if they are trying to learn a new version using an old tutorial with screens and tools that are slightly different. So it was time for an update!

My goal for this edition was to keep my examples in place but revise the steps based on changes in the interface. Most of the screenshots are new, and the substantive changes include: using the Data Manager for adding layers rather than the toolbar with tons of buttons, better support for xlsx and ods files which allowed me to de-emphasize xls and dbf files for attribute table joins, the addition of geopackages to the vector data mix, the loss of the Open Layers plugin and my revision to the web mapping section using OSM XYZ tiles, the disappearance of the setting that allowed you to disable on the fly projection, and the discontinuation of the stand-alone Data Browser. There were also changes to some tools (fixed distance and variable buffer tools are now united under one tool) and names of menus (Style menu has once again become the Symbology menu).

It’s hard to believe that this is my ninth edition of this tutorial. I try to update it once a year to keep in sync with the latest long term release, but fell a bit behind this year. QGIS 2.18 also survived for a bit longer than other releases, as the earlier 3.x versions went through lots of testing before ending up at 3.4. When it comes time for my tenth edition I may change the thematic mapping example in chapter 4 to something that’s global instead of US national, and in doing streamline the content. We’ll see if I have some time this summer.

Since I’m in update mode, I also fixed several links on the Resources page to cure creeping link rot.