Proprietary

• ArcGIS by Esri
• MapInfo by Pitney Bowes & Precisely
• SuperMap by Peoples Republic

Open source

• QGIS by Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo)
• DevInfo
• DIVA-GIS

Performance & user-friendliness

User support & personal/Org preference

Cost & terms of software's user licence

Functionality; Data management, Visualization & Spatial Analysis

• Download & install QGIS
• Overview of the QGIS Interface
• Working with Plugins

Open your Internet browser

Type QGIS on search window

Open this link https://qgis.org/en/site

Check for your preferred version, click on Download

Check on installation file

• Standalone QGIS - 32bit OS for windows
• Standalone QGIS - 64bit OS for windows
• Other OS files e.g. linux

Release version

• STS: Short term release - unstable versions, new features
• LTS: Long-term release - stable versions

Download QGIS version QGIS-OSGeo4W-...ver..-Setup-x86_64.exe or QGIS-OSGeo4W-...ver..-Setup-x86.exe

To install QGIS, navigate to the Download folder with the QGIS installation file

Double-click the installation file QGIS-OSGeo4W-...ver..-Setup-x86_64.exe or QGIS-OSGeo4W-...ver..-Setup-x86.exe

Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation

To launch QGIS, Double-Click QGIS Desktop icon on your desktop

Elements of the interface

1. Layers List or Browser Panel
2. Toolbars - most often used sets of tools
3. Map canvas - where the map itself is displayed and where layers are loaded
4. Status bar - shows you information about the current map
5. Side Toolbar - contains the buttons to load the layer and all the buttons to create a new layer
6. Locator bar - access to almost all the objects of QGIS

Plugins are modules that allow you to extend the QGIS functionality

Plugins are available https://plugins.qgis.org/plugins

To use plugins first download, install and activate them

1. Goto to Plugins menu
2. Click on Manage and Install Plugins, to open plugins dialog box

In the dialog that opens, find the Processing plugin, check to Activate

Select the Not Installed option in the Plugin Manager dialog

Highlight a plugin for more information

Search a plugin e.g. GeoHealth

Install by clicking the Install Plugin button below

Loading different data types

Navigation tools

Data selection

Attribute table

Find features

Creation of data

Querying of data

Demo on;

• Add a layer
• Change the color and symbol properties of your layers
• Change symbol color & size
• Turn layers on and off
• Change country layer fill color and border outline color and width
• Zooming to and panning features
• Saving a qgis project

Demo on;

• Identifying features
• Selecting map features
• Attribute tables
• Select data
• Labelling features
• Exporting your map as a graphic

GPS Essentials Home page

Fullscreen area to place widgets that show you navigation information

The contents of the widget are color-encoded:

• Yellow means the information is probably outdated or inaccurate
• white means data is up-to-date and accurate

Shows a HUD (head up display) of your waypoints

You can also shoot images

The compass features a rotating scale, an adjustable scale and a direction indicator

Shows your waypoints, routes and tracks on a map

Shows your waypoints, routes and tracks on a map

The waypoints stream is a default place to store your waypoints/coordinates

Sky view of all GPS satellites that are visible to your device