MapWindow GIS Workshop 05 January 2009, McCurtain County, Oklahoma
‐‐‐ Participants: Volunteer Fire Department and Rural Water Districts ‐‐‐
EXERCISE 1
In this exercise, you will learn:
A. To download and unzip data from the Internet B. To familiarize with MapWindow and import data C. To design a map layout and print a map
A. Downloading and Unzipping Files Create a folder in C Drive. Name the folder as MapWinWorkshop.
Go to the McCurtain County GIS website: http://agecon.okstate.edu/gis/index.asp Download several files for this workshop. In the navigation bar, click ‘Geospatial Data Downloads’.
Then click Geospatial Datasets for McCurtain County, Oklahoma to open the list of geospatial datasets.
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Scroll down to Governmental Units > Boundaries.
Click on tl_2009_40089_McCurtain.shp. (It’s stored in the zipped format.)
Click Save button and save the file to the MapWinWorkshop folder. You will see ‘Download Complete’ after the download process is complete. Click Open button to see all the files inside the zipped file. Note that a single shapefile is composed of several files.
Click ‘Extract all files’. Click Next. The tl_2009_40089_McCurtain folder will be created inside the MapWinWorkshop folder.
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Click Next to start the extraction process. Click Finish.
You may delete the zipped folder. B. Opening MapWindow and Adding Files If you don’t have MapWindow GIS in your computer, go to www.mapwindow.org, and download and install the free software.
Right Click > Open to open MapWindow GIS.
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Click ‘Add data to this project’. Go to the MapWinWorkshop folder and open tl_2009_40089_McCurtain folder. Add the tl_2009_40089_McCurtain.shp file. Click Open. The file is added to the Data Layers area.
Menu Bar
Standard Toolbars
Data layers area
Project or map
display area
Scale of the
display Geographic
location in degrees Cartesian coordinates of the projected map
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You see a layer as the boundary map of McCurtain County. Let’s familiarize with the MapWindow GIS work environment. The MapWindow interface contains the following: The Menu Bar
The File Menu The Edit Menu The View Menu The Plug‐ins Menu
The Standard Toolbars
New Project Zoom In
Open Project Zoom Out
Save Project
Zoom
Print Map
Identifier
Add / Remove / Clear Layers
Pan
Measure Area Attribute Table Editor
Measure Distance
Select
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Familiarizing with the Legend Editor Right‐click on tl_2009_40089_McCurtain, and click Properties to open the Legend Editor. (Or simply double‐click tl_2009_40089_McCurtain.)
Spend a minute to examine the Legend Editor. It contains information about the layer such as its properties, projection, legend, and symbology. The bold characters in the second column denote that the property or symbology can be changed. Import Another File Go back to http://agecon.okstate.edu/gis/McCurtain.asp and download tl_2009_40089_place.shp. Save it in MapWinWorkshop folder. Unzip it and save the files in tl_2009_40089_place folder inside the MapWinWorkshop folder.
Using the Add tool, add the file tl_2009_40089_place.shp.
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You should now see the added file in the Data Layers area. Move the layer up or down to make them visible, as shown below. (Click on a layer and while pressing the mouse’ left key, drag the layer up or down as may be necessary.)
Click the Attribute Table Editor tool to open the attribute table.
Familiarize with the menus and tools in the Attribute Table Editor. Click Close. Labelling
Right‐click tl_2009_40089_place and click Label Setup. The Shapefile Labeler popup opens.
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Fill the blank next to ‘Label Field for First Line:’ with NAME. Leave the default values as is. Click Apply and OK.
C. Setting up the Map for Printing Under File Menu, click Print. The MapWindow Print Layout popup opens.
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The Menu Bar of the MapWindow Print Layout is shown as:
The Standard Toolbars of the MapWindow Print Layout window is shown as follows:
Insert mapNew layout
Insert north arrowOpen layout project
Insert legend
Insert scale barSave layout
Insert text
Insert rectangle
Insert bitmap
Zoom layout in
Zoom layout out
Fit to screen
Zoom layout in or out by percent
Zoom map in
Zoom map out
Zoom map to full extent of layers
Zoom map to extent of data view
Save as new layout
Print layout
Pan map
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Inserting the Map
In the MapWindow Print Layout, click the Insert tool and draw a box on the blank layout. (You may draw on the rectangle.) Position and size the map and layout accordingly using the Zoom and Pan tools below:
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Inserting the North Arrow, Legend, Scale Bar, Text, and Layout Border
Click on each of the tools to perform the Insert Arrow, Insert Legend, Insert Scale Bar, Insert Text, and Insert Rectangle, respectively. Adjust the symbol size accordingly. Editing the Layout Move up the appropriate symbol box (in the upper right corner of the layout) to start editing the particular symbol. For example, the text box content is edited as shown by the illustration below.
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After a few adjustments, the final layout should show similar to the one below. (In the layout below, a different set of layers are used. They were also renamed – using the Legend Editor ‐ to make them understandable.)
Printing and Saving the Map Under File menu of the MapWindow Print Layout, select Choose printer. Fill out with appropriate information.
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Still under File menu, select Print. (Or click the Print tool .) Look at the printed map. Make changes if necessary.
Under File menu or from the toolbar, select ‘Save as’. (Or click the ‘Save as’ tool .) Save the map as McCurtainMap in your MapWinWorkshop folder. Under File menu, click ‘Close’ to close the MapWindow Print Layout popup. Click ‘Yes’ if you already saved the current print layout. Saving the Project Under the File menu of the MapWindow GIS interface, select ‘Save as’. Save the file as Workshop_1A.mwprj in the MapWinWorkshop folder. Now you know how to download and unzip data, familiarize with MapWindow and import data, and design a map layout and print a map. If you’re continuing to PART 2, do not exit; leave MapWindow open. END OF EXERCISE 1
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