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MapWindow GIS Workshop
06 January 2009, McCurtain County, Oklahoma
‐‐‐ Participants: Government Agencies and Utilities ‐‐‐
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 Project or
area map
display
area
Scale of the
Geographic Cartesian coordinates
location in degrees of the projected map display
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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
Measure Area Attribute Table Editor
Add / Remove
/ Clear Layers Measure Distance
Select
Pan
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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.
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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:
New layout Insert map
Open layout Insert north arrow
project
Insert legend
Save Insert scale bar
layout
Insert text
Insert rectangle
Insert bitmap
Save as
Zoom layout in
new
layout
Zoom layout out
Print Fit to screen
layout
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
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:
.
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 it in your MapWinWorkshop folder, and name it as McCurtainMap.
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_B1.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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