Navigation

Later, we will show you how to zoom in on a layer to look at it in more detail. But first, let's remind ourselves of the project and navigation toolbar:

These tools are the workhorse of the GIS. They allow us to move around, inspect, measure, and select data. All are critical in any GIS, and if you have used mapping software before, you should be familiar with them.

Start by clicking on the zoom-in icon (a magnifying glass icon with a + in it). When this option is selected, it will be highlighted in a different shade, just like any other interactive button in QGIS. This is demonstrated in the following screenshot:

Left-click and draw around the Alaska shape. The map window will quickly refresh around the shape you have drawn. You can then click on the white hand to pan around the map to adjust to your preference. You can also use the scroll button on your mouse to zoom in and out of the map. Some of these navigational tools are grayed out; this is because a setting or event has not happened yet to enable them.

The bookmark tool is shown in the following screenshot and highlighted in the red box:

Spatial Bookmarks allow you to save your current map extent. This means that you can return to this bookmarked view later, or in another project. In the preceding example, I have created a bookmark called my_first_bookmark.