Quantum GIS Basics - Desktop GIS: Mapping the Planet with Open Source Tools - page 325

The last bit of information we can glean from the metadata is informa-
tion about the attributes of the layer. If you look at Attribute Field Info
in Figure D.1 , on the previous page, you will see it lists all the fields in
the layer, along with information about the type, length, and precision.
In the case of world_borders , we have three numeric fields (real) and two
string fields. This gives us a quick overview of the attributes for the
layer and also the field names we can use in labeling and identifying
features.

You might be wondering about the remaining tabs on the vector Layer
Properties dialog box—Labels and Actions. QGIS has a lot of options for
labeling features. You can set the font, shading, alignment, and other
options to control how features are labeled on your map. You can even
use fields in the layers attribute table to control the style, alignment,
and buffer (shading) for the labels. Attribute actions are handy things
that allow you to call an external program and pass it values from
the layer's attribute table. You can get an in-depth look at them in
Section 3.5 , Using Attribute Actions, on page 64 .

D.2 Project Properties

You can customize a number of properties for a QGIS project. For exam-
ple, QGIS allows you to set a background color for the map canvas.
Often, this can be used to improve the appearance of the map, espe-
cially when you have large areas of whitespace. To set a background
color, choose Project Properties from the Settings menu. To set the color,
activate the General tab, and then click the color box to the right of the
Background Color label.

D.3 Map Navigation and Bookmarks

QGIS supports the typical map navigation toolset with zoom and pan.
We can also create spatial bookmarks that allow us to store a view
extent and return to it later.

Zooming
Load a layer, click the Zoom In tool (looks like a magnifying glass with a
plus sign in the middle), and then drag a rectangle on the map canvas
to zoom in. If you can't find the zoom tool, hover the mouse over the
tools in the toolbar, and check out the tooltip help that pops up for
each one. You can also zoom in by a fixed amount by just clicking the