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The interface

A quick tour of the DropMaps workspace — the toolbar, side panel, map controls and menu.

DropMaps is one screen: a map filling the window, a side panel of tabs on the left, a toolbar across the top, a tool rail along the bottom, and a few controls floating over the map. This page names every part so the rest of the guide makes sense.

The top toolbar

Along the top you’ll find:

  • The map name — click it to open the Maps manager and switch, rename or create maps.
  • Add files — opens the Add layer dialog.
  • A cloud sync chip (when signed in) showing whether the current map is backed up — see Maps & cloud sync.
  • The Menu button (your account picture, or a menu icon) — opens Settings, account, storage and help.

You can drag a file onto the map from anywhere — you don’t have to open a dialog first.

The side panel

The panel on the left has a strip of tabs:

You can hide tabs you don’t use in Preferences.

The tool rail

A strip along the bottom of the map holds the map tools — Pan, Add, Edit, Select and Measure. Pan is the resting default: drag to move the map, scroll to zoom, and click a feature to see its details. Pick any other tool and its options open in a panel just above the strip:

  • Add — draw new points, lines, polygons and text into a drawing or data layer. See Drawing & measuring.
  • Edit — click any feature to reshape its geometry.
  • Select — pick a set of features to act on. See Selecting features.
  • Measure — distance, area and coordinates. See Drawing & measuring.

From Preferences you can hide the whole rail, or hide individual tools you don’t use (Pan, Add, Edit, Select or Measure) while keeping the rest.

The attribute table

A bottom panel holds the attribute table for the selected layer — view, edit, search and calculate over your data, and run SQL. See The attribute table.

Map controls

Floating over the map (each can be toggled in Preferences):

  • Zoom buttons and a home / zoom-to-all-layers button.
  • My location — centre on your GPS position.
  • Search — find an address or place, and save bookmarks (saved views). See Settings & preferences.
  • The coordinate readout — shows the pointer’s coordinates; click it to cycle between decimal degrees, degrees-minutes-seconds and degrees-decimal-minutes. Right-click the map to copy a coordinate.
  • Fullscreen.

The menu

The Menu (top right) is the home for everything that isn’t a map tool: Maps, Account, Preferences, Storage and Help. It’s covered in Settings & preferences.

Next steps