QGIS Terminology, Filtering and Finding
A map is made up of three main components. They are Layers, Features and Attributes, all of which are subsets of the component before it.
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A map consists of geospatial layers, such as roads, watercourses and properties. Each of these have subsets of features. For example in this map some of the features in the Road layer are : Pub Trk, Higgins Lane, Welches Road and the Upper Nine Mile Road. All the features in the Road layer are Line Vectors as distinct from Polygon vectors as illustrated by the property titled 4045301. A Polygon is a continuous shape (like circles, squares, rectangles etc.)
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All Features have attributes such as, for Roads, Name, Type (Road, Track, Highway), Surface, Adjacent location and one or more codes, which are used by the various authorities responsible for the road. These attributes are used in labelling and for joining with other sets of information in geospatial databases.
To view a list of the attributes for a layer right click on the layer in the Layer List and select Open Attribute Table. The attributes will appear at the bottom of the map as a table, with fields (headings), columns and rows containing the features. This table can be used to find particular features, such as Higgins Lane in the Road Layer above. The table can also be exported for use in Excel.
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To find a particular feature, such as Carter Drive in Beechworth do the following:
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1. Open the Attribute Table for the Road layer by right clicking on the TR_Road layer
2. Hold Down the Ctrl and F (find) keys together and a Query Builder Dialogue box will appear
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