Exercise 1: Mapping Vowel Mergers in the U.S. Sample of the map we will be making:

Preliminaries: Setting up our workspace 1. We have previously recommended having a separate folder, called “QGIS Projects,” set up on your computer. At this point, we want to make sure that all of the files provided for the course are located in this folder. (If you are using your own file schema, make sure that you know where the files are located on your computer.) 2. If you haven’t already, start QGIS. Dismiss any tips that display, and start a new project. 3. You should have a blank interface. The first thing we want to do, before loading any data, is

set our Coordinate Reference System (CRS). To do this, click the button in the lower right-hand corner of the interface. 4. A window should open up; at the top of this window there should be a check-box where you can elect to “Enable ‘on the fly’ CRS transformation (OTF).” Click this box. 5. Directly below this box is a text box labeled “Filter.” Here, we can specify which specific CRS to use for our project. Type in (search for) 4326. This should filter your options to include WGS 84 EPSG: 4326. Select this CRS and click “Apply” in the bottom of the CRS menu. You can now close this menu and return to the main QGIS interface by clicking “OK.”

Preliminaries: Using Plug-ins The basic package/installation of any GIS often lacks some functions. Plug-ins allow the user (and contributors) to expand the available functions. We are going to install a plug-in for QGIS that will allow us to add and work with base maps. 1. In the top tool bar, click the “Plugins” option. After a brief delay, a new window will open where we can search for and install new plug-ins. 2. In the “Search” text box, enter OpenLayers Plugin. 3. Select this plug-in and install it. 4. Once the installation is complete, we can click the “Web” option in the top toolbar and select the OpenLayers plugin, which will allow us to add a base map. We will select a fairly minimalist base map for our first project: The Stamen Toner Light/OSM. We will do this by clicking Web, then OpenLayers plugin, OSM/Stamen, and then Stamen Toner Light/OSM.

Adding and Analyzing our data The next step is to add our data and start our analysis.

1. Click the button that allows you to add vector data to the map: 2. Select the “Browse” button and navigate to your QGIS Projects folder (we won’t be changing any of the options in this window for any of our exercises).

3. Load the dialectSurvey.shp file into QGIS. It will show up on your Layers Panel. Your display should look like this:

4. Right click on the dialectSurvey label in your Layers Panel and select “Properties:”

5. In the “Properties” menu, select the Style tab:

6. Now we’re going to classify our data. First, we will change the drop down menu at the top that says “Single symbol” to be “Categorized.” 7. We can now categorize our data based on features found in one of the columns of the data file. In this case, let’s work with data that shows who does, and doesn’t, have the PIN-PEN merger.

8. First, we’ll classify the data by clicking “Classify,” and then hit “Apply” to see the changes in our map.

9. Note that we can customize our map in the Styles tab to make this a little more presentable:

Exporting our data as a map image For this part of the process, we’re going to switch over to Print Composer. 1. Select “New print composer” from the Project tab in the top menu.

2. Give your Print Composer a name, and you will now have a new interface to work with:

3. Now let’s add our map into the Print Composer by selecting the “Add New Map” button

( ) on the left-hand menu. 4. Next, we’ll add and customize our Legend by selecting the “Add New Legend” button

( ). We’ll also use the Item properties tab to customize our legend a little more for publication.

5. Finally, we’ll add our map title using the “Add New Label” button ( ) and editing the label using the Item properties tab. We should have something like this:

6. We can now export our map as an image file by using the “Export as Image” button ( )