wiki:Help

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Welcome to the JOSM online help system

This help can be corrected at josm.openstreetmap.de/wiki/Help
Some information might be outdated, because JOSM is constantly enhanced with more features and tools. Recently implemented features may miss good illustrations, animations, examples and text explanation. Please help improving by adding them or your personal tips and experience - this is a wiki!

Getting Started

Your first edits with JOSM

  • Introduction to JOSM - briefly covers downloading data, enabling and aligning imagery, main menu items, presets, validation, change-set comments and upload dialogue
  • Migration assist from iD, Potlatch2 or Vespucci - only if you have difficulties or questions related to respective editor "I'm used to do (function) in (an editor) but what should I do in JOSM?"

OSM-wiki resources

Concepts

OSM data model

JOSM

Workflow examples

JOSM tools (incomplete reference)

List below contains mosty/only unreplaceable tools with preference to core JOSM tools. "Incomplete" should be stated explicitly to avoid misunderstandings from any part.

Search among all JOSM tools and menu items - Ctrl+Spacebar

Basic shape of objects

Selection

Selection (or list of currently selected objects) is preciesly described in Help/Dialog/SelectionList#Selection (because it is visible from this dialogue), it can be modified with following tools (incomplete list):

Tags

Tags of currently selected objects displayed in Tags/Memberships Dialog.

Topology tools and changes

Geometry tools

Precision in angles

  • Anglesnapping (A, twice) will ease drawing way segments in 30°, 45°, 60° and 90° degrees
  • Extrude (X, with modifiers) tool will ease drawing of strictly perpendicular segments

Alignment

  • Align in line (L) will align selected nodes into a line
  • Distribute (Shift+B) as above, but also place them at equal distances
  • Parallel (Shift+P), draw lines and curves parallel to each other, draw nested infrastructure quickly
  • "Copy" objects at precise anchor points from commandline
  • "Move" objects at custom vector from commandline
  • Align selected nodes in circle (O)

Viewport control

JOSM interface

JOSM interface overview

Interface terminology (make sure to study bolded items first):

  1. Main menu,
  2. Main toolbar,
  3. JOSM modes,
  4. toggles used to control on/off state of Windows
  5. Windows (or dialogs)
  6. Status bar,
  7. Slider and scaler
  8. Main editing window.

Together, 3 and 4 may contain too many items to display at once, use mouse scroll wheel in this case.

                           +---------------------------------------------+-------------------+
1. Main menu +-----------> |                                             |                   |
                           +---------------------------------------------+                   |
2. Main toolbar +--------> |                                             |                   |
                           +-+-------------------------------------+-----+-------------------+
                           | |                                     |                         |
                           | |    <-------------------------------------------------------------+ 7. Slider and zoom indicator
                           | |                                     |                         |
3. JOSM modes (top) +----> | |                                     |                         |
                           | |                                     |                         |
                           | |                                     |                         |
                           | |                   <----------------------------------------------+ 8. Main editing window
                           | |                                     |                         |
                           +-+                                     |              ^          |
                           | |                                     |              |          |
                           | |                                     |              |          |
4. Window toggles +------> | |                                     |              |          |
                           | |                                     |              |          |
                           | |                                     |              |          |
5. Windows (panels) +-------------------------------------------------------------+          |
                           | |                                     |                         |
                           | |                                     |                         |
                           +-+----------------------------+--------+-------------------------+
6. Status bar (left) +---> |                              |                                  | <+ 9. Context help and status
                           +------------------------------+----------------------------------+

JOSM starting screen

default view differs from what experienced users with enabled Help/ExpertMode expect to see Moscow Kremlin was opened using Help/Action/Download dialog; note a few tools at left panel Moscow Kremlin was opened using Help/Action/Download dialog; note more tools at left panel because of Help/ExpertMode
Starting screen may be confusing for newcomers, you need to get data first using Download menu Here is what you will see if you choose Moscow Kremlin Additional and more complex tools may be activated with Expert mode (pay attention to the left side of the screen)

JOSM interface complete reference

JOSM interface - complete reference. Pay attention, that menus in JOSM are very deep, just couple of examples below:

JOSM interface customization

See Help/JOSM interface customization for details.

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