[Qgis-community-team] some report and questions on our QGIS training

[maning sambale]

Hi,

Just want to give some feedback regarding the use of QGIS for a
one-day training/workshop we gave last month.  The workshop was
designed as an introduction to QGIS for beginner (new to FOSS-Geo and
GIS in general).  We used QGIS-1.4.0-1-No-GrassSetup for the course.
It covers the basic topics outlined below:
   * displaying and navigating data,
   * creating and editing data,
   * vector geoprocessing and overlay analysis and,
   * designing maps for printing.

Overall, I believe the participants appreciated the power of GIS and
QGIS as an additional tool within their respective organizations.

Below are some feedback/request from the participants I hope devs can
look into in the future (or perhaps this has been solved already):
  * Install problems with Windows 7 and Vista - It seems QGIS cannot
be installed to default Program Files(86) directory.   When using
Vista and Win7 (using the QGIS-1.4.0-1-No-GrassSetup.exe), the install
process ran and finishes, however, when we started the QGIS using the
Desktop icon, no QGIS session was opened.  When we checked the the
Program Files directory, no QGIS folder was created.  We had to create
a QGIS directory in C:\ to install QGIS.  In Windows XP, installation
worked as expected.
    * Participants using small screen netbooks have difficulty using
some of the QGIS application windows. For example, the field
calculator window is not completely visible using a 10.5 inch LCD
screen.
    * Saving file in a specified format does not append the file
extensions.  This was observed in the Map/Print Composer.  Although a
pdf filetype was activated, we had to create a complete filename with
the extension (i.e "map.pdf" and not "map") in order to save the file
with the extension.
    * Feature requests for batch spatial index generation.   When
loading multiple shapefiles, you need to open the Properties dialog to
create shapefile index (qix) for each layer.  A nice plugin/feature
would be to create qix for all active layers.


Now for some questions.  Two useful materials I used was the QGIS 1.4
user guide and "A Gentle Introduction to GIS" (T. Sutton, O. Dassau,
M. Sutton) both materials are in GNU Free Documentation License.  In
some cases, portions of text from the two materials are integrated
into our exercise materials.  What aspects of the GFDL should I be
complying with?  In my opinion, the exercises are covered under
section 7 (Aggregation with Independent Works) of the license.

Thanks again fro QGIS (couple with GRASS), I have been using it in
almost all of our GIS needs and we see it as an appropriate app for
advocating the use of FOSS-Geo in our country (PH).



-- 
cheers,
maning
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"Freedom is still the most radical idea of all" -N.Branden
wiki: http://esambale.wikispaces.com/
blog: http://epsg4253.wordpress.com/
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