Kaart: JOSM Usage/sandbox

Introduction

JOSM is the platform most used by Kaart for editing data in OSM. It has more features and capabilities than ID Editor but is still user friendly once you get to understand its UI and basic functions. This document will go through the basics of using JOSM and some of its key features.

We'll go over:

• UI (user interface)
• Toolbars
• Dialog Panel
• Keyboard Shortcuts

Prerequisites

• Kaart: JOSM Download and Optimization/sandbox

UI Elements

The user interface is your main screen. This has all of your tools and other features you need for editing. Learning the layout and where to find each tool are important things to learn.

Main Toolbar

The main toolbar sits horizontally at the top of the JOSM window. It can be customized and generally contains the save, upload, download and undo/redo buttons along with shortcuts to common tools, imageries, or other presets.

If you want to add/remove tools on the main toolbar, you can customize them in Settings by going to the Toolbar tab to add/remove tools. This is recommended for tools that do not have present or accessible hotkeys.

Items that are useful to have in your Main Toolbar are:

• Download
• Download in View
• Upload
• Download Object
• Download Along
• Satellite imageries
• Etc.

While the toolbar is extremely useful, hotkeys are the preferred method of accessing frequently used tools.

Edit Toolbar

The edit toolbar appears vertically along the left side and contains buttons for common functions/tools and dialog panel windows. These are more easily accessed using hotkeys or the dialogs panel.

Some examples of tools include:
	Move Objects		Lasso Tool		Make Parallel Ways		Building Tools
Some examples of dialog panel windows inlcude:
	Layers		Tags/Memberships		Relations		Command Stack

Dialogs Panel

Many helpful editing features can be added as windows, which allows for easier access to them. Window panels will also appear as a dialog panel. All dialog panels have the option to be dragged to a different position by selecting the button on each panel. This will remove it from the dialogs panel as a separate window.

Kaart recommends using the following standard windows:
	Layers	Shows the active layers including the OSM data and imagery layers.
	Tags/Memberships	Shows the tags/keys of a selected OSM feature. Also shows any relations associated with that feature.
	Validation Results	Shows validation results once the validator check is run. You can also use the hotkey Shift + V to automatically run the validator if you don't want to keep this panel up.
	Filter	Shows filters and filter view options.
	Map Paint Styles	Shows paint styles.
	OpenStreetMap Obj Info	Shows object information about a selected OSM feature. Provides easy access to: The object ID Most recent changeset link Most recent edit date/user Ground imagery sources Etc.

Edit which windows are active/visible using the windows tab at the top of the screen. Check-marked windows are active. You can activate/deactivate as many windows as you need, but make sure to always keep at least the recommended set active. If you accidentally close out a window, you can return to this menu to reactivate it at any time.

Expand Panel

In the top left corner of each window there is a small button with a black arrow; this shows whether the window is expanded or minimized. You can click anywhere within the title bar to toggle the window visibility.

Adjust Panel Size

To adjust the vertical/horizontal size of each window:

• Hover over the edge of the window.
• When you see a black and white icon with arrows, you can click and hold to drag/resize the window as needed.
  • Use the left edge to adjust the horizontal width of all the windows at once.

Undock

Use the undock icon in the upper right corner of each window to separate it from the group as an individual window that can be dragged anywhere on the screen. To re-dock it, simply close it using and it will re-appear along the right side of the screen.

Accessing Imagery

To pull imagery into your task, go to the menu bar on your computer and select Imagery. Select the imagery you want to download and it should download the layer into your Layers window. You can download as many imagery layers as you would like and filter through them as needed.

Map data and imagery layers can be toggled by clicking on the icon next to their names in the Layers window of the Dialog panel.
Pressing the ~ key will cycle through the layers bringing the next one to the top for visibility without having to turn every one off.
Pressing (Shift + A + # or CMD(Ctrl) + Option(Alt) + F2 + #) will toggle your active layer, moving the green check mark up and down.
You can also use the transparency slider for each layer by clicking the 2nd button from the right just under the Layers menu. The opacity slider is a useful feature for comparing and contrasting different layers on the map.

The crosshatched shaded areas represent the boundaries of the task area or the download area. Only roads, areas, and points that have at least one node in the un-shaded area will appear as editable data.

• This can be toggled on/off by going to View then clicking on Draw boundaries of downloaded data.

Imagery Settings

Every imagery layer has settings to help you troubleshoot problems, learn more about the imagery and modify your preferences on how the imagery works.

The settings we use the most are the troubleshooting settings.

These settings include:
Flush tile cache	Delete all cached images and start fresh.
Load all error tiles	Load all tiles that failed to load.
Load all tiles	Refresh all cached tiles.
Load tile	Refresh cached tile.

These settings are helpful when your imagery is blurry, only partially loaded or isn't working at all.

Finding Imagery Dates

Obtaining the imagery dates within JOSM is possible, but you should be aware that this information is not always available. Some imagery sources will provide you with the date it was captured while in other cases it will provide the date it was made available for use which can be years apart from each other. Keep this in mind when deciding which imagery is the most up-to-date in a given area.

To find the imagery date:

• Right click on the imagery
• Open the setting for the desired imagery source
• Click on Show tile info
  • This will bring up a popup with various information about the imagery source including when it was captured(if available).

How to Add Standard/Custom Imagery Layers

JOSM has the ability to add multiple imagery layers. Some are built into JOSM while others can be manually added.

Standard Imagery Layers

Standard imagery layers are already in JOSM and simply need to be added as an active layer to be used.

To add a standard imagery layer:

• Open Settings
• Go to Imagery
• Browse or search for a standard imagery layer under Available default entries.
  • There is more than just imagery layers available. There are also name layers, routes, etc.
• Click on it, then click Activate to add it to your Selected entries list.
• The new layer can now be added/used in JOSM as a viewable layer.

Note: You may have to restart JOSM in order to use the new imagery layer.

Custom Imagery Layers

Custom imagery layers can be very useful for some projects, but often require permission to use in OSM.

To add a custom imagery layer:

• Open Settings
• Go to Imagery
• Click on one of the following options next to the Selected entries list:
  • WMS
  • TMS
  • WMTS
  • MVT
  • You'll need to find out which of these matches the custom imagery you're wanting to add or it won't work.
• In the popup, follow the provided instructions and fill out all required fields.
• Click Ok
• Your custom imagery layer is now ready to use!

Keyboard Shortcuts

JOSM and Rapid have many tools and presets to help you with your editing, however, the fastest way to increase your productivity and efficiency while editing is through the use of hotkeys. JOSM has the added benefit of allowing you to customize hotkeys. Remember to double check each hotkey before making any changes so you don't disable another hotkey that you do use.

• To learn more about customizing hotkeys see the Kaart: JOSM Download and Optimization#Keyboard Shortcuts/sandbox page.
• A list of keyboard shortcuts can be found here.

Plugins

Plugins can further enhance your JOSM experience. Plugins are tools created by the OSM community to help make editing specific features easier or allow you to further customize JOSM.

Suggested Bookmarks

• Kaart: Keyboard Shortcuts