Main Help

Welcome to the JOSM Help! The Introduction will guide you to your first successful edit. The How Tos deal with some use cases.

As of 2020-03-03 some images in the help system are missing due to an update in progress.

Interface

The Main menu offers under File, Edit, View, Mode, Tools, Selection, Presets, Imagery, Windows, Audio and Help all actions possible in JOSM. A search finds every menu item.

On the Mapview all mouse clicks depend on the Working mode previously entered. New objects are created in Draw mode. In other modes objects are selected and edited.

• The Main Toolbar has buttons for actions and presets,
• while the panels in the Sidebar inform about the Selection,
• the Status Bar shows the drawing position and
• the Working mode is indicated in the Edit Toolbar. Therefore its upper buttons are important screen elements.

Main menu	Mapview	Main toolbar
Edit toolbar	Statusbar	Sidebar

All screen elements have their own help context in JOSM. Other dialogs exist for setting Preferences, for managing Changesets, for resolving Conflicts and for editing Relations.

See also

The power of JOSM lies in its flexibility, allowing every user to download, create and publish:

• Presets to create a rich map with common object types,
• Rules to tag according to guidelines,
• Styles to paint maps to taste,
• Plugins to extend JOSM's functionality and
• to use Keyboard shortcuts of their choosing.

JOSM can handle all ​Map Features. As a companion for ​OpenStreetMap since 2005, ​JOSM's growth rate has been fast. You are invited to help keep the wiki up to date, to translate it and to improve JOSM.

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Here is Main Help