Welcome to JOSM online help system

You can improve this help by clicking on "Open in Browser" below.

If you have reached this page from pressing F1 in JOSM, then you can get more specific help on a particular window, dialog, or tool. Simply place the mouse cursor over that item prior to pressing F1.

Beware: This help might get outdated from time to time! Please help improving it by fixing parts that are missing or outdated - this is a wiki!

Table of Contents

Getting Started

• Introduction to JOSM
• JOSM Page on the OSM wiki: ​http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Josm
• How Tos about JOSM
• Working with Relations
• Audio mapping: playing voice notes and synchronizing them with your GPS tracks in JOSM
• ​FAQ about OSM in general
• Keyboard shortcuts

Concepts

• Objects - explains what objects maps consist of and how these objects are described in detail
• Conflict - explains the basics of conflicts, why they occur, how they are detected and how you can resolve them

• Changeset - explains why you create a changeset when you upload data to the OSM server

JOSM interface

• Map View - The main area, where editing takes place

• Main Toolbar (the toolbar above the main JOSM window). This toolbar is highly customisable, with the ability to add and remove menus items from the preferences dialog.

• Edit Toolbar (the toolbar down the left hand side of the main JOSM window)
  • Select Move Rotate
  • Draw Nodes
  • Create Areas By Extrusion
  • Zoom
  • Delete
  • ...buttons below the delete tool affect the display of dialog windows described under 'views' below

• Toggle Dialogs (lower left part of JOSM window)
  • Layer List Dialog
  • Properties/Memberships Dialog
  • History Dialog
  • Current Selection Dialog
  • Filter Dialog
  • Authors Dialog
  • Conflict List Dialog - displays the list of conflicts in the current data layer
  • Command Stack Dialog
  • Relations List Dialog
  • (... other buttons depending on the Plugins loaded)

• Main Menu (note: depending on which plugins you have installed you may have more options on this menu)
  • File
  • Edit
  • View
  • Tools
  • Audio
  • Presets
  • WMS (shown when wmsplugin plugin is installed)
  • Help

JOSM Plugins

• A list of available plugins can be found at the Plugin page.
• Information and Documentation about various JOSM plugins can be found here: ​http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/JOSM/Plugins

JOSM error messages

• Something General
• Error while parsing outdated