Tour the Interface

Get familiar with the key areas of the GISOwl map editor.

Toolbar

The toolbar sits at the top of the map canvas and gives you quick access to the most common actions:

  • Upload — Add data from files, URLs, or cloud sources.
  • Annotations — Draw markers, lines, polygons, circles, and text.
  • Owl AI — Open the AI assistant to ask questions about your data or generate spatial queries.
  • Basemap — Switch between satellite, street, terrain, dark, and custom basemaps.
  • Search — Find any place by name, address, or coordinates.

Layers Panel

The layers panel on the left lists every dataset and annotation group on your map. From here you can:

  • Reorder layers by dragging
  • Toggle layer visibility
  • Open the style editor
  • Access the attribute table
  • Rename, duplicate, or delete layers
  • Group layers into folders

Map Canvas

The central area where your data is rendered. Interact with features by clicking to see popups, hovering for tooltips, or using box-select to highlight a region. Use scroll to zoom, click-drag to pan, and hold Shift + drag to rotate and tilt the 3D view.

Properties Panel

When you select a feature or layer, the right-side panel shows its properties: attribute values, geometry details, and styling options. You can edit attribute values inline for editable layers.

Legend

The auto-generated legend appears in the bottom-left corner, reflecting the current layer styles. You can toggle the legend on or off and reposition it for exported images.

Status Bar

The bottom bar shows your current cursor coordinates (lat/lon), zoom level, map projection, and feature count for the active layer.

Next Steps