7 Start QGIS & Open a New Project

Start QGIS in the way you typically open any program on your particular computer’s operating system. It’s normal that it may take a minute to open.

When QGIS opens, you may see a list of recent projects, or if this is a new installation, there may not be any listed. It doesn’t matter which you see, because we want to start a new project. To do this, click on the Project menu in the upper left of the window and select New - or you can click the white page icon that is usually near the Project menu on the tool bar.