Ok, now back to the exercise. Recall that before the discussion on Coverages above, we downloaded Shapefile data from MassGIS. After downloading, you need to make sure that all of the data are in a format that can be imported into QGIS. QGIS can read feature data stored in any of the following formats: shapefiles, ArcInfo coverages, dBASE tables of x,y coordinates, text files of x,y coordinates and CAD drawings.

Next, you have to convert the downloaded executable (".exe") files to shapefiles. To do this navigate your computer to your work folder (i.e., c:\temp\data) and decompress the zn8.exe and bndry.exe zip files. The Linux command "unzip" is used to extract the data from the .exe files if it cannot be done in the "windows way". MAKE SURE YOU KNOW WHERE THE DECOMPRESSED FILES WILL BE STORED.

Open the folder c:\temp\GISdata. How many files were unzipped from the Amherst zoning shape file? You will have to keep track of all of these files when backing up your work or moving data between computers.