How to install and use the plugins in QGIS

Note: If you are using an older version of QGIS and you haven’t yet used the ‘Plugin Installer’, then you’ll probably want to enable it by going to ‘Plugins’ > ‘Plugin Manager’ and enabling ‘Plugin Installer’. At this point, it’s a good idea to update to the latest version of the installer by goin to ‘Plugins’ > ‘Plugin Installer’ and reinstalling it.

1. In QGIS, go to ‘Plugins’ > ‘Plugin Installer’ > ‘Fetch Python Plugins’, and click on the ‘Repositories’ tab.
2. Click on ‘Add 3rd Party Repopsitories, then when the warning pops up, click ‘OK’.
3. This should load the new repositories, and you should now see a list of plugins on the ‘Plugins’ lab.
4. Find the plugin that you are looking for (fTools, manageR, voronoi polygons), and click ‘Install/upgrade plugin’.
5. You’re done! Now simply follow the instructions to activate the plugin.

If the above steps don’t work for you.

1. Download the plugin you’re interested in using.
2. Unzip the plugin zip file to the plugin dir of your QGIS install (the files should automatically extract to a single folder).

Windows: extract to ‘C:\Documents and Settings\_user_name_\.qgis\python\plugins’
Linux: extract to ‘/home/_user_name_/.qgis/python/plugins’
Mac: extract to ‘/Users/_user_name_/.qgis/python/plugins’
where _user_name_ is YOUR user name.

1. Fire up QGIS and select the ‘Plugins’ menu and click on ‘Manage Plugins…’
2. Select the desired plugin from the list and click ‘OK’.
3. You’re done! You can now start using the plugin.

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