Loading BaseMaps with the OpenLayers plugin

Often, when exploring your data, you may feel somewhat lost. Without the context of the known world, a layer can seem like a blob of information floating in space. By adding an atlas-style map, air photos, or another BaseMap, you can begin to see how your data fits in the on-the-ground reality. However, adding such layers often takes considerable preprocessing work; sometimes, you just don't want to go through this until you know you need it. What's the solution? Use a premade layer from a web service.

Tip

This recipe is almost identical to the previous recipe. QuickMapServices is a replacement for the OpenLayers plugin, which is being discontinued (deprecated). We kept this recipe because it's still a commonly-mentioned plugin and works slightly differently. However, please consider using QuickMapServices.

Getting ready

The Openlayers plugin works best when you have another dataset that you want to provide extra context for. Start by first loading...