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Using QGIS, adding .OSM data from the toolbar works great - that is, the features look great.

However, I've been having a hard time working with labeling .OSM lines in QGIS.

There are several posts out there (example) which describe how this could be done, but I've yet to figure out how to do this.

If i export the .OSM files to .SHP, the same styling cannot be used.

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Please post an example picture of where you got stuck. What exactly are you having problems with? Enabling new labeling from labeling toolbar and checking "curved" in advanced tab should be all the trick. – underdark♦ Dec 10 '12 at 21:26
Anita: I've posted a doc here: docs.google.com/open?id=0Bxh7puyDgHHoOElFQm4xZGJubXM Your suggestion worked, but there are a few issues I pointed out in there as well...maybe take a look and let me know what you think? Thanks again!!! – mapBaker Dec 11 '12 at 18:32
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The labels look as expected. The water feature seems to be totally missing from the OSM file. (I've seen this problem before. It has nothing to do with QGIS.) The load issue is a different problem. Except for minor label placement changes (e.g. road labels on roads instead of above), there is not much more to do. – underdark♦ Dec 11 '12 at 20:13
Thanks, Anita!!! – mapBaker Dec 11 '12 at 23:33
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The water features are part of the coastline, Openstreetmap uses shapefile polygons stored in tile.openstreetmap.org/processed_p.tar.bz2 for that to make sure you get the "inner" and "outer" right. See also wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Mapnik#World_boundaries. The shapefile contains the landmass, so you have to set the project background to light blue, and the polygon layers background to white or light grey. – Andre Joost Dec 12 '12 at 7:41
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closed as not a real question by underdark♦ Dec 12 '12 at 8:43

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