I'm assuming we're both talking about the SLD XML schema specified by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) for describing the appearance of map layers.

I have SLD's/lyr files with my shp/gdb files. They all have the same name except for the extension. Is it possible for me to force qgis to load the sld with the shp so that I don't need to manually go to properties, load style and ok it? In arcmap I can just open the lyr instead of the .shp -is there a similar process for qgis.

QGIS now supports SLD styles but you have to import them manually after loading the shape file.

Can I get my geoserver to automatically sync with the data in one of my drives?

You'd have to upload the SLD file to Geoserver and associate it with the shape file layer AFAIK.

Also is it fair to assume that the SLD associated with a shp will look exactly the same when they are loaded into geoserver? In some tests this seems to be true.

Theoretically they should.

What programs produced your SLD files btw?

I'm assuming we're both talking about the SLD XML schema specified by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) for describing the appearance of map layers.

I have SLD's/lyr files with my shp/gdb files. They all have the same name except for the extension. Is it possible for me to force qgis to load the sld with the shp so that I don't need to manually go to properties, load style and ok it? In arcmap I can just open the lyr instead of the .shp -is there a similar process for qgis.

Unfortunately, you still have to load SLD styles manually for version 1.8 of QGIS.

I have SLD's/lyr files with my shp/gdb files. They all have the same name except for the extension. Is it possible for me to force qgis to load the sld with the shp so that I don't need to manually go to properties, load style and ok it? In arcmap I can just open the lyr instead of the .shp -is there a similar process for qgis.

QGIS now supports SLD styles but you have to import them manually after loading the file.

Can I get my geoserver to automatically sync with the data in one of my drives?

You'd have to upload the SLD file to Geoserver and associate it with the shape file layer AFAIK.

Also is it fair to assume that the SLD associated with a shp will look exactly the same when they are loaded into geoserver? In some tests this seems to be true.

Theoretically they should.

What programs produced your SLD files btw?

I'm assuming we're both talking about the SLD XML schema specified by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) for describing the appearance of map layers.

I have SLD's/lyr files with my shp/gdb files. They all have the same name except for the extension. Is it possible for me to force qgis to load the sld with the shp so that I don't need to manually go to properties, load style and ok it? In arcmap I can just open the lyr instead of the .shp -is there a similar process for qgis.

QGIS now supports SLD styles but you have to import them manually after loading the shape file.

Can I get my geoserver to automatically sync with the data in one of my drives?

You'd have to upload the SLD file to Geoserver and associate it with the shape file layer AFAIK.

Also is it fair to assume that the SLD associated with a shp will look exactly the same when they are loaded into geoserver? In some tests this seems to be true.

Theoretically they should.

What programs produced your SLD files btw?