Choosing map projection by territory like ArcMap (but without ArcMap) [closed]

Question

When I worked with ArcMap, I had no problem with choosing projection

ArcMap has a large number of predefined projections organized by world, continent, and country. You can navigate quickly to appropriate projections for any part of the world.

My current employer did not buy ArcMap, but I still need to choose an appropriate projection for my tasks. For example, I have got a list of coordinates in degrees (WGS84). I need to define (for example)

• some distances in meters
• areas in square meters
• midpoints
• centroids

So, I need to select appropriate projection, transform original coordinated to this projection, make calculation, and sometimes transform result back to WGS84.

For this purposes I need mechanism to select the appropriate projection. What is it?

Answer 1

I often determine which projection to use with a UTM Zone map such as that shown below.

So if one was representing an area in western Madagascar (large island southeast of African continent) in their GIS, for example, they would likely choose WGS 84 / UTM zone 38S as their coordinate reference system. This is the column number this area is in within this UTM map. The S in 38S indicates that this area is south of the equator.

To project a coordinate list of points, you can use the project function of your GIS to project your points to the appropriate coordinate reference system. Then perform your various analyses and reproject back to the geographic coordinate system using the same project function if need be.