Create a Grid Cell just for Africa

Question

I would like to create a grid cell of 0.5x0.5 degrees just for Africa. I am doing it with Menu Vector / Research Tools / Create Grid. However, when I go to select just Africa (extension of the grid) it is a bit difficult (as it can be in the picture). Any idea about how to solve it? I am trying to do it selecting in the attribute table the just African continent but I am still not able to solve it.

My last goal is to have a grid cell for the African Continent. I would like just to see the African Continent with the grid cell.

Answer 1

Select all african countries using the different selection tool QGIS offers (see screenshot). Hold Shift to manually add/remove single countries.

When done copy the selected countries Menu Edit / Copy features, than paste them: Menu Edit / Paste Features As.

Screenshot: selecting

If you want to keep only the continent, without the countries as individual polygons, on the inserted layer apply Menu Vector / Geoprocessing Tools / Dissolve:

For some reasons, you might want to keep only the continent and not the islands. In this case, use Menu Vector / Geomtry tools / Multipart to singleparts. On the resulting layer, select the continent and use Invert selection (Ctrl+R) to select all islands. Then delete them (toggle editing mode).

And here you are with the continent left. By the way: by typing world into the coordinates box at the bottom of the window, you can load a shapefile-basemap. It is not editable, but you can copy it as described above: