Editing OSM is too tedious for me

keepright_ler · 2024-03-15T08:03:55.634Z

Whenever I edit OSM (which is actually something to like if it wasn’t that tedious), I always have to search every other tag (e. g. building:material, fence_type all values) in the wiki due to lackluster presets, which is really cumbersome. Compared to iD, JOSM is superior in editing the geometry of objects; however, both editors suffer from many tags documented in the wiki not being available in presets. (JOSM is actually slightly worse regarding tagging and presets!)

Can you give me some tips to make tagging in JOSM less tedious? For example, something that automagically creates presets from OSM Wiki pages?

Also, the issue is partly caused by my perfectionism – the compulsion to perfectly follow the tagging schemes described in the wiki.

Another JOSM-specific issue: I cannot copy-paste values (from the wiki or contact data) into JOSM using ⌘V (Command-V) although the key combination works for pasting data objects. (It is really overcomplicated to change the default keybindings in JOSM, too!)

dieterdreist · 2024-03-15T08:55:49.959Z

Indeed, have you seen that you can activate additional tagging presets as visible in @SekeRob 's answer? You can also put presets that you use often on custom buttons for quick access. Personally, after using the osm tools for a while and being familiar with many tags, I find it easiest to type the tags rather than clicking through presets, thanks to autocompletion this is very fast. The keyboard shortcut to add a tag is ALT + a (or OPTION + a on Mac)

Pasting tags in JOSM is done with CTRL + SHIFT + V (ctrl+v is already pasting whole objects, so it cannot be the same, on mac, it is CMD + SHIFT + V).

If you are on a Mac, shortcuts are kind of a mess, I agree. Basically you have to remember which shortcuts use CMD and which use CTRL. For pasting text into text fields, you must use CTRL + V (not command, also on Mac).

woodpeck · 2024-03-15T12:32:46.000Z

This is not “perfectionism”. The Wiki is full of niche tags that could
be used occasionally but are not recommended for broad use. (As a random
example - we wouldn’t expect even the most perfect mapper to add a
date_start and an architect to each building they map.)

You can modify the JOSM presets yourself and add tags you wish to use;
calling for editors to somehow have presets for “all” tags would lead to
misunderstandings (“what, do they expect me to fill in all these
fields???”) and we’d have thousands more people complaining that OSM
was “too tedious”.

vorpalblade-kaart · 2024-03-15T12:44:03.746Z

Speaking as a JOSM maintainer, I typically only want to add tags that match the following:

Broad use (both in terms of users and in terms of total numbers) or general importance (there are only so many countries in the world, but we should still support them)
- I may make exceptions for tags that have been through the proposal process, if I think they might be generally useful. But someone has to open a ticket and provide a good icon.
- Our current threshold for “broad use” is 10k uses worldwide. We have a job that looks for these.
Tag actually makes sense and is not going to be a typo of something else (specific example: service=driveway and service=driveway2 – someone did think it would be a good idea)
Non-controversial – I am not going to add tags that have had recent documentation changes or have otherwise been part of a controversy.

I typically put off adding new tags to JOSM since I have to create/find an icon for them.

See DevelopersGuide/DefaultPresets – JOSM for what we look for.

SekeRob · 2024-03-15T08:31:55.257Z

Actually v.v. buildings I got some tips in this communities’ predecessor back in prox. H2-2022 when starting to use JOSM about available tagging preset add-ons and then build from that with the EasyPreset plugin me own preset for e.g. buildings, taking account of 3D modelling related tagging. It is organized in blocks of building, roof, other, which was by then already the 39th custom preset I’d created, but there are countless to pick from in the tagging presets list under preferences

image429×637 25.5 KB

image777×284 20.9 KB

SimonPoole · 2024-03-15T13:40:06.723Z

keepright_ler:

Can you give me some tips to make tagging in JOSM less tedious? For example, something that automagically creates presets from OSM Wiki pages?

That’s easy GitHub - simonpoole/beautified-JOSM-preset: Improved version of the JOSM presets

grafik1701×471 137 KB

BTW you can create new or modified presets on the fly (and from taginfo + wiki) in Vespucci, but that doesn’t really help you on the desktop.

Herwescheluc · 2024-03-15T14:37:03.501Z

I’m sorry, but I have to take this typo as a steep one:

keepright_ler:

something that automagically creates presets

That is also my deepest wish and desire…

Happy mapping!