How to add a spreadsheet

This tutorial will cover how to add tabular data to a QGIS project.

Tip: GIS software prefer tabular data to be in .csv format, rather than .xlsx. Before attempting to bring any spreadsheets into either QGIS or ArcGIS Pro, please be sure to Save as .csv.

1. Open QGIS.

2. In the main QGIS menu (banner across the top of the computer screen), select Layer → Add Layer → Add delimited text layer.

3. Under File name select the ellipses dots icon to navigate to the .csv you wish to import.

4. Pay attention to Record and Field options. You can start by accepting the defaults, but depending on the way your data is structured, you may want to make use of some of these settings.

5. • If your data does not have point coordinates (latitude and longitude) and you plan on making this data spatial by performing a join, under Geometry definition select No Geometry (attribute only table).
   • If your data does have point coordinates, select Point coordinates and define which field in the spreadsheet is X (longitude), and which is Y (latitude).

6. Select Add.

7. Select Close.