💾✅ Saving and Exporting Shapefiles & GeoPackages in QGIS

📌 Why Export?

You may want to:

• Save edited layers
• Convert layer formats (e.g., shapefile to GeoPackage or vice versa)
• Share data with others
• Reduce file clutter by packaging all layers in a single GeoPackage

🟢 1. Saving Edits to an Existing Layer

If you’ve made edits to a shapefile or layer:

• Click 💾 Save Layer Edits from the toolbar
  or right-click on the layer → Save Edits

📎 Note: This does not create a new file — it saves changes to the existing layer.

🟢 2. Exporting a Layer to a New File

To save a layer in a different location or format:

✅ Step-by-Step:

1. Right-click the layer in the Layers panel
   → Select Export → Save Features As…

2. In the dialog box:

   Field	What to Do
   Format	Choose: ESRI Shapefile, GeoPackage, etc.
   File name	Browse to where you want to save the file
   Layer name (for GeoPackage)	Enter the name of the layer inside the .gpkg
   CRS	Choose projection (keep as default or set new one)
   Encoding	Leave as UTF-8 unless you have special characters
   Geometry (optional)	Filter by geometry type (point, line, polygon)
   Extent (optional)	Export a subset of features based on map view

   Click OK

🗂️ Export Format Options

🔄 Example: Convert Shapefile to GeoPackage

1. Right-click shapefile → Export → Save Features As
2. Format: GeoPackage
3. File name: Landuse_Data.gpkg
4. Layer name: Landuse
5. Click OK

✅ Done! You now have a .gpkg file with the same data.

🧠 Tips:

• GeoPackage is preferred for QGIS projects since it reduces file clutter.
• You can store multiple vector layers in a single .gpkg.
• Use Layer → Create Layer → New GeoPackage Layer… to create from scratch.