utilsplugin

• must have plugin
• provides several useful tools for faster and more efficient editing in JOSM
• e.g. "Split objects" by pressing "Alt"+"x" as an alternative to the terracer plugin in case of more complex shapes
• more info: https://josm.openstreetmap.de/wiki/Help/Plugin/UtilsPlugin2

Buildings_tool

• must have plugin
• press "b" to activate the plugin
• rectangular buildings can be created with just two mouse clicks if another object is selected as guide for orientation
• if no other object is selected, three mouse clicks are required
• tag "building=yes" is inserted automatically
• pressing "CTRL" deactives auto-snapping. This is required to avoid that the new building has shared nodes with highways
• choosing a node of an existing building as first node offers the possibility to align the new building to the one already existing.
• more information: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/JOSM/Plugins/BuildingsTools

HouseNumberTaggingTool

• used to assign house numbers to ways or nodes
• simply select an object and press "k" on the keyboard to open a window with common address keys
• if (downloaded) objects in the vicinity have already assigned keys like "addr:street" or "addr:postcode" these values can be easily selection from a drop-down list. This avoids false edits.
• tool allows to automatically apply increments to house numbers every time a new house number is assigned (increment slider at the bottom of the window)
• more info: https://josm.openstreetmap.de/wiki/Help/Plugin/HouseNumberTaggingTool

Terracer

• useful to divide rectangular buildings into equal parts to assign house numbers afterwards
• may also assign house numbers automatically, but I prefer to use the HouseNumberingTool for this purpose
• tool does not work good for irregulur shaped buildings also it chooses the longer building side for terracing which is not always what is required
• in these cases I prefer to to simply add a line where I want the building to be split, then press "Alt+x" to split, the "q" to square the created objects
• more info: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/JOSM/Plugins/Terracer

Contourmerge

• easily merges ways to already existing more complex ways
• drastically reduces required mouse clicks while drawing ways if there is already a shape to be used as reference
• examples are: draw a residential area and merge its conture to already existing forest area; often governmental boarders are defined by the course of rivers or streams. If the river is drawn acurately the way waterway=river might be used for the boarder as reference to merge it to the waterway
• more info: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/JOSM/Plugins/ContourMerge

todo

• with this plugin it is easy to systematically check objects one after another for tagging issues or squareness
• after selecting objects you can add these objects to the "todo" list
• after checking / fixing one item you could decide whether to "mark" the oject (means alright) or to select "Pass" instead to keep it in the list
• more info: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/JOSM/Plugins/TODO_list

FastDraw

• useful to trace forests, rivers, river banks, lakes or coast-lines or highways using aerial imagery in the background
• drastically reduces the number of mouse clicks to created objects of complex shape
• activated by clicking "shift"+"f"
• by pressing the left mouse button (LMB) and keeping it pressed while moving the mouse following the conture temporary nodes are created. Alternatively to pressing the mouse button, you could also press the "space" key. As long as "space" or LMB is pressed nodes are created below the mouse position. After pressing "Enter" the number of nodes gets reduced, after another "Enter" the final way is created.
• the number of the nodes that are created depends on the zoom level. Higher zoom levels will give more nodes.
• if required the simplify way utility might be used to reduce the number of nodes further ("shift"+"y")
• more info: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/JOSM/Plugins/FastDraw