Take the 2-minute tour ×  I am just getting started using QGIS.
I am aiming to create a heat map of Census tracts in Georgia
based on population. I have all of the data - the population for
each census tract in Georgia.  I've been able to create the heat
map successfully by importing a census tract shape file and
following this tutorial:
http://qgis.spatialthoughts.com/2012/03/using-tabular-data-in-
qgis.html  However I am stuck on how to add a nice looking map
layer underneath which will show common geographical features -
highways, cities, water courses etc. I have tried importing OSM
data from cloudmade but there is far too much detail. The map is
supposed to be fairly high level but the shape files from there
show every single road. I am trying to replace MS MapPoint (no
2010 census tracts). The functionality I am trying to get would
allow for different levels of detail depending on how far I
zoom. Generally just showing major roads / cities etc. I don't
mind if this is automatic or manual.  Could anyone p