Frequently Asked Questions
- 1. Can I have thousands of people in my database?
- There is no limit to the number of records in the program's database. A large database size, about ten thousand records, may hinder program performance. This will be addressed in a future release.
- 2. Can I add source references to each person, family, and event?
- You have no limits when attaching source references to person, family, and other objectsincluding all events and cases. All references to sources may be grouped by archives.
- 3. I need to record data about unrelated persons, which lived in a single community and were, at most, relatives of each other in the past, but this was not revealed quickly. Can I do this with GEDKeeper?
- The program has no limits for storing unrelated persons. In fact, having unrelated persons in the database was an initial program requirement.
- 4. Can I print or export data from GEDKeeper to some commonly used formats?
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The following are options available for data exporting:
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Three types of trees: ancestors, descendants, and combined. Other types are not yet implemented
currently but can be added later when number of requests increases. GEDKeeper can print trees itself, and you can
export a tree to a JPG, WMF, or SVG graphics file then print such a file from an external application.
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Export a list of persons to an Excel workbook. Currently there are not many settings for export tuning and selecting of
exported information, but this will evolve as needed.
- Export a persons' statistical data with cataloging, in several Web-formats.
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Create pedigrees which have two schemes of numbering: d'Aboville and Konovalov. Such pedigrees
are created as HTML, RTF, or PDF files then you can use any third-party viewer installed in your system (for example,
SumatraPDF or Adobe Reader) to print such
files. The generated files have hyperlinks for main navigation. Optionally you can add references to sources and notes into
the generated files.
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Create Google maps with marks for places of birth, death, living of all persons in database, or of a single
selected person. Built-in printing may be implemented in the future.
In the meantime, use a screen capture program or process (such as [PrtScr] in Windows)
or the built-in image saving function (to JPEG file).
- 5. Can I import data from other application using the GEDCOM format?
- Yes, importing GEDCOM-formatted data is fully supported. GEDCOM is the native data format for GEDKeeper. GEDKeeper uses some extensions of the format, but all of them meet requirements for GEDCOM extensions. Therefore, you can also export data from GEDKeeper to other software supporting GEDCOM. We occasionally check such compatibility. Here is the list of out extensions: groups for quick and vivid joining unrelated persons, objects: "research", "task" and "communication" (to store correspondence archive, creating and tracking tasks, and researches).
- 6. How do I create a list or persons grouped by sex, age, place, or social status, as defined in a source?
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To create such lists, you can use one of the following methods:
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Sort a list by clicking a column header. Ascending and descending order sorting is implemented in all lists in the programincluding age, sex, and
place of residence columns.
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Sort on an individual part of name. In order to do this, you have to split one full name column to a three-parted column set. Go to "Service\Options..."
and change how a name is shown in lists to split on individual component.
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Filter content. You can use a filter on the following object properties: sex, live/died attribute, "patriarch" attribute, logical group of people, name, and
place of residence. When filtering by name and place you can use special meta-characters to search by a "mask": '*' symbol matches any number of any characters,
and the '?' symbol matches any single character. In such a way a "Sm*" filter matches any name starting with "Sm" and "*sm*" matches any name having "sm" inside the name.
You can define compound filters by using the "OR" conjunction symbol "|". For example: "*jo*|*sm*" matches any name with "jo" or "sm" inside the name.
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Use groups. You can sort by a group, apply a filter to a group, and view a groups' members when you have selected the group in its native list.
This is one of the most flexible and advanced types of navigation because one person can have several social or other groups.
- 7. Can GEDKeeper shows empty dates on death and birth events as "?" in lists?
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Currently this is not implemented. It may be implemented in the future as an optional feature. Numerous tests revealed that such behavior clutters main lists up.
However, if we get enough number of requests for this feature, we will implement it.
- 8. Can you improve the new persons adding feature by implementing an "Apply and continue" button?
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A similar feature is implemented by the plugin that can be accessed via the "Plugins\Stream input" menu. This plugin gives the ability to add minimal
information about a person while you need to handle a large number of persons. You enter only some main information and put aside adding information about
relationships and other secondary data.
Authors: Zhdanovskih Sergey Vladimirovich, Tarasova Oksana Vladimirovna.