How can I eliminate some lines in a Gedcom?
How can I eliminate the lines: _QUAL, _SOUR, _INFO & _EVID from a Gedcom which includes source details? The source detail screen says that use of the Surety and source quality info is Optional, but there doesn't appear to be a way to exercise that option when creating Gedcoms. I've tried eliminating the Gedcom code QUAL and a few other similar codes, to no avail. Will choosing Generic or Basic Gedcom formats resolve?
By the way, shared events in a Gedcom file create a complete mess. Until Gedcom catches up to the Legacy feature, it is almost useless for export purposes IMO.
A gedcom can be opened in a text editor. I use Notepad++. (It's free.) And then you can use Search & Replace. For instance, search for QUAL and replace with blank.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing you may have to watch out for is if QUAL, SOUR, INFO or EVID exist anywhere else that you don't want to delete, such as parts of names or places.
True enough JL Beeken and thank you for that. I've looked at it and it's my second option.
ReplyDeleteBut there is text after those codes, like 1, 3, 0, etc., that changes with each source citation according to the Quality settings one has selected, so it could mean going after each citation individually and erasing the entire line and the carriage return. That's somewhat intimidating for me, anyway; there's a lot!!
Or (considerably easier) one can go thru the permutations and combinations (a dozen or more by my count: _EVID=0, _EVID=1, up to 3, etc.), then some post-verification to ensure they were all caught, but even that is a long way around. Rather than amend the Gedcom after-the-fact, I'd rather have a fix for the Legacy algorithm that creates it.
By the way, for those who may be wondering, it only affects those source citations where you have opted to use the Quality button in source details, otherwise, those codes will not appear in a Gedcom - in other words, all four Quality settings are zero. Also, whatever Gedcom format you choose changes nothing; I've checked. And, of course, it only affects Legacy version 8.
I have now written to Legacy with a suggestion that they add those four codes to the list of fields on the Gedcom customize screen so that we can add to or remove from a Gedcom, as we wish. I think that will fix the problem, if it can be done. Hopefully it will be accepted for a future update. I'll share, on this thread, any response I receive.
The only other option I can see is to remove source details altogether, which doesn't really suit my purpose, or spend time/effort amending the Gedcom. I apologize for the long-winded posts... :)
Ed Allard I think you can still get away with doing it the shorter way. If you delete QUAL, SOUR, INFO or EVID I think anything specifically attached will not show because the code is now broken. If you edit the gedcom and then re-import it, those fields will be missing.
ReplyDeleteI've forgotten now which fields I was trying to get rid of but it worked for me. The text file looked a mess after I'd deleted the tags I wanted to but on import it ignored the parts it didn't know what to do with.
For instance, if I took out the PLAC tag it didn't matter if I deleted what came after it. Without PLAC there Legacy ignored everything attached to it. Maybe sent up a warning on import? (Which I told it to ignore.)
Agree it might work when being imported back into Legacy, or presumably, other genealogy software, but I am not doing that. It is being read into another form of text file, so I must remove all traces of the coding. To do that means removing the line #, the code, the code result (0,1,2 or 3) and the carriage return to remove any trace of the code. Otherwise I end up with isolated numbers or a block of blank lines in my result after each fact that is sourced. The carriage return is the biggest headache. Thanks for your help JL Beeken .
ReplyDeleteI must be pretty dense. Remove the tags, never mind the mess that's left, import it back into Legacy or some other genealogy software and then export it as a gedcom again. The second time it will be clean. N'est-ce pas?
ReplyDeleteThat worked, JL Beeken - thanks again. My gray hair was getting in the way of my thought processes.
ReplyDeleteAnyone planning to follow these steps, though, should note the "mess" from the broken code lines in the amended Gedcom will appear as "unrecognized items" for the import, so you might want to uncheck the little box on the import screen which says: add unrecognized items to Notes. Also you may want to review some of the Customize options in the new Legacy file before re-exporting.
Yay! I knew it sounded familiar. I wrote a blog post about it last year.
ReplyDeletehttp://bit.ly/1sMBVjb