Contents - Index - Previous - Next

GEDCOM Export Items


 
To reach the Items to Include in GEDCOM screen, click Customize on the GEDCOM Export screen.  (The GEDCOM Export screen is reached by choosing Export > GEDCOM File from the File tab on the Ribbon bar.  Or press Ctrl-E)

What is Available for Export?
The items that are available to be included in the exported GEDCOM file include all information kept in the Family File.  Because Legacy keeps a lot of information that other genealogy programs don't, these items should probably not be included in a file that is to be read by a different program.  Legacy has several sets of "standard items" that it uses to decide what to include in the export file, depending on the destination.

Standard Export Items
If you are creating a GEDCOM file to be read back into Legacy, all the information is included in the file.  If you are exporting a file that will be used in Personal Ancestral File (PAF) or will be sent to the LDS Ancestral File, a smaller subset of information is included.  You can also create a Generic GEDCOM file that only contains minimal information or a Basic GEDCOM file that contains only the name, birth, death, marriage and gender of the individuals.

The right-hand list contains the items to be included in the export file.  When you first come in to the Customize section, the default standard items associated with the selected export file type are included in this window.

Excluding an Item
You can remove any item from the Export These Items box by either highlighting the item and clicking Remove or by dragging the item from the right box to the left box.

Including an Item
The box on the left contains all the pieces of information that can be exported.  To include something that is not in the box on the right, either highlight the item and click Include, or drag the item from the left box to the right box.

Only GEDCOM 5.5 Items
Legacy stores some information that is not defined by any of the standard tags in the GEDCOM 5.5 specification.  We have therefore added some additional tags that begin with an underline character.  This is allowed by the GEDCOM 5.5 spec.  These tags include:

 _ORDER To track child, spouse and parent orders 
 _PATH To specify a path to a media file 
 _PHOTO To specify a picture name 
 _PREF To track preferred children and spouses 
 _SOUND To specify a sound file name 
 _STAT To track child statuses 
 _TAGx To track marked records 
 _TYPE Tracks source types 
 _VIDEO To specify a video file name 

If you do not want to include any of these "extra" tags in the GEDCOM file, click Only 5.5.

Resetting the Default Items
If you have added or removed items in the Items to Include box, you can reset the list to the normal items by clicking Default.

Basic Items
The minimum information that can be included in the export file is name, sex, birth, death and marriage.

Excluding Groups of Items
There are several groups of items you can have excluded from the export.  These include Sources, Notes, Events, Compiler Info, Alternate Names, LDS Info, Addresses, Media, and Marriage and Child Status.

To exclude a group from the exported GEDCOM file, check the appropriate box in the Groups of Items to EXCLUDE from Export box at the bottom right.  This is faster than trying to remove the associated tags of a group one by one. 

Note: Excluding groups of GEDCOM tags, removes them from all sections of the GEDCOM file.  For example, excluding Pictures, Sounds, Videos, and Files, excludes these GEDCOM tags from individuals, marriages, events, sources, etc. in the exported file.

Saving Your Setup
You can save customized export setups.  After you have made the changes desired, click Save List... on the right side.  Legacy prompts for a file name and then saves the format file to disk.

Loading a Saved Setup
To load a previously saved export format list, click Load List... and choose the desired list name.

Break Note lines Between Words (old style)
GEDCOM files break long notes lines into shorter segments.  The points at which the lines are broken is supposed to be in the middle of words so that when the lines are put back together they can just be concatenated.  Older GEDCOM files used to break lines between words.  This made it necessary to put the lines back together with a space between them.  Importing a newer GEDCOM file into an older program often results in words with blank spaces in the middle of them.  If you know that you are producing a GEDCOM file to be read into an older program that is expecting a space between lines, check this option.

Don't Convert British Quarter Dates to a Date Range
British Quarter dates (e.g.: Mar Q 1872) are not recognized by most other genealogy programs on the market.  By default, Legacy converts these types of dates to a date range when they are exported to a GEDCOM file. Mar Q 1872 becomes Bet 1 Jan 1872 and 31 Mar 1872.  If you don't want to convert the Quarter dates to a range, put a check in the Don't convert British Quarter dates to a range checkbox.

9-1047 : 00522