* Split GEDCOM lines at 70 characters?

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stanm
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Split GEDCOM lines at 70 characters?

Post by stanm »

Hello, I think I have exhausted the help file and knowledge base resources on this. It seems to not be possible but maybe the community can suggest a way.

Is there an FH option to request that GEDCOM lines be split at roughly 70 characters using CONC? This would apply to Notes or any fields where the line-length can exceed 256 characters. The default behavior seems to favor line-lengths near the maximum of 256.

Alternately, is this capability available in a GEDCOM export plugin?

I review GEDCOMs using a text-editor and find scrolling left and right on 256 character lines a bit annoying. If the GEDCOM could be confined to the first 70-80 characters on each line, then it would be more comfortable to scan & search a file.
Thanks,
-Stan
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DavidNewton
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Re: Split GEDCOM lines at 70 characters?

Post by DavidNewton »

Have you tried using word wrap in your editor? I use notepad++ with the gedcomlexer plugin and word wrap enabled. The gedcom tags are colour coded so there is no confusion as to where a piece of text is located within the file.

David
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ColeValleyGirl
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Re: Split GEDCOM lines at 70 characters?

Post by ColeValleyGirl »

I do something similar to David but using a different editor (not free, so I won't recommend it).
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Jane
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Re: Split GEDCOM lines at 70 characters?

Post by Jane »

Same here, but I use PSPAD with the GEDCOM syntax on. Syntax file attached.

It's worth remembering it's mainly only NOTE fields which support CONC so not all long lines can be split anyway.
gedcom.ini
(1.33 KiB) Downloaded 134 times
Don't forget FH has a good search builtin which can easily search for text anywhere in a Gedcom file, so the only time I review Gedcom files in a text editor is when sorting out badly formatted ones from other software to get them to import to FH cleanly.
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My Family History : My Photography "Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad."
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tatewise
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Re: Split GEDCOM lines at 70 characters?

Post by tatewise »

Stan, coming from a different perspective, what kind of GEDCOM reviews do you perform?
It may be that most, if not all, such reviews can be performed from within FH and thus sidestep the problem.
Did you know for instance that virtually every GEDCOM field can be edited on the All tab of each type of Property Box?
If you need to make global changes then the Search and Replace Plugin should cater for most.
A snag with editing the GEDCOM is that it is all too easy to corrupt the syntax unless you use one of the special editors suggested.
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
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stanm
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Re: Split GEDCOM lines at 70 characters?

Post by stanm »

Thank you all for your replies.

Enabling word-wrap in the text-editor is OK, but I had hoped for a formatting option at the GEDCOM level.
I suppose this is just a personal preference.

My GEDCOM review is mostly looking at the file's tag hierarchy and which tags does the data get assigned to.
I'm also curious whether any custom tags are used and try to understand what they mean.
It's true, the "All" tab gives a pretty good rendering of the structure of a record and I use it a lot.

-Stan
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tatewise
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Re: Split GEDCOM lines at 70 characters?

Post by tatewise »

Sorry, there is no option to reduce the maximum length of GEDCOM lines.

There are a number of [kb]|[/kb] articles that may help with your reviews...

See glossary:formal_database_structure|> Formal Database Structure.

See glossary:gedcom|> GEDCOM.
That leads to the GEDCOM Standard Release 5.5 that formally defines standard tags and their hierarchy as used by FH.
It also identifies the GEDCOM Extension List that explains all the legal user-defined custom tags used by FH.

Anything else in your GEDCOM that is not recognised by FH can be reviewed as explained in how_to:handling_unrecognised_data_fields|> Handling Uncategorised Data Fields (UDF).
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
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