Family Historian User Group

I am experimenting with using some rich text, in particular Add link to individual record.

I have tried exporting to remove the rich text, mostly it works as well as expected in the FH export GEDCOM file.

However, with Mike's export GEDCOM file plugin bits of the rich text remains when using Add link to individual record when using the Text as opposed to the Automatic option.

e.g.

<> FHv7 file
1 EVEN
2 TYPE _ToDo
2 NOTE link to fh individual <rec=1,"male unknown">
3 CONT link with text <rec=2,"as text female unknown",text>
3 _FMT 1
3 _LINK_I @I3858@
4 _LKID 1
3 _LINK_I @I3864@
4 _LKID 2

<> FH integrated export with convert notes to plain text
1 EVEN
2 TYPE _ToDo
2 NOTE link to fh individual male unknown
3 CONT link with text as text female unknown

<> with export GEDCOM file plugin (v5.0), defaults restored to 5.5.1, remove rich text.
Red shows extra including the quotes. The Record: and quotes might be intentional, but can be confusing within a sentence, but the last ,text is not needed.
1 EVEN
2 TYPE _ToDo
2 NOTE link to fh individual Record: "male unknown"
3 CONT link with text Record: "as text female unknown",text

Also, as a general question. Is an FH integrated GEDCOM "default" export in the format of an FHv7 GEDCOM? In particular, could it be used to create a new FHv7 file without losing any other data than that selected? E.G.
- export to lose Rich text, then use the export plugin
- a method to remove rich text from your master GEDCOM.

The FH built-in command and the plugin are simply different.
I decided that the plugin should retain an indication where there was an external or internal link.
So the words Weblink: and Record: give that indication.
The "quotes" are retained to show the name of the link.
If that is not done and there are several links on one line then that is not clear.
e.g.
2 NOTE link to fh individual <rec=1,"male unknown"> and link with text <rec=2,"as text female unknown",text>.
FH produces:
2 NOTE link to fh individual male unknown and link with text as text female unknown.
Plugin produces:
2 NOTE link to fh individual Record: "male unknown" and link with text Record: "as text female unknown",text>.
Bearing in mind that the record link can be to any type of record, without the "quotes" the name of the linked record would be unclear and may be confusing. Notes do not necessarily contain 'sentences'.

I accept that the ,text suffix is superfluous and will be omitted in the next plugin version.

Yes, any built-in GEDCOM default export is in FH v7 format.

Mike, thanks for the explanations. For my purposes I could easily remove the Record: "" if I felt it was needed, and nice to know the FH GEDCOM default export is still FHv7 format.

tatewise wrote: ↑

15 Mar 2022 22:52

Yes, any built-in GEDCOM default export is in FH v7 format.

Just done a Notepad++ compare between an original FHv7 Gedcom file and an Exported one (no exclusions or convert, i.e. no ticks), the only difference I can see it it does not export the named lists.

Strangely, there are several other discrepancies in the HEADer record.
Mine includes a 2 _VAR DSR line but omits a 1 LANG English line.
It also omits the Prepared Citation 1 _PCIT, all Named Lists 1 _LIST, and used records 1 _USED

I wonder if those are all deliberate or some are mistakes?
It certainly means the exported GEDCOM is not a comprehensive backup.

You could report the omissions to CP and see what they say.

Will do.

I got a very positive reply from family historian support <support@family-historian.co.uk>, see below. However their method to remove Rich text does what I wanted previously, even removes all the "I don't know where it came from" _FMT 1 lines.

Ironically I have started using Rich Text for internal to FHv7 Add link to individual record to aid navigation within FHv7, so I would now want to be able to select which items to remove the Rich Text from!! But still, it is now easy to remove Rich Text for transfer elsewhere.

Support Reply:
Thank you for reporting that. We have logged it and it will be passed to the developers for evaluation.

If you just want to convert all rich text to plain text in a copied project, I would recommend copying your entire project (you can do this within the Project Window), and then use Split Tree Helper on the File menu to convert the rich text to plain text in the copied project. Leave all options at their default do-nothing settings, but change the 'Notes' field (bottom-left) to "Convert all notes to plain text" and then click the "Perform Tasks" button.

I would always strongly recommend taking a backup first, before doing anything like this (i.e. anything which makes changes right across an entire project).

The "I don't know where it came from" _FMT 1 lines tell FH the preceding Note (or other text) uses rich text format (FMT).
So when rich text is converted to plain text the _FMT 1 lines must also be removed.

The "I don't know where it came from" _FMT 1 lines have been discussed before, for me and other users we have not requested Rich Text and it does not seem to be after all NOTE/CONT lines, just a lot of them. Perhaps they were introduced on conversion from v6, or after running a plugin, something I can live with and I might even delete with Notepad++, carefully!

Beware that if you delete _FMT 1 lines and there is actual rich text format in the Note text then the formatting symbols will remain and look very odd.