Family Historian User Group

I have modified a few USA Census Templates - mostly cosmetic changes to try and save a bit of space. I changed the country to read "USA B" to keep them separate. I then used a file compare program to check that I hadn't made any unintended alterations.

All seems fine except for one field

<Modified>0</Modified> in the original

<Modified>1</Modified> and in my amended version

Am I right in assuming that AS uses this field to identify that this is not the original (if I had left the country unaltered), and that I therefore have no unintended consequences from this change? Is this field used by updates to avoid overwriting any amended versions?

Next, is it safe to delete the original "USA" versions.

Do I need to do anything else to ensure official updates that might have a minor alt to any of these census templates do not overwrite my amended versions.

ColinMc wrote: ↑

29 Jun 2023 14:20

<Modified>0</Modified> in the original

<Modified>1</Modified> and in my amended version

Am I right in assuming that AS uses this field to identify that this is not the original (if I had left the country unaltered), and that I therefore have no unintended consequences from this change? Is this field used by updates to avoid overwriting any amended versions?

Next, is it safe to delete the original "USA" versions.

Do I need to do anything else to ensure official updates that might have a minor alt to any of these census templates do not overwrite my amended versions.

If AS includes new or modified census templates then it will automatically replace any templates that haven't been modified (i.e it replaces those where the modified value is 0). If you have any modified templates it will show this message:

There are updated census templates with this version of Ancestral Sources. Choose 'Yes' to replace all your current templates including those you have modified. Choose 'No' if you wish to preserve the templates you have modified.
If you choose 'No' then you can load them in at any time by choosing the Reset option on the Census Templates screen.

No is the default value. So I think this should reassure you that your updated templates will be preserved, but do of course also keep a backup of them just in case.

You can't have two templates for the same Type/Country/Year so if you are renaming your "USA B" to "USA" make sure you remove the originals too. You could use the Census Template screen to export all your modified templates to a new file. Then you could edit the exported file in a text editor (Find/Replace) to change the "USA B" to "USA". If you are certain all your modified templates are now in that file, then with AS closed if you remove the settings.xml file and run AS it will recreate the file with the original installation templates. Then you could import all your templates using the Import button on the Census Templates screen.

Many thanks, great help as usual