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Welcome to GED-Fix. The purpose of this program is to fix corrupted GEDCOM files. If your GEDCOM file is missing links, GED-Fix will re-connect the links (see Fix
Details). If "garbage" data is in your GEDCOM file, GED-Fix will remove it or allow you to remove it. If your GEDCOM file contains any errors, a new GEDCOM file will be created, called MYFILE.GE2, where "MYFILE" is the name of your GEDCOM file. j
After running GED-Fix, you are given a report that shows you what changes were made to your GEDCOM file.
The menus in GED-Fix are accessed by pressing Alt-X, where X is the first letter of the menu. For example, the "Open & Fix GEDCOM" menu is pulled down by Alt-O. )
Press ESC to put this help screen away.
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Fix Details
GED-Fix was written to fix a major GEDCOM corruption problem:
Hanging pointers. Pointers are given different names by different genealogy programs: RIN (Record Identifier Numbers), MRIN (Marriage Record Identifier Numbers), XREF (Cross Reference Numbers), etc. The "point" is that pointers in GEDCOM files identify individual records, marriages records, source records and other records. If an individual, Mary, is the wife of a family, there will be a pointer in her individual record pointing to her family. There is also a pointer in her family record pointing back to her individual record. G
An individual in a GEDCOM file becomes unlinked when one of these
pointers does not point back. GED-Fix solves this problem by creating the pointer to point back. In the above case, if Mary were pointing to a family but that family was not pointing back, the new GEDCOM file would now contain the required pointer. F
GED-Fix also checks for garbage data, or "syntax errors" in your
GEDCOM file. It will create a list of areas where the garbage is found and give you the choice of manually repairing the error, or having the computer repair the error. If you are not familiar with the GEDCOM format, we recommend that you allow GED-Fix to repair these syntax errors. After GED- Fix is completed, load your GEDCOM file into your genealogy program and check your records. I
If you manually repair your GEDCOM file you should be familiar with
the structure of GEDCOM. A document called The GEDCOM Standard is available for a nominal fee by writing to the Family History Department, 50 East North Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150.
NOTE: GED-Fix was not designed to fix GEDCOM files that span multiple disks. If your GEDCOM file spans multiple disks, concatenate these files into one file before you use GED-Fix (See appendix A in the manual for an example of how to do this.) V
Warning-type errors are not fixed.
See also Potential Sources
Pointer
Errors
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Potential Sources of Pointer Errors
Pointer errors can be generated by your genealogy program under certain circumstances. Until the bugs are deleted from these programs, GED-Fix is required to repair the corrupted GEDCOM that are created by these programs.
Pointer errors can be generated by hardware damage. If a floppy disk containing a GEDCOM file is damaged, there may be other errors besides pointer errors. The current version of GED-Fix will only repair pointer errors. Q
A user can also generate pointer errors by incorrectly editing a GEDCOM file.
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What is GEDCOM?
GEDCOM is an acronym for GEnealogical Data COMmunication. You may have a computer program that stores your genealogy information. That information is stored on your computer in a way that only your computer program knows how to access. But what if you wanted to share your genealogy with another person who has another kind of a computer? D
GEDCOM to the rescue! Most genealogy computer programs can make a GEDCOM file. So if you wanted to share your information with another person you would use your genealogy program to create a GEDCOM file. You can put that file on a floppy disk or send it over a modem to be "read" by the other computer. (see Fix
Details)
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GED-Fix Report Window
The GED-Fix Report window views the contents of the GED-Fix Error Report. You can use the arrow keys to move about in the report. A report is loaded via the GED-Fix
GEDCOM menu item. i
Up Move up one line
Down Move down one line
Right Move right one column
Left Move left one column
PgUp Move one page up
PgDn Move one page down
Home View right most column of the Report
End View left most column of the Report
Ctrl-PgUp View top of Report
Ctrl-PgDn View bottom of Report.
Report viewers can be resized and moved using the Windows menu.
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About
When you choose the About command menu, a dialog box appears, showing copyright and version information. G
To close the box, press Esc, Space, or Enter, or click the OK button.
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GED-Fix (Alt-G)
The GED-Fix menu allows you to enter the name of the GEDCOM file that needs fixing. You can also change directories from within the program or exit the program here.
See also: !
GEDCOM Change
Dir Exit
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GED-Fix
Open & Fix GEDCOM (F3)
The "Fix GEDCOM" command allows you to enter the name of the GEDCOM file you wish to fix. %
The Fix
GEDCOM dialog box contains:
an input
box with a history list
a list
box to browse the directory
a Cancel button
an information panel that describes the
selected file
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GED-Fix
Change Dir...
GED-Fix
Change Dir brings up the Change
Directory dialog box, in which you can change the current directory.
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GED-Fix
DOS Shell
With the DOS Shell command, you can leave the program temporarily to perform a DOS command or run another program. If you change directories while in the Shell, the change will remain in effect after you return to GED-Fix. 9
To return to this program, type EXIT at the DOS prompt.
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GED-Fix
Exit
(Alt-X)
The Exit command terminates this program.
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Window
(Alt-W)
The Window menu contains commands to close, move and perform other window-management commands. :
Window-management commands
Size/Move Zoom Close
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Window
Size/Move
(Ctrl-F5)
Choose this command to change the size or position of the window.
Size
If you press Shift while you use the arrow keys, you can change the size of the window. Once you've adjusted its size or position, press Enter. S
If the window has a Resize corner, you can drag that corner to resize the window.
Move
When you choose Window
Size/Move, the window moves in response to the arrow keys. Once you've moved the window to where you want it, press Enter. H
You can also move the window by dragging its title bar with the mouse.
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Window
Zoom
(F5)
Choose Zoom to resize the window to the maximum size. If the window is already zoomed, you can choose this command to restore it to its previous size. {
You can also double-click anywhere on the window's title bar (except where an icon appears) to zoom or unzoom the window.
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Window
Close
(Alt-F3)
Choose Close to close the window. You can also click the Close box in the upper right corner to close a window.
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Help on Fix GEDCOM Dialog Box
The Fix GEDCOM dialog box contains an input box, a list
GEDCOM
files, a file information panel, a Cancel button, an OK button, plus a history list of files that you have fixed.
(See Name
inputbox.)
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Name
The Name input box is where you enter the name of the GEDCOM file to fix, or the file-name mask to use as a filter for the Files list box (for example, *.GED).
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Files
GEDCOM01.GED
GEDCOM09.GED
GEDCOM02.GED
GEDCOM10.GED
GEDCOM03.GED
GEDCOM11.GED
GEDCOM04.GED
GEDCOM12.GED
GEDCOM05.GED
..
GEDCOM06.GED
\DATA
GEDCOM07.GED
\SCRATCH
GEDCOM08.GED
\SMITH.DIR
The Files list box lists the names of files in the current directory that match the file-name mask in the Name input box, plus the parent directory and all subdirectories.
C:\PAF\MY_NAME\*.GED
MY_FAM.GED 52 Jul 14,1990 12:00pm
The File information panel shows the path name, file name, date, time, and size of the selected file. =
None of the items on this information panel are selectable.
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[ OK ]
The OK button starts the process of fixing your GEDCOM file. A report will be generated showing what fixes, if any, were made.
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[ Cancel ]
If you choose Cancel, nothing changes and no action occurs, and the dialog box is put away. M
(Esc always cancels a dialog box, even if a Cancel button does not appear.)
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[ OK ]
In the Fix GEDCOM Dialog Box, if you choose the OK button GED-Fix begins fixing your GEDCOM file. A window is created to report any fixes. A copy of this report is saved to a file called MYFILE.TXT, where "MYFILE" is the name of your GEDCOM file.
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Help on the Change Directory dialog box
The Change Directory dialog box consists of an input box, a list box, an OK button and two other buttons (Chdir and Revert). |
Directory Name
The Directory Name input box is where you type in the path of the new directory.
Directory Tree
Drives
C:\
PAF
DATA
The Directory Tree list box enables you to navigate directories by using the selecting bar and pressing Enter.
If you're using the keyboard, press Enter to make the selected directory be the current directory, then choose OK or press Esc to exit the dialog box. +
[Chdir ]
The Chdir button changes the current directory once you've selected or typed in a directory name. +
[Revert]
The Revert button goes back to the previous directory, as long as you haven't yet exited the dialog box.
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Options
Togle Video Mode (Alt-V)
You use this to toggle between a screen size of 25 lines and 43/50 lines.
(.txt)