Gedpage Help



About Gedpage
How to Use Gedpage
Sending Your Pages to Your Site
Colors
Color Examples
Backgrounds
Headers, Footers, and Meta Tags
Pedigree Charts
Photos
Extensions
Advertising Your Genealogy Website
Registering Gedpage
Trouble Shooting


About Gedpage
Gedpage will build HTML webpages from your GEDCOM file. I originally wrote it for my own use, because I was not satisfied with the programs that already existed. I then decided that others may also feel the same way, and might wish to use it. I began adding features to Gedpage to make it more usable for the general public, and will continue to do so. The most current version can be found at:
http://www.frontiernet.net/~rjacob/gedpage.htm

In real life, I live in Rochester, New York with my wife, and work as a computer programmer for a small payroll company that is based here.

My personal genealogy page can be found at:
http://www.frontiernet.net/~rjacob/jacob/

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How to Use Gedpage
The first thing you should do is, export a GEDCOM file from your genealogy software. See the instructions for your particular program on how to do this. Your software may give you a choice of which version of GEDCOM file to create, if so, choose version 5.5. Also, if given the option, choose 'Abbreviated Tags', and do not indent. Copy the GEDCOM file into the same directory that you put the Gedpage program in.

Now run Gedpage. You will want to enter the name of your GEDCOM file into the the field labeled Gedcom File Name. You can also choose which options you want to create you web pages with.

You can select whether you want a colored, or graphic background. You can also choose colors for the normal, linked, and visited linked text. You may also select, or deselect boxes for notes, uppercase surnames, soundex codes, and sources. Feel free to play with these options, to decide which ones best fit your needs.

You will also want to enter the URL (address) for your homepage, and your email address in the appropriate boxes. This will allow people who may happen upon your family tree via a search engine such as Alta Vista, to find your main page.

Gedpage will also allow you to have headers, and footers. The content for your headers, and footers is located inthe files HEADER.HTM, and FOOTER.HTM. You should edit these before generating your pages.

Now you are ready to create your page. Click the mouse on the Create button. The arrow should turn to an hourglass while it is building your page. A message box should come up saying finished when Gedpage is done. You find your newly created pages in a subdirectory of your Gedpage directory, named html.

Generally, the page you will link to from your home page, will be surnames.htm.

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Sending Your Pages to Your Site
After you have created your pages with Gedpage, you will need to send them to your site. The easiest way to do this is with a program like WinFTP. WinFTP allows you to select all the files you created and send them one after another, automatically. Generally, in most programs you can select all files by selecting the first filename, then clicking the mouse on the last filename while holding down the shift key. When the files are located at your site, the filenames MUST be all lower case.

When you run Gedpage in Windows, it gives a case to the file names...either uppercase or, with an uppercase first letter. You can get around this by using an ftp program that offers an option to force to the filenames to lowercase. One is available for download from my page that will upload the files as lowercase.

Also when making a link to your newly created pages from your home page, it is important that there, you also have the filenames as lowercase, and note that the extensions are .htm (not .html).

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Colors
The color codes are made up of 3 2-digit codes with each 2 digit code representing the amount of red, green, or blue that makes up the color (RRGGBB). The digits are not decimal numbers which makes them look strange to most people. They are actually hexidecimal or base 16. Hex digits go from 0-F instead of the usual 0-9 in the decimal numbering system. An example of counting in hex is: (00,01,02,03,04,05,06,07,08,09,0A,0B,0C,0D,0E,0F,10,11 etc etc). Each of the three pairs of digits, is a level of how much of that color to use. So 00FF80 would be no red, the max level of green, and about half of the possible amount of blue. This system allows you to have 16 million combinations, so 16 million colors. In reality browsers really don't support all 16 million colors. There are what are called 'browser safe' colors. Browser safe colors are made up of combinations of (00,33,66,99,CC,FF). If you stay with combinations of these pairs, you should be okay.

There now several utilities for most computers to determine Netscape color codes. There are also some other sites which have cgi programs running which can help in choosing codes.

Not every browser displays color the same way. For example, Netscape on Macintosh and Windows will sometimes dither color that makes up the background. The dithering pattern may make text difficult to read.
For an example of color codes, see Color Examples

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Color Examples

The 6x6x6 Browser-safe Color Cube

#000000
#000000
#000033
#000033
#000066
#000066
#000099
#000099
#0000cc
#0000cc
#0000ff
#0000ff
#003300
#003300
#003333
#003333
#003366
#003366
#003399
#003399
#0033cc
#0033cc
#0033ff
#0033ff
#006600
#006600
#006633
#006633
#006666
#006666
#006699
#006699
#0066cc
#0066cc
#0066ff
#0066ff
#009900
#009900
#009933
#009933
#009966
#009966
#009999
#009999
#0099cc
#0099cc
#0099ff
#0099ff
#00cc00
#00cc00
#00cc33
#00cc33
#00cc66
#00cc66
#00cc99
#00cc99
#00cccc
#00cccc
#00ccff
#00ccff
#00ff00
#00ff00
#00ff33
#00ff33
#00ff66
#00ff66
#00ff99
#00ff99
#00ffcc
#00ffcc
#00ffff
#00ffff
#330000
#330000
#330033
#330033
#330066
#330066
#330099
#330099
#3300cc
#3300cc
#3300ff
#3300ff
#333300
#333300
#333333
#333333
#333366
#333366
#333399
#333399
#3333cc
#3333cc
#3333ff
#3333ff
#336600
#336600
#336633
#336633
#336666
#336666
#336699
#336699
#3366cc
#3366cc
#3366ff
#3366ff
#339900
#339900
#339933
#339933
#339966
#339966
#339999
#339999
#3399cc
#3399cc
#3399ff
#3399ff
#33cc00
#33cc00
#33cc33
#33cc33
#33cc66
#33cc66
#33cc99
#33cc99
#33cccc
#33cccc
#33ccff
#33ccff
#33ff00
#33ff00
#33ff33
#33ff33
#33ff66
#33ff66
#33ff99
#33ff99
#33ffcc
#33ffcc
#33ffff
#33ffff
#660000
#660000
#660033
#660033
#660066
#660066
#660099
#660099
#6600cc
#6600cc
#6600ff
#6600ff
#663300
#663300
#663333
#663333
#663366
#663366
#663399
#663399
#6633cc
#6633cc
#6633ff
#6633ff
#666600
#666600
#666633
#666633
#666666
#666666
#666699
#666699
#6666cc
#6666cc
#6666ff
#6666ff
#669900
#669900
#669933
#669933
#669966
#669966
#669999
#669999
#6699cc
#6699cc
#6699ff
#6699ff
#66cc00
#66cc00
#66cc33
#66cc33
#66cc66
#66cc66
#66cc99
#66cc99
#66cccc
#66cccc
#66ccff
#66ccff
#66ff00
#66ff00
#66ff33
#66ff33
#66ff66
#66ff66
#66ff99
#66ff99
#66ffcc
#66ffcc
#66ffff
#66ffff
#990000
#990000
#990033
#990033
#990066
#990066
#990099
#990099
#9900cc
#9900cc
#9900ff
#9900ff
#993300
#993300
#993333
#993333
#993366
#993366
#993399
#993399
#9933cc
#9933cc
#9933ff
#9933ff
#996600
#996600
#996633
#996633
#996666
#996666
#996699
#996699
#9966cc
#9966cc
#9966ff
#9966ff
#999900
#999900
#999933
#999933
#999966
#999966
#999999
#999999
#9999cc
#9999cc
#9999ff
#9999ff
#99cc00
#99cc00
#99cc33
#99cc33
#99cc66
#99cc66
#99cc99
#99cc99
#99cccc
#99cccc
#99ccff
#99ccff
#99ff00
#99ff00
#99ff33
#99ff33
#99ff66
#99ff66
#99ff99
#99ff99
#99ffcc
#99ffcc
#99ffff
#99ffff
#cc0000
#cc0000
#cc0033
#cc0033
#cc0066
#cc0066
#cc0099
#cc0099
#cc00cc
#cc00cc
#cc00ff
#cc00ff
#cc3300
#cc3300
#cc3333
#cc3333
#cc3366
#cc3366
#cc3399
#cc3399
#cc33cc
#cc33cc
#cc33ff
#cc33ff
#cc6600
#cc6600
#cc6633
#cc6633
#cc6666
#cc6666
#cc6699
#cc6699
#cc66cc
#cc66cc
#cc66ff
#cc66ff
#cc9900
#cc9900
#cc9933
#cc9933
#cc9966
#cc9966
#cc9999
#cc9999
#cc99cc
#cc99cc
#cc99ff
#cc99ff
#cccc00
#cccc00
#cccc33
#cccc33
#cccc66
#cccc66
#cccc99
#cccc99
#cccccc
#cccccc
#ccccff
#ccccff
#ccff00
#ccff00
#ccff33
#ccff33
#ccff66
#ccff66
#ccff99
#ccff99
#ccffcc
#ccffcc
#ccffff
#ccffff
#ff0000
#ff0000
#ff0033
#ff0033
#ff0066
#ff0066
#ff0099
#ff0099
#ff00cc
#ff00cc
#ff00ff
#ff00ff
#ff3300
#ff3300
#ff3333
#ff3333
#ff3366
#ff3366
#ff3399
#ff3399
#ff33cc
#ff33cc
#ff33ff
#ff33ff
#ff6600
#ff6600
#ff6633
#ff6633
#ff6666
#ff6666
#ff6699
#ff6699
#ff66cc
#ff66cc
#ff66ff
#ff66ff
#ff9900
#ff9900
#ff9933
#ff9933
#ff9966
#ff9966
#ff9999
#ff9999
#ff99cc
#ff99cc
#ff99ff
#ff99ff
#ffcc00
#ffcc00
#ffcc33
#ffcc33
#ffcc66
#ffcc66
#ffcc99
#ffcc99
#ffcccc
#ffcccc
#ffccff
#ffccff
#ffff00
#ffff00
#ffff33
#ffff33
#ffff66
#ffff66
#ffff99
#ffff99
#ffffcc
#ffffcc
#ffffff
#ffffff
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Backgrounds
Gedpage gives you your choice of a colored background, or a graphic background. Just click either the 'Colored Background', or 'Graphic Background' radio buttons.

If you select 'Colored Background', you may also enter a background color number in the adjacent box. (See also Colors)

If you select 'Graphic Background' you should also enter your graphic's filename in the adjacent box. Your graphic should be either Gif, or a Jpeg file. This graphic will be tiled in the background of your page. When you go to display your page, you must have your graphic file, in the same directory as the .htm files created by Gedpage. If you are having problems getting your background to display, you probably either have the name of the graphic file different than what you have entered into Gedpage, or you did not place the graphic file into the directory with the Gedpage created files.

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Headers, Footers, and Meta Tags
The content for the header, and footer, and meta tags file is located in the files HEADER.HTM, FOOTER.HTM, and META.HTM. These files contain HTML that will be inserted into each of the pages Gedpage creates, at the beginning, and at the end of the BODY section of the HTML code, and in the HEAD section. They may be edited with any text editer, such as Notepad. If you do not wish to have headers, footers, or meta tags, you may simply rename, or delete these files. Some basic knowledge of HTML is required to properly change the content of these files. DO NOT USE A WEB EDITOR TO EDIT THESE FILES.
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Pedigree Charts
Many people have asked for pedigree charts, so I have added them. This feature will only work for registered users.You can either have pedigree charts for selected individuals, or you can have them for everybody.

To create pedigree charts for selected individuals, enter the individual's ID number into the Pedigree List text box. You can find the individual's ID number in the gedcom file (just open it in a text editor) on  lines that look like:

0 @I005@ INDI
1 NAME Robert William /Jacob/

The ID number will be on a line that starts with a '0', and has an "INDI" tag. The ID number will be inside the two '@' signs, and may be prefaced with a letter such as 'I'. You only want the number. The ID # for Robert William Jacob in this case is 5. You may list multiple ID numbers in the Pedigree List text box by separating them with commas (ie 1,2,76).

You may have pedigree charts for all indivuals, by checking the All box. This will create a pedigree chart for every individual in your gedcom file, so if you are tight on space, you might not want to use the All option.

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Photos
Many people have asked how to add photos to Gedpage created files. Gedpage now has the option to include pictures that are referenced in the gedcom file. This is a registered only feature. Not all genealogy programs export pictures to the gedcom file though. If your program exports graphics files to the gedcom, you should see lines like:

1 OBJE
2 FORM JPG
2 FILE MYPICTURE.JPG
2 TITL Billy Bob & Wanda

If your gedcom supports photos, just check the Include Photos check box to include them. If you are not sure if your gedcom includes photos, just check the box, and create your pages. If it creates 'pho#####.htm' files along with your other files, you are in luck.

When you upload your pages, you will need to upload the picture files also. They must be in the same directory as the Gedpage created files.

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Extensions
Some people have said that their Internet Service Providers require that their files have a .html extension, as opposed to a .htm extension. In most cases this is untrue (the index.html file MUST have a .html extension to work correctly, but that is different). But in a small number of cases it appears to be true, so I have added a check box to use a .html extension instead of the default .htm extension. This feature is disabled on the Windows 3.1 version as Windows 3.1/DOS does not support filenames outside the 8.3 format.
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Advertising Your Genealogy Website
If you want people to come to your page, which if you have a page on the internet you probably do, you can benefit by doing a bit of marketing.

One of the best things you can do, is submit your page to the various search engines. Alta Vista (www.altavista.com) is my personal favorite, but I also like Excite (www.excite.com), and Infoseek (www.infoseek.com). You can go to each of these pages and choose the Add URL option, or you can use Gedpage Submit!(www.frontiernet.net/~rjacob/submit.htm), which will submit your page to most of the major search engines at one time.

The pages that are most useful to submit to search engines are your main homepage, as well as your surnames.htm. That way, people doing searches for particular surnames, will find your page. I find it useful to search for a surname, along with the word 'surname', or 'surnames', that way I tend find genealogy pages instead of a variety of other pages in which that name appears.

You can also announce your page in the various genealogy newsgroups. You will probably want to read through each newsgroup for a little bit, to find out if it is appropriate to post in it.

Another place to have your page found is at www.gendex.com. Here you can email the webmaster with some information about where to find your page, and your gendex.txt file (which Gedpage creates), and he will insert some of your genealogy info into his database, along with links back to your page. (Very cool!)

And even another place to advertise your page is The GenealogicalDatabase Index at www.gentree.com.

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Registering Gedpage
Thank you for considering registering Gedpage! Registration costs just $15 (US). Just fill out the form in file REGISTER.TXT, and send it in with a check, or money order.

I now accept credit card payments with PayPal - its FAST, FREE and SECURE! For a limited time only, you'll get $10 for signing up and activating your account. Visit www.paypal.com. Email me your completed registration form (see register.txt file that comes with Gedpage), and then send me $15 (US) using PayPal (my email address is rjacob@frontiernet.net). Please mention on your registration form that you are paying via PayPal.

Without a registration key, Gedpage has the following restrictions:

You are limited to using a colored background as opposed to a graphic background.

An 'UNREGISTERED' message appears at the top of every generated page.

A 'nag' screen will appears when exiting Gedpage.

Pedigree Charts are disabled.

Photos are disabled.

The Notes feature is disabled.

The Soundex Codes feature is disabled.

The Sources feature is disabled.

All other features are completely functional as in the registered version. (Note: I have left the Gendex feature enabled as I believe to have disabled it, would have been a loss to the genealogical community as a whole...please consider submitting your page at www.gendex.com, and share your data with everyone.)

If you try Gedpage and decide to continue using it, you will need to register your copy at a cost of only $15 (US).  For your registration fee (about the price of two people people going to a 90 minute movie) you will receive:

A registration key.  Entering this number in the registration screen will enable all disabled features, stops the 'nag' screen from appearing, and the 'UNREGISTERED' message will no longer be inserted at the top of the Gedpage generated pages.

Your registration number will work with all future versions of this software.  And the more people who register encourages me to keep adding features and refining Gedpage.

Good karma.

Besides, think of all the time & work you are saving using Gedpage compared to creating, and maintaining the pages by hand!! That $15 doesn't look like that much now, does it?

There is no special "registered" version to download or have sent to you. Just type registration key in Registration window when you get it to register your copy of the software.

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Trouble Shooting
Please make sure you have read the documentation in this file. Please also check out the FAQ (www.frontiernet.net/~rjacob/faq.htm) page at my website which contains solutions to many common problems.
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