2001 Donald N. Allingham Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license can be found here. Many of the names used by companies to distinguish their products and services are claimed as trademarks. Where those names appear in any GNOME documentation, and those trademarks are made aware to the members of the GNOME Documentation Project, the names have been printed in caps or initial caps. This is version 1.1 of the GRAMPS manual. GRAMPS is an acronym for the Genealogical Research and Analysis Management Programming System. It was conceived under the concept that most genealogy programs were designed to provide the researcher the capability to input information related to a particular family tree. Most of these programs have allowed for the arranging and storing of information consistent with the GEDCOM standards. They usually provide a means for displaying descendant or ancestral relationships by means of graphical displays, charts, or reports. These may be augmented with pictures or other media to enhance the data. Most provide for inputting data on unconnected individuals/families that may or may not have a relationship to the primary surname being researched. Various other enhancements may also be provided in the genealogical program that allows for different degrees of importing and exporting data from other programs and printing of the data contained in the various reports. GRAMPS, on the other hand, attempts to provide all of the common capabilities of these programs, but, more importantly, to provide a capability not common to these programs. This is the ability to input any bits and pieces of information directly into GRAMPS and rearrange/manipulate any/all data events in the entire data base (in any order or sequence) to assist the user in doing research, analysis and correlation with the potential of filling relationship gaps. In short, a tool that provides a way to input all your research into one place and do your analysis and correlation using the speed, power, and accuracy of your computer instead of pencils and unmanageable reams of paper. To run GRAMPS, select Programs Applications gramps from the Main Menu, or type gramps on the command line. This document describes version &version; of GRAMPS. The first time you run the program, GRAMPS will display its Getting Started screens.

Getting Started screen, page 1

The second page of the start-up screens will prompt you for some personal information. This information is optional, and can be changed at any time. The information will be used to establish your copyright on the information, and to provide information needed for valid GEDCOM exporting.

Getting Started screen, page 2

Starting GRAMPS opens the Main window, shown in . The window is at first empty.

GRAMPS Main Window

If you already have a family file created using another genealogy program you can import your GEDCOM file into GRAMPS. To do this you select File Import Import from GEDCOM . The GEDCOM Import box will open. Select New Database and click the Browse... button to select your saved GEDCOM file (filename.ged). Click OK to select the file and then click OK to import the file. The GEDCOM Import Status will tell you what the importer is doing and a little bit about your file (file location, which program created it, the version, Encoding, Number of Families, Number of People, and the Number of Errors). Once the Importer is done, you can click Close and start editing/adding to your file. If you have never used a genealogy program or you do not have a GEDCOM file to import, you can start creating your database right away. From the main window click the Add Person button and the Edit Person dialog will open. Enter in the information you have on the first person. Start with their general information (Name, Birth and Death Date/Place) and then move on to the Names, Events, Attributes, Addresses, Notes, Gallery, and Internet tabs and fill in the known information you have. Some of the information you enter has a Source button and/or a Note button. These buttons are there to add more information (Source button to add the source of where you acquired the information and the Note button to add more detail to the information) The People View window is the initial view seen on the main window. It displays the name, gender, birth date, and death date of all individuals in the database. At any time, you can return to this view either by pressing the People button at the top of the screen, or by choosing the View People entry from the menus.

People View

The People View lists the individuals in the database. An individual can be selected as the active person by clicking on an entry in the list. Once a person has been selected as the active person, the person's name appears in the status bar in the lower left hand corner of the window. Once the active person has been selected, pressing the Edit Person button will display the Edit Person dialog allowing you to edit the individual's personal information. If the Edit Person button is pressed without an active person being set, a blank Edit Person dialog is presented, allowing you to enter a new person. Double-clicking on a entry in the list will set the active person and bring up the individual in the Edit Person dialog. Pressing the Add Person button will display a blank Edit Person dialog, allowing you to add a new person to the database. If the Delete Person button is pressed, the active person and all of the personal information related to the active person are removed from the database. GRAMPS allows you to apply filters to the People View. When a filter is applied, the People View will only display the entries matching the filter. All of the entries remain in the database, but are temporarily hidden. There are three parts to a filter. The first part is the selection of the filter to be applied. A filter is selected from the option menu directly above the People View. The second part is an option qualifier. This qualifier provides more specific information for the filter. Many filters do not require the qualifier, and it will be grayed out if not needed. The third part of the filter is the invert selection. When this option is selected, GRAMPS will display the entries that do not match the filter. A filter is not applied until the Apply button is pressed. The filter will remain in effect until the next time the Apply button is pressed. Four columns are shown in the People View display. The entries in the list can be sorted by three of the fields: Name, Birth Date, or Death Date. Clicking on the column label will cause the list to be re-sorted by that column. Arrows on the label indicate whether the list is sorted by ascending or descending order. If the list is already sorted by a particular column, clicking on the same column label will switch the sorting order. For example, if the list is currently sorted in ascending order by Name, clicking on the Name column header will re-sort the list in descending order. A person's personal information can be edited in the Edit Person dialog.

General Information Tab

The General Information tab contains the basic information about the person. This includes the person's name, gender, birth information, and death information. If images have been associated with the person, the primary image is displayed on the right side of the window.

Alternate Names Tab

It is possible for people to use more than one name during their lifetime. These may be legal name changes, or just informal names. An example would be a person changing his or her name due to marriage or adoption. GRAMPS allows multiple alternate names to be specified for each person. The Alternate Names tab allows additional names to be added or removed from list. Clicking the Add button allows a new name to be added to the list. The Edit/View allows the selected alternate name to be edited. The Delete button removes the selected name. The Events tab allows information about various events in a person's life to be recorded. GRAMPS provides a list of common events, but allows you to name an event anything that you choose. An event consists of the name of an event (such as "Baptism" or "Education"), a date or date range on which the event occurred, the place where the event occurred, and a description of the event. A note or a source may also be attached to the event. Events have the concept of privacy and confidence associated with them. An event may be marked as "Private". When generating reports or exporting to other formats, you will be allowed to either include or exclude private records. This will allow you to limit information provided to others. GRAMPS allows you to specify your confidence in the information you have. By default, a confidence level of "Normal" is associated with each event. This can be increased ("High" or "Very High") or decreased ("Low" or "Very Low") to indicate the confidence you have in the information. For example, if Aunt Martha thinks that her grandmother was born in a particular year, you may wish to mark this with a lower level of confidence than if you had a copy of her grandmother's birth certificate.

Events Tab

The Event tab displays information about the currently selected event at the top of the window. Below this information is a list of the events that have been previously entered. Clicking on one of the events in the list selects the event, and displays its information at the top of the window. An event may be added by clicking the Add button. This displays a form that allows you to enter the information about the particular event. The Edit/View button allows to view or to alter the information of the currently displayed event. The Delete button allows you to delete the currently displayed event. Attributes are similar to events, but are for information items that do not necessarily have the concept of a place or a date. An example would be a person's Social Security Number or national origin. Attributes consist of an attribute name and its value. Like events, attributes may also have a note, source, privacy marker, and confidence level associated with them.

Attributes Tab

The Attribute tab displays information about the currently selected attribute at the top of the window. Below this information is a list of the attributes that have been previously entered. Clicking on one of the attributes in the list selects the attribute, and displays its information at the top of the window. An attribute may be added by clicking the Add button. This displays a form that allows you to enter the information about the particular attribute. The Edit/View button allows to view or to alter the information of the currently displayed attribute. The Delete button allows you to delete the currently displayed attribute. Addresses are used to record information about where a person has lived. Addresses are different from GRAMPS' concept of a place. An address, as GRAMPS sees, it consists of an equivalent of a mailing address and the date or date range when the person lived at the address. Like events and attributes, addresses may also have a note, source, privacy marker, and confidence level associated with them.

Addresses Tab

The Address tab displays information about the currently selected address at the top of the window. Below this information is a list of the addresses that have been previously entered. Clicking on one of the addresses in the list selects the address, and displays its information at the top of the window. An address may be added by clicking the Add button. This displays a form that allows you to enter the information about the particular address. The Edit/View button allows to view or to alter the information of the currently displayed address. The Delete button allows you to delete the currently displayed address. In addition to the notes that may be attached to any particular event, attribute, or address, GRAMPS has a generic note attached to the person.

Notes Tab

The note window is a free-form edit window, allowing you to enter any information that you want. The Gallery tab allows you to associate files (known in GRAMPS as media objects) with a particular person. These files are typically images or photographs, but may be of any filetype, such as (but not limited to) sound files and word processing documents.

Gallery Tab

GRAMPS provides a central repository for all media objects in the Media View. This allows the same media object to appear in multiple galleries. Adding a media object to a gallery actually adds the object to the Media View, and makes a local reference in the gallery. While each media object can have a note and attributes attached to it, each gallery can add its own notes and attributes to the reference in its gallery. This allows media objects to have global and local properties. For example, a photo of a family reunion may have many people in it. A global note may describe the picture in general, identifying the place and date. When this object is added to a gallery, you can attach a note to the reference in the gallery adding some specific information, such as "Aunt Martha is the third person from the right in the second row". Clicking the Edit Properites allows you to edit the local properties.

Local Media Properties

The first object in the gallery is considered to be the primary image. If this object is an image, it will appear on the General Information tab, and will be the primary image used by report generators. An image can be made the default at any time by selecting the thumbnail image and dragging it to the first position in the gallery. In this same manner, the order of the images can be changed using the same drag and drop technique. Objects may be added to the gallery in several ways. By clicking the Add Media Object button, a dialog box is presented which allows you to choose an object from the file system. This method adds a new object to the Media View and creates a reference in the gallery. Objects may also be added by either dragging and dropping from one gallery to another, or by dragging from the Media View to a gallery. In this case, a new media object is not created, but a reference to an existing media object is made in the gallery, sharing the same media object between galleries. Finally, new objects may be added to a gallery and the Media View by dragging and dropping from a file manager (such as Nautilus or Konqueror) or a web browser (such as Galeon, Mozilla, or Konqueror) into a gallery. Media objects can be removed from a gallery by clicking the Delete Media Object button. This action only removes the reference to the current gallery. It does not remove the media object from the Media View or from any other galleries that are referencing it. Right clicking on a selected object brings up a menu. View in default viewer Allows you to view an object image using GNOME's default viewer for the file type. Edit with the GIMP Launches the gimp program, allowing you to edit the image. This option only shows up if the media object is an image. Edit Object Properties Allows you to change the attributes and note attached to the media object. Convert to local copy This option is only displayed if the media is a reference to a file that is not controlled by GRAMPS. Selecting the option causes GRAMPS to make its own copy of the media object. Frequently, information about a person is available on the internet, frequently on someone else's web site. With multiple people researching the same family, it is desirable to keep track of internet sites that contain information about someone in your database. This allows you to keep track of the web sites you can periodically check them for any addition information.

Internet Tab

The Internet tab displays information about the currently selected internet address at the top of the window. Below this information is a list of the internet address that have been previously entered. Clicking on one of the events in the list selects the event, and displays its information at the top of the window. Clicking on the internet address displayed at the top part of the window will cause GRAMPS to attempt to display the site using the GNOME default browser. An internet address may be added by clicking on the Add button. This displays a form that allows you to enter the information about the internet address. This information consists of the web address (URL) and a description of the location. The Edit/View button allows to view or alter the information of the currently displayed internet address. The Delete button allows you to delete the currently displayed internet address. The Family View window displays the spouses, parents, and children of the active person. At any time, you can return to this view either by pressing the Family button at the top of the screen, or by choosing the View Family View entry from the menus.

Family View

In the Family View, the family information related to the active person is displayed. This information falls into two categories: families in which the person is a child, and families in which the person is a spouse or parent. On the right hand side of the window displays the parents of the active person. By default, a birth relationship is assumed. GRAMPS supports multiple family relationships for each person. For example, a person may have natural birth parents and adopted parents. In this case, an option menu will appear below the parents names, allowing you to choose which set of parents you wish to view. Pressing the Add/Edit Parents allows you to choose the active person's parents and specify the person's relationship to the parents. Pressing the Delete Parents does not remove the parents from the database, but instead deletes the relationship between the active person and the currently displayed parents. To right of the names of the parents are two "arrow" buttons. Selecting the button next to the father changes the father to the active person, and displays the fathers information in the Family View window. Similarly, selecting the button next to the mother changes the mother to the active person. To the left of the parents' names are buttons indicating the relationship to the active person. These are typically labeled "Father" and "Mother", but in some cases may simply be labeled "Parent". Pressing one of these buttons will display the Edit Person for the corresponding person. On the left side of the window, below the active person's name, is the information related to the person's marriages and relationships. If the person has one or no relationships, the spouse will appear within a non-editable text box. If more than one relationship exists, the text box will be replaced with an option menu that allows you to select the relationship to view. Between the active person and the relationship information is a button with two arrows. Pressing this button will exchange the active person and spouse on the display. The currently displayed spouse will become the active person, and the family information on the right hand side of the screen will change to reflect this. Pressing the Spouse next to the spouse's name will display the currently displayed spouse's information in an Edit Person dialog, allowing you change the information Pressing the Add located below the entry for the spouse's name allows a new relationship to be added. This gives you the opportunity to select and existing person or to add a new person as the new spouse. The type of relationship can also be specified. All relationship types, except "Partners" require that the spouses be of opposite sex. The "Partners" relationship type requires that the spouses be of the same sex. Pressing the Edit button allows you to edit the information related to the marriage. The information includes events, attributes, and images. The Remove button removes the current spouse from the relationship. If no children exist in the relationship, the entire relationship is removed. If children exist in the relationship, the current spouse is removed, and the children remain in a family with the active person as the only parent. The bottom of the window contains the list of children related to the active person and the currently selected spouse. Clicking on an entry in the list makes that child the active child. Clicking the Add New Child creates a new child and adds him or her as a child of the current relationship. Clicking the Add Existing Child allows you to select an existing person and assign the person as a child of the current relationship. Clicking the Remove Child removes the active child from the current relationship, but does not delete the person from the database. Double clicking on an entry in the list brings up the Edit Person dialog for the child. You are able to make the selected child the active person by clicking the arrow button next to the child list. The highlighted child in the child list becomes the active person. The Pedigree View window displays the active person, the active person's parents, and the active parent's grandparents in a somewhat graphical manner. At any time, you can return to this view either by pressing the Pedigree button at the top of the screen, or by choosing the View Pedgree entry from the menus.

Pedigree View

Moving the mouse over a displayed name will display additional information about a person, including their date of birth and date of death. Double-clicking the box will display the Edit Person dialog box for the person. Holding down the Shift key while double clicking will will make that person the active person. Navigation around the tree can be accomplished several ways. Clicking on the arrow next to the active person will display a menu listing the children of the active person. Selecting a person from this list will change the active person to the selected child, effectively shifting the pedigree view to the left, or down one generation. Clicking one of the arrow buttons on the left side of the screen will make the select either the active person's father (top button) or mother (bottom button), effectively shifting the pedigree view to the right, or up one generation. If the active person does not have any children, then the button on the left-hand side of the screen will not appear. Similarly, if the active person does have a father or mother, the corresponding button on the right-hand side of the screen will not appear.

Navigation

As a quick short cut, double clicking on a line between two people will make the person on the right-hand side of the line the active person. shows navigation using this method. When the mouse is over one of the lines connecting individuals, the line widens and becomes highlighted. In this case, double clcking on the line would make Hjalmar Smith the active person. The Source View window displays the different sources that have been entered into the database. At any time, you can return to this view either by pressing the Sources button at the top of the screen, or by choosing the View Sources entry from the menus.

Source View

From this screen you are able to Add and Edit sources. Currently, deleting of sources is not available. This will be implemented in a future version. The Place View window displays the different sources that have been entered into the database. At any time, you can return to this view either by pressing the Places button at the top of the screen, or by choosing the View Places entry from the menus.

Place View

From this screen you are able to Add, Edit, and Delete places. The Media View window displays the files associated with the database. Typically, these files are images, but GRAMPS allows you to attach any type of file to the database. GRAMPS refers to attached files as media objects. You can access the Media View at any time by either pressing the Media button at the top of the screen, or by choosing the View Media entry from the menus.

Media View

Media objects can be either local or external to a GRAMPS database. If GRAMPS is told to import an object as alocal object, it will make its own copy of the file in the database directory. If the object is not imported as a local object, the original file is used. There are advantages and disadvantages to both methods. If the object is local, then if the original file is moved or deleted, then GRAMPS will still have its own copy. However, this is at the price of having two copies of the file. If the file is not imported as a local object, then a copy is not made, saving disk space. However, altering or deleting the original copy will affect the GRAMPS database. Media objects can be imported in several ways. Adding an object to any gallery adds the object to the Media View. The gallery is will actually contain a reference to the object in the Media View. Objects may also be added using the Add Media Object button. This will add the object to the Media View, but not to any gallery. When you select the file to be added, a preview will be displayed in the preview window. The the file is an image, the image will be displayed. Otherwise, an icon representing the file type will be displayed. In the dialog box, you may choose to either import the object as a local object, or leave it as an external object.

Add Media Object Dialog Box

Finally, you may drag-and-drop an object from either a file manager or a web browser. If the object is dropped into a gallery, then a reference is made in the gallery, and the object appears in the Media View. If the object is dropped directly into the Media View, then it appears in the Media View, but will not appear in a gallery. Currently, all objects imported via drag-and-drop are imported as external (not local) objects. Once an object is in the Media View, it is possible to make a reference to it in any gallery. You may place the object in as many galleries as you like, and only one copy of the file will exist. To make a reference to a media object in a gallery, you may simply drag-and-drop the object from the Media View directly to a gallery. The object will then appear in the gallery. Similarly, you may drag-and-drop from one gallery to another gallery, and a new object reference is created in the target gallery. Media objects have global and local properties. The title of the object is a global property. It may only be changed from the Media View, and it will affect all references. An object also has a global note and a set of user defined global attributes. A reference in a gallery may a have a local note and local attributes as well. All references share the global properties, but each gallery has its own set of notes a attributes. The global note can be used to provide a general description. For example, in a family reunion image, you may wish to use the global note to indicate the place, date, and occasion of the photograph. In a local note in Aunt Martha's gallery, you may wish to add a local note indicating that "Aunt Martha is the third person from the right in the second row". The global properties may be changed by selecting the Edit Media Object button.

Edit a Media Object's Global Properties

GRAMPS supports two mechanisms to quickly find people - the home person and bookmarks. The home person is the default person of the database. Upon loading the database, GRAMPS will set the active person to the default person. At any time, clicking the Home button will return the active person to the home person. The home person can be set by choosing Settings Set Default Person . Bookmarks work similar to bookmarks in HTML browsers. They allow you to quickly jump to a person, making that person the active person. This allows you to avoid searching for them everytime you want to add/change something in their information.

Using Bookmarks

Choosing Bookmarks Add Bookmark adds the current active person to the bookmark list. The person will then appear in the bookmark list, allowing you to quickly select the person. Choosing Bookmarks Go to Bookmark displays a submenu which allows you to choose a person who was previously bookmarked. Selecting a person from this menu will make that person the active person. Choosing Bookmarks Edit Bookmarks displays a dialog box that allows you to reorder or delete bookmarks in the list.

Editing Bookmarks

Revision control allows you to keep a history of the changes that you have made to your database. Instead of needing to keep multiple sets of back up files, a single revision control database is maintained. At any point, you can revert back to a previously saved version. GRAMPS uses the standard RCS system to handle revisions. Revison control is enabled in the Revision Control tab of the preferences dialog. Once enabled, every save is logged into the revision control database. If you have enabled prompting for a comment, then a dialog box will be displayed on every save asking you to provide a comment about the changes you have made.

Providing a revision control comment

If revision control has been enabled, you have the option of reverting to a previous version of the database. Selecting the check box will allow you to select a previous version.

Opening a database

If the check box has be selected, GRAMPS will display a dialog box that will allow you to choose which version you would like to view. The dialog box displays the version number, the date the version was saved, who saved the database, and any comment supplied when the datbase was saved.

Choosing a revision

Choosing a previous revision does not replace your current database. If you do not save the retrieved database, it will not replace the current version. If for some reason you accidentally save the retrieved database when you did not want to replace the current version, you can always use the revison control mechanism to get back the version you replaced. Revision control is applied only to the database itself, not to any media objects have been associated with the database. To change the application settings, select Settings Preferences... . This opens the Preferences dialog, shown in .

Preferences Dialog

The General Preferences tab contains basic information to control the operation of GRAMPS. Automatically load last database With this selected it will automatically load your last database. Do not compress XML data file GRAMPS normally compresses its data file to conserve disk space. If you do not whish to have the file compressed, selecting this option will cause GRAMPS to leave the file uncompressed. This may be desirable if other applications need to process the generated XML file. Use tabbed pages When this is selected there will be a row of tabs below the tool bars for the Person View, Family View, Pedigree View, and Sources View. Display GRAMPS ID in list This will add a new column to the Person View with the GRAMPS ID for each individual. Allow internal GRAMPS ID numbers to be edited This option allows advanced users to edit the internal GRAMPS indentification strings for certain entries. Display attribute on Edit Person form Selecting this and adding a comment/word will add that comment/word to the Identification part of the Edit Person view.

Formats Tab

The Formats tab allows you to change the display formats of several different typs of data. This includes dates and names. Display Formats Allows you to choose your preferences for displaying dates and names. Options exist for several different date formats. Names can be displayed with either the given name or the surname first. This option typically does not affect lists that are sorted by last name, in which case the surname is displayed first. Entry Formats Numerical date formats can be ambiguous. Some people enter the day, month, and year (European style), while others prefer month, day, year (American style). Selecting the option here informs GRAMPS how it should interpret numerical dates.

Appearance Preferences Dialog

Custom Colors Enabling custom colors allows you to choose foreground and background colors for the Person View list. A different color combinations may be chosen for odd and even rows. This may make the display easier to read. It should be noted that it may slow down redisplays of the window if a large number (thousands) of people are in the list. Status Bar Allows you to change the information displayed in the status bar at the bottom of the window. There are three (3) preferences from which to chose. The first is Active person's name only - this will display the active person's name only in the status bar. The second is Active person's name and GRAMPS ID - This will display the name and ID for the active person ( [I9] Edwin Michael Smith ). The last option is Active person's name and attribute - this is just like the second option but shows the attribute you specified in the General Preferences section. List Display Options Allows you to control what gets displayed in lists. You can control if alternate names are displayed in the lists, or if the lists will contain detail flags to indicate additional information (such as the presence of notes, sources, or images).

Researcher Information Dialog

This is where you are able to change the information you entered when you started GRAMPS for the first time and was asked to enter in some information. (This information shows up in your GEDCOM files as being the researcher/author of the file)

Report Preferences Dialog

Many of the reports that GRAMPS produces can be generated in different file formats and different paper sizes. Selecting a Preferred Output Format and a Preferred Output Format tells the report generator your preferences. It should be noted that a report generator might not support all possible formats.

Directory Preferences Dialog

This allows you to set the default directories for your databases, reports, and Web Sites. GRAMPS can produce a wide variety of reports. A new report generator can be written by the user without modifying the main program. For this reason, there may be more reports available than are documented by this manual.

Report Generation Dialog

Unlike many genealogy programs, GRAMPS does not directly print reports. Instead, GRAMPS produces reports in formats that are understood by other programs. These formats include OpenOffice, AbiWord, PDF, and HTML, among others. This allows the generated reports to be modified after they are generated, stored for use at a later time, or e-mailed to another person. After selecting the report you would like generated there are options you must select. In the Save As option specify your file name (use /full path/filename to specify a different directory than in your Default Report Directory preference in the preferences). The next step is to select the Report Format. After choosing the Format you can select the style you would like to use for your report (this does not apply to the HTML format). You can Add/Edit/Delete a style for that particular report by clicking the Style Editor button. Selecting one of those options you can then change the font (font face, size, color, and options) for each Paragraph Style along with the Paragraph Options (Alignment, background color, margins, and dorders). Once you are satisfied with the style you are ready to proceed with the generation of your report. The next step is to choose the options (if any for that specific report) and then Choose the Template (for HTML format only) and click OK. Your report will now be in default report directory (unless otherwise specified). Many programs exist to convert GEDCOM files into HTML files that can be viewed in a web browser. Most of these programs generate HTML files according to their own predefined style. Since most people have a style that they prefer, they are left with the option of modifying hundreds of files by hand. To solve this problem, GRAMPS allows the user to specify a template to be used for generating HTML files. At the time the report is generated, if HTML is selected as the target format, the user can select an HTML template to be used. Since the template is chosen at report generation time, a different template may be chosen each time, allowing the user to change the appearance of the generated files at any time. Nearly any existing HTML file can be used as an HTML template for GRAMPS. When a file has been established as the HTML template file, GRAMPS uses the template for each file that it generates. GRAMPS starts each file by copying data from the template until it reaches the HTML comment, which it uses as a marker. At that point, GRAMPS inserts its data into the output file. GRAMPS the continues reading the until it reaches a second comment that tells it to resume copying from the template. GRAMPS uses the string <!-- START --> to indicate where it should start inserting its information, and the string <!-- STOP --> to indicate where it should resume copying data from the template. The effect is that GRAMPS will create a new document, replacing everything between the <!-- START --> and <!-- STOP --> comments with the report information. The comment markers should be at the beginning of a line in the HTML template file. Adding the comments to an existing HTML document will not affect the original HTML document in any way. If no HTML template is specified, or if the specified template cannot be read, GRAMPS will use a default, predefined template.

<HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE> This is my Title </TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF"> <P> This is a simple template. This text will appear in the html output. </P> <!-- START --> <P> This is where GRAMPS will place its report information. Any information between the two comments, including this paragraph, will not appear in the GRAMPS generated output. </P> <!-- STOP --> <P> This text, since it appears after the stop comment, will also appear in every GRAMPS generated file. </P> </BODY> </HTML>

GRAMPS supports standard and user written tools. These tools can operate on the database to perform a specified task.

Tool Selection Dialog

Compare individual events Aids in the analysis of data by allowing the development of custom filters that can be applied to the database to find similar events. Interactive descendant browser Provides a browsable hierarchy based on the active person. Check and repair database Checks the database for integrity problems, fixing the problems that it can. Extract information from names Searches the entire database and attempts to extract titles and nicknames that may be embedded in a person's given name field. Merge people Searches the entire database, looking for individual entries that may represent the same person. Rename personal event types Allows all the events of a certain name to be renamed to a new name. Reorder GRAMPS ID's Reorders the GRAMPS ID's according to GRAMPS' default rules. Generate SoundEx codes Generates SoundEx codes for names. Relationship calculator Calulates the relationship between two people. GRAMPS was written by Don Allingham (dallingham@users.sourceforge.net). To find more information about GRAMPS, please visit the GRAMPS Web page. This manual was written by Don Allingham (dallingham@users.sourceforge.net), Larry Allingham (llkla@erinet.com), and Shawn Ann Griffith (shawnann1@home.com). This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. A copy of the GNU General Public License is included as an appendix to the GNOME Users Guide. You may also obtain a copy of the GNU General Public License from the Free Software Foundation by visiting their Web site or by writing to

Free Software Foundation, Inc. 59 Temple Place - Suite 330 Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA