GEDCOM Editors Section

This section only applies to GEDCOM files.

The GEDCOM Editors Section contains a list where you may add one or more Line Editor items. Each Line Editor item may make a find-and-replace edit to records in your GEDCOM file.

Line Editors are applied in top-to-bottom sequence. If a Line Editor changes the current GEDCOM record, any subsequent Line Editor will act upon the changed GEDCOM record, not the original.

Gedcom Publisher does not change the GEDCOM file. Gedcom Publisher changes the records in-memory as it reads the file.

Line Editor

To add a Line Editor item, use the [+] button beneath the list.

Line Editor Properties

Title

The Title property is for identification only. Specify a title that describes the edit operation performed by the current item.

Enabled

The Enabled checkbox controls whether or not the Line Editor Item is processed when Gedcom Publisher is reading the GEDCOM file. If Enabled is unchecked, the Line Editor item is ignored.

Subject Tag

The Subject Tag property limits the find-and-replace operation to GEDCOM records with the specified tag. If you leave it empty, the edit operation will apply to all GEDCOM tag types.

Parent Tag

The Parent Tag property limits the find-and-replace operation to GEDCOM records whose parent record has the specified tag. If you leave it empty, the edit operation will apply to child GEDCOM records with any parent record.

Pattern

The Pattern property specifies the Regular Expression ("Regex") pattern used to match values you want to change. You must supply a Pattern value.

Gedcom Publisher passes a text value to the Regex processor where the GEDCOM tag is followed by the tag's value so your pattern should not attempt to match the line number or optional XRef that may be present in the actual GEDCOM record.

For example, when processing a FILE tag:

Replacement

The Replacement property specifies the text used to replace the text matched by the Pattern. The replacement text can consist of any combination of literal text and references to Regex groups defined in the Pattern.

Example

Here's how to change a Macintosh filepath to a Windows filepath. The example assumes the Gedcom Publisher user is running a Macintosh-based genealogy program such as Reunion for Mac and has external media files in the Macintosh filesystem. Meanwhile, she is using Gedcom Publisher running under Parallels on the same computer, and has configured Parallels to allow Windows programs to access the Macintosh filesystem via the "Z" drive letter.

In GEDCOM, media filepaths are specified on a FILE record that is a child record of an OBJE record.

FYI: Filepaths in Windows uses backslashes between folder names, but Gedcom Publisher (and most other programs) will accept filepaths that use forward slashes.

On MacOS and also on other Unix-based operating systems, an initial "~" in a filepath is a shortcut to refer to the home directory for the current user.