What should or shouldn't you do in FTM2012 to make sure your exported GEDCOMS are well-formed and fully compatible with other software or services? Are there certain fields, that don't export, you shouln't use, or shouldn't use in certain ways?

Thanks

A well-formed GEDCOM follows the GEDCOM standard. Various versions of the standard exist. Most software products DO NOT follow completely any of these versions or have created their own "extensions" to the standard. So you will need to know what those products support and what FTM20XX produces and/or supports.

You must experiment, most of these products say they support GEDCOM and most don't have a clue.

Look here for more information and check out the "External links" for links to copies of the different versions of the standard, however the article is not 100% correct in it's use of terminology regarding the word "Standard": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GEDCOM

That being said: Most people don't care about GEDCOM because once they start using one program they either stay with it forever or live with the loss of data when sharing information. I only bring it up because I use GEDCOM a lot and have written utilities that read/write GEDCOM for my own data mining and reporting programs.

One (good) reason that I've stayed with FTM since version 3.

Regards,

Thanks for the replies.

What I don't want is to enter data in a certain field for a few thousand people and then find I want/need to change software/service. I can make other provisions if I know what's not compatible.

I'll have to do some experimenting/studying as suggested. I'm very hesitant to enter lots of data into FTM without first knowing how best to enter it.

It would be cool if we could build a clean document of "best practices" for data entry by area that would share years of experience on this board. Most of us have learned the hard way how to come up with a system that works for us and why we do it that way. Some where on this board, someone documented their ideas for handling version 2012 and the AMT (maintenance, linking, etc) as an example.

@gldaggett,

I agree that it would be nice if the software community (vendors and users) would develope a "best practices" document, and if not for everyone at least for this product.

I would, however, look here: http://ftmuser.blogspot.com/

While I don't always agree with Russ on this board I would agree that he has done a great job of putting down "on paper" a lot of the things users need to know (or at least think about) regarding FTM and his experience with many versions of FTM shows.

Thank you. This blog looks useful. It's good to know some of the pitfalls you might come across ahead of time.

To (partially) test GEDCOM compatibility with FTM2012 I added every event in FTM2012 to a person and exported that person. The results are in the attached file. I've edited them into the lists below.

FTM2012 Specific Tags
---------------------
[FTM Tag, FTM2012 Title]
EMAIL, Email
EVEN, Arrival
EVEN, Departure
EVEN, Web Address
_CIRC, Circumscision
_DEG, Degree
_DEST, Destination
_DNA, DNA Markers
_ELEC, Elected
_EMPLOY, Employment
_EXCM, Excommunication
_FUN, Funeral
_HEIG, Height
_INIT, Initiatory (LDS)
_MDCL, Medical Condition
_MILT, Military Service Desc
_MILTID, Military Serial Number
_MISN, Mission (LDS)
_NAMS, Namesake
_ORDI, Ordinance
_ORIG, Origin
_SEPR, Separation
_WEIG, Weight

FTM2012 SUPPORTED GEDCOM TAGS
-----------------------------
[GEDCOM 5.5 Tag, FTM2012 Title]
ADDR, Address
ADOP, Adoption
AFN, Ancestral File Number
ALIA, Also Known As
ANUL, Annulment
BAPL, Baptism (LDS)
BAPM, Baptism
BARM, Bar Mitzvah
BASM, Bat Mitzvah
BIRT, Birth
BLES, Blessing
BURI, Burial
CAST, Caste
CAUS, Cause of Death
CENS, Census
CHR, Christening
CHRA, Christening (Adult)
CONF, Confirmation
CONL, Confirmation (LDS)
CREM, Cremation
DEAT, Death
DIV, Divorce
DIVF, Divorce Filed
DSCR, Physical Description
EDUC, Education
EMIG, Emigration
ENDL, Endowment (LDS)
ENGA, Engagement
FCOM, First Communication
GRAD, Graduation
IMMI, Immigration
MARB, Marriage Bann
MARC, Marriage Contact
MARL, Marriage License
MARR, Marriage
MARS, Marriage Settlement
NAME, Name
NATI, Nationality
NATU, Naturalization
OCCU, Occupation
ORDN, Ordination
PHON, Phone Number
PROB, Probate
PROP, Property
REFN, Person ID
REFN, Relationship ID
RELI, Religion
RESI, Residence
RETI, Retirement
SEX, Sex
SLGC, Sealed To Parents (LDS)
SLGS, Sealed To Spouse (LDS)
SSN, Social Security Number
TITL, Title
WILL, Will

Descriptions of the GEDCOM 5.5 tags are here: http://genealogy.about.com/library/weekly/aa110100d.htm

Original GEDCOM Export: http://www.yourfilelink.com/get.php?fid=740677

All of the tags you identified are Level 1 tags and all have subtags (level 2-X), many of these subtags are not supported by FTM. Also FTM produces GEDCOM level 1 tags that have additional non-standard values adjacent to the tag (FTMers call them "descriptions")

Thanks for the info. I wasn't aware of the extra level 2 tags. When I edited the above I noticed the extra 'decription' fields. FTM2012 seems to use DATE, PLAC, and a description/general data field or any combination of these three. I assume this affects importing rather than exporting.