Pat A is correct. The most recent version of the GEDCOM standard is 5.5. More than twenty years later, it seems unlikely that consensus among all the stakeholders could be achieved to update the standard. The idea of GEDCOM was to avoid a "Tower of Babel" syndrome. It was to provide a common language that all genealogy software could understand and translate into the software's own idiom. However, the standard dates to before the advent of new media types and does not support these "bells and whistles". In response, software designers added proprietary extensions and called them "GEDCOM". Because they are proprietary (secret information), extensions for one program are not transferable to other programs. In some instances, proprietary extensions can bollix up GEDCOM import to a different program. So many errors are encountered that import can fail completely. The problem, Vanessa, isn't that your genealogy software doesn't meet new standards. It's that -- for these features -- there are no generally-accepted standards. -rt_/) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 22 Apr 2016 11:07:20 -0400 From: Pat Asher <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [FreeHelp] Adding photos to WorldConnect To: Vanessa Stern <[email protected]> Cc: Freepages-Help <[email protected]> Message-ID: <[email protected]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed At 09:57 AM 4/22/2016, Vanessa Stern wrote: >My situation regarding genealogy software is complicated. I am >still using the now defunct Windows version of Generations, which >does not output a GEDCOM up to current standards. Therefore, I have >been stuck with it because I can't import the data properly into >another program. Believe me, I have researched this. I have over >125,000 individuals in my database. If I wanted to get a Mac, I >could switch to the still-supported Mac version and ask the company >to try to convert my database. I have come to that. Vanessa, The GEDCOM standard has remained the same since 1996. If Generations added proprietary extensions to their GEDCOM output, those would not import to another program, but the standard tagged data should transfer just fine to another program. Remember, a GEDCOM is a plain text file. You can even read and edit it in Notepad if you understand/learn the correct line structure and remember to add the appropriate meta tag to each line.That said, checking 125,000 individuals for proprietary data would be a nightmare. >Anyway, could I do this via a post-em? That seems like it would be >easier under the circumstances. You could enter the URL of a photo in a post-em, but the photo would not display there, nor would the typed link be a hot link; at least I don't think the post-em feature will execute html as will the main display. If your GEDCOM really does need some finessing, maybe someone on the list uses a Mac and could help you with it. Pat A.