GedSite News #001

GedSite Version 1.0 Released

For many years, genealogists have been asking me if I would create a program to build web sites from a GEDCOM file. They wanted the features and ease-of-use of Second Site, my popular web site builder for TMG, but for GEDCOM files, and thus not limited to TMG users. I often answered, "Maybe someday..."

Someday has arrived!

After two years of development, GedSite 1.0 is now available. It's a new program from the ground up, but its design borrows heavily from Second Site. Even though it's a brand new program, it provides professional-quality features and more control than any other GEDCOM-based method. If you are serious about publishing your genealogy data on the Web, or if you are sharing your data with family members on thumb-drives or DVDs, you need GedSite: it's the best way to publish your GEDCOM data in HTML format.

GedSite is also a great tool to review your data. It is fast, and the HTML format makes the data easy to browse. It will help you find inconsistencies in your data and other problems.

GEDCOM files are difficult to read because the various programs that write GEDCOM files (RootsMagic, Family Tree Maker, Legacy, Family Historian, and dozens of others) do not follow all the same rules. To compensate for that, GedSite includes a configurable component that detects which program wrote the GEDCOM file and adjusts itself to the content. It's impossible to handle every variation that might occur in a GEDCOM file, but the flexibility of GedSite's GEDCOM reader will allow me to adjust things as new variations are discovered. GedSite's GEDCOM reader is configurable so new rules can be implemented without updating the program.

Some notable features:

• GedSite includes several Themes that vary the style or "look" of the site. Themes can be customized via hundreds of style properties or custom user-supplied style rules. GedSite includes a "Plain" Theme so you don't have to undo style choices made by a Theme designer. You can also implement your own Themes, if desired.
• GedSite has about 50 Layouts that determine whether pages have one, two, or three columns, whether the pages have fixed-width content or expand to fill the browser window, etc.
• Tag Sets allow you to group tags into different sets so you can (A) format some tags differently from others and (B) implement tag sequences that are more involved than simply showing all tags in one chronological list.
• Various multimedia exhibits (images, documents, audio files, or video files) can be included on the site.
• Users can add custom pages to include content that does not originate directly in the GEDCOM file. If you want your site to tell a story, you need a place to write it!
• GedSite makes sites that are mobile-friendly.
• Sites can be published on the web, published on removable media, or not published at all.

  Why wouldn't you create a site and not publish it? Well, as mentioned above, GedSite is also a great tool to review your data.

• Sites include a powerful search function that makes it easy to find people with limited information. Want to know which women named Mary had a son named Jeremiah? That's a layup.

This is version 1.0 of GedSite and so it does not have all the features that I plan to implement. I will release free updates over the next 12 to 18 months to add major and minor features based on my development plan and customer feedback. But... don't wait. Buy now. You'll be glad you did.

The first feature slated for the next version is support for custom tag type definitions. RootsMagic, for example, includes tag type definitions it its GEDCOM export files and those definitions include the roles and sentences held in the RootsMagic database.

How to Download

Existing customers may download the current version from the Downloads page.

To use the current version, you need a license for GedSite 5.

How to Buy

For purchasing information, see the Purchases page.

Prices and policies mentioned on this page were current when the page was published. Prices and policies are subject to change. See the GedSite home page for current version and price information.

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