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General => Technical Help => Family History Programs, Tree Organisation, Presentation => Topic started by: whodoithinkiam on Tuesday 21 October 14 13:05 BST (UK)
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I have a Family Tree, probably made with FT software but saved in PDF. Unfortunately, I have no way of getting hold of the GEDCOM file, but I need to add to it and modify. I'd like to avoid manual input if possible; is there a way I can convert it to a useable format?
Thanks
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I suspect the answer is no, as the time taken to write a program to extract from PDF, analyse the document to extract the information and then create a gedcom is going to be longer than that to key it in, unless of course it's a print of the gedcom in which case you might be able to.
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Thanks for your reply.
It could well be a print of the gedcom. Is there a way to tell? If it is, how might I proceed?
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Does it look something like the gedcom below or is it a report of some kind which is human readable.
0 HEAD
1 SOUR FAMILY_HISTORIAN
2 VERS 5.0
2 NAME Family Historian
2 CORP Calico Pie Limited
1 GEDC
2 VERS 5.5
2 FORM LINEAGE-LINKED
1 CHAR ANSI
0 @I1@ INDI
1 NAME Anthony Edward /Munro/
2 SOUR @S2@
3 PAGE Page 79
3 DATA
4 DATE 25 MAR 2014
3 QUAY 1
1 SEX M
1 BIRT
2 DATE 12 JAN 1922
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It's a human-readable family tree- I have a hard copy and a PDF file that's identical.
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I suspect my first thought is probably correct, if you are a programmer you might be able to build a script, but I have not seen many pre-written programs which can import report format information.
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Can you get back to the person who sent it to you, and ask for a gedcom file?
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I am nowhere in the vicinity of being a programmer. Ah well, thanks for your help :)
No KGarrad, unfortunately the lady that did the research has ceased her activities due to personal upheavals. She is, for all intents and purposes, unreachable.
Best get to it then
*cracks knuckles*
:)
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Can you scan the PDF using OCR (optical Character recognition) into a text file. It may help you to cut and paste your info easier.
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Hi
Is it possible for you to copy a page from the pdf into this thread so that we can see what you have?
Ray
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Sorry for the delayed response.
The information on the tree is not mine; if the moderators could confirm that they will delete it when it's no longer useful to the thread, I will upload.
Do the mods read all replies, or should I contact them directly?
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If you click on "Report to moderator" they are bound to see it!
And the same thing when you want it removed?!
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Ah, ok thanks.
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Hi
I should have said not to include any data for living persons.
It is only to get a view of the "style/format".
Ray
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The moderating team have received 'your report'
Please ensure the portion of pdf you post to the page doesn't contain living people and when you are ready, use the report to moderator button again and let us know you want the attachment removed.
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Could you clarify what you actually want to do with this file ?
If it is simply to make the file editable to add your own information the easiest way would be to convert the PDF file to Word format and work within an Office program to make edits. There are several utilities which will do this.
Unfortunately if you wish to convert the pdf file to a format that would allow you to import it to an FH program I don't think such a utility exists (one work around is to convert the pdf file to Excel format and convert the excel file to gedcom - but that relies upon the original PDF file being in a format that was suitable for conversion to a spreadsheet)
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Will do, cheers.
Thanks Ray, but I'll still want it removed- not my family you se;, feels wrong that it should be here, searchable by all in cyberspace :)
I'll add it later
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Falkyrn,
I wish to continue the FH research already started and add my findings to the existing tree, but also to produce different charts from the information. I do think I'd need it in GEDCOM format; not sure if the PDF is in a form that could be converted to excel but I'll have a go.
Thanks for the reply
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. . . but I'll still want it removed- not my family you see;, feels wrong that it should be here, searchable by all in cyberspace :)
It won't be searchable if you put it up as an image. Run it through your PDF reader and 'grab' a suitable section of the screen i.e. without living subjects. Just include one individual record or as much of it as you can get on a screen. Should be OK then. You could black out the names in a paint package if you are still worried.
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Falkyrn,
I wish to continue the FH research already started and add my findings to the existing tree, but also to produce different charts from the information. I do think I'd need it in GEDCOM format; not sure if the PDF is in a form that could be converted to excel but I'll have a go.
Thanks for the reply
I think in that case the easiest option is to manually input the information ... in any case conversion opens up the possibility of introducing errors to the file