Family Treemaker 2011 to Excel via Gedcom
NancyR
I've been banned from asking questions in their forums. My questions:
1. If I save my FTM info to a gedcom file, can I then use that information
in Excel?
2. Are there other family tree programs which are better than FTM,
especially with regard to printing reports ?
Nancy
john
free Gedxlate http://www.gedmagic.com/GEDxlate.htm
I use The Master Genealogist and GenBox Family History as both have good
reporting.
singhals
> I've been unsuccessful in FTM 2011 in printing custom reports. It seems
> I've been banned from asking questions in their forums. My questions:
>
> 1. If I save my FTM info to a gedcom file, can I then use that information
> in Excel?
>
I don't think so, FTM being older than Excel.
> 2. Are there other family tree programs which are better than FTM,
> especially with regard to printing reports ?
Kind of depends on what you're wanting printed. Are you
remembering to sort your custom-list before you print it?
(g) I've used up my quota of bad-words on that one!
I've used a number of genealogy programs over the years, and
none of them do /everything/ I've needed to do. I use one
for basic data-entry and avoid all the bells and whistles.
I can then GED it out to whatever other program I need to
use for my immediate purpose.
Cheryl
Charlie Hoffpauir
>I've been unsuccessful in FTM 2011 in printing custom reports. It seems
>I've been banned from asking questions in their forums. My questions:
I'll try to respond to both questions...
>
>1. If I save my FTM info to a gedcom file, can I then use that information
>in Excel?
Yes, but you will need to use another program first, to convert the
GEDCOM file to something tht Excel can understand. There are several
free programs available, but I haven't used one in many years. A
Google search for something like "convert GEDCOM to EXCEL" should turn
up a few.
>
>2. Are there other family tree programs which are better than FTM,
>especially with regard to printing reports ?
>
Yes, but actually FTM is pretty good at printing reports. I can't
understand what the problem is in creating a custom report. Back when
I was using FTM (I switched long ago to another program) I used to
routinely generate a custom report from FTM, print that to a file,
then import that file directly into Excel. I found that approach much
easier than using a GEDCOM, then yet another program, to get the
information into Excel.
>Nancy
>
If you'd care to state in more detail what your problem is in creating
the custom report I'm sure some FTM user would be willing to help.
Mike Fry
says...
> 1. If I save my FTM info to a gedcom file, can I then use that
> information in Excel?
Not directly! Why would Excel know anything about GEDCOMs? A GEDCOM is
just a text file.
> 2. Are there other family tree programs which are better than FTM,
> especially with regard to printing reports ?
That depends on what your requirements are. A lot of people use Legacy
on Windows.
--
Regards,
Mike Fry
Johannesburg.
Ian Goddard
Does FTM have a mechanism for exporting CSV files? I use Gramps which
has options for exporting a number of different views of data as CSV
which can then be read into Excel or any other spreadsheet. Maybe FTM
also has such a facility.
--
Ian
The Hotmail address is my spam-bin. Real mail address is iang
at austonley org uk
Baldy Man
wrote:
FTM does not produce good GEDCOM and there can be issues with
reimporting this into other GEDCOM capable programmes.
I use Family Historian which has good reporting, has a custom report
generator and a query language which allows complex sorting and data
presentation. And best of all, it uses a GEDCOM file as its data type
so no conversion is necessary. There is an active user forum which is
frequented by very knowledgable users and the programme author who
uses the forum to generate the wish list for the next version...
It is not as easy as FTM to get started with but the learning curve is
not too steep. I particularly like the diagram functions which produce
charts that I like and are very customisable.
I have tried FTM (2009, 2010 and 2011 versions), Legacy and The Master
Genealogist but went for FH because of it's power and customisation.
Hope that helps.....
Charlie Hoffpauir
<godd...@hotmail.co.uk> wrote:
>NancyR wrote:
>> I've been unsuccessful in FTM 2011 in printing custom reports. It seems
>> I've been banned from asking questions in their forums. My questions:
>>
>> 1. If I save my FTM info to a gedcom file, can I then use that information
>> in Excel?
>>
>> 2. Are there other family tree programs which are better than FTM,
>> especially with regard to printing reports ?
>
>Does FTM have a mechanism for exporting CSV files? I use Gramps which
>has options for exporting a number of different views of data as CSV
>which can then be read into Excel or any other spreadsheet. Maybe FTM
>also has such a facility.
I think the closest that FTM comes to producing a CSV file is to
generate a custom report containing the fields you want in Excel, then
print that to a text file, adjust it as needed and import that into
Excel. Unfortunately, what the OP is having trouble with is producing
the custom report.
Joe Makowiec
> NancyR wrote:
>> I've been unsuccessful in FTM 2011 in printing custom reports. It
>> seems I've been banned from asking questions in their forums. My
>> questions:
>>
>> 1. If I save my FTM info to a gedcom file, can I then use that
>> information in Excel?
>
> I don't think so, FTM being older than Excel.
What does the age of either piece of software have to do with whether you
can massage data from one into a format the other can use?
--
Joe Makowiec
http://makowiec.org/
Email: http://makowiec.org/contact/?Joe
Usenet Improvement Project: http://twovoyagers.com/improve-usenet.org/
Steve Hayes
>I've been unsuccessful in FTM 2011 in printing custom reports. It seems
>I've been banned from asking questions in their forums. My questions:
>
>1. If I save my FTM info to a gedcom file, can I then use that information
>in Excel?
Yes.
An easy way to do it is to use a program called GEDXlate (Google for it).
>2. Are there other family tree programs which are better than FTM,
>especially with regard to printing reports ?
Several, though it depends on what you want in reports.
I tried FTM very briefly, but the moment that I discovered that it was
incapable of printing RINs in reports I dropped it.
--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Web: http://hayesfam.bravehost.com/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://methodius.blogspot.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk
Trevor Rix
that you may find that is all you need without resorting to Excel. It is
easy however to export custom information from Family Historian to Excel
if you need to do so. "Save Query Result Set As...csv".
Trevor Rix
singhals
> On 02 Mar 2011 in soc.genealogy.computing, singhals wrote:
>
>> NancyR wrote:
>>> I've been unsuccessful in FTM 2011 in printing custom reports. It
>>> seems I've been banned from asking questions in their forums. My
>>> questions:
>>>
>>> 1. If I save my FTM info to a gedcom file, can I then use that
>>> information in Excel?
>>
>> I don't think so, FTM being older than Excel.
>
> What does the age of either piece of software have to do with whether you
> can massage data from one into a format the other can use?
>
She asked if Xcel could use the info in a GED. As her
question is stated, the answer is no.
People seem to be answering a different question, though,
and they're right -- and so are you -- a GED can be
force-fed into a spreadsheet, or
bent-folded-spindled-or-mutilated until it fits. That
however negates any benefit from automating it.
Cheryl
john
You can load a GEDCOM file into Excel. A GEDCOM file is just a text file
so Excel will read it. Just try - drag a GEDCOM into Excel or use Open File.
The problem is it will just load line by line and there are no links
between the lines. You could write an Excel macro to process the GEDCOM
to put it into a more sensible Excel spreadsheet.
However it is even more sensible to process the GEDCOM with GEDxlate to
produce a structured Excel spreadsheet. The data for each individual
appears in a single line with data in the appropriate column. GEDxlate
allows you to choose which fields you wish to include in the
spreadsheet. Whether that then does what the OP wanted is another matter.
Kerry Raymond
Can you tell us what kind of report you are trying to create? What
individuals do you want to show? (e.g. descendants of a particular person,
everyone born in Smallville) What information do you want to display about
those individuals?
That way people may be able to suggest some good ways to do it, either in
FTM2011 (which would obviously be the best ourcome for you), or via GEDCOM
into another family history program or some other software (Excel or
whatever). At the moment people are making suggestions without really
knowing what you are trying to achieve.
Kerry
Steve Hayes
>Joe Makowiec wrote:
>> On 02 Mar 2011 in soc.genealogy.computing, singhals wrote:
>>
>>> NancyR wrote:
>>>> I've been unsuccessful in FTM 2011 in printing custom reports. It
>>>> seems I've been banned from asking questions in their forums. My
>>>> questions:
>>>>
>>>> 1. If I save my FTM info to a gedcom file, can I then use that
>>>> information in Excel?
>>>
>>> I don't think so, FTM being older than Excel.
>>
>> What does the age of either piece of software have to do with whether you
>> can massage data from one into a format the other can use?
>>
>
>She asked if Xcel could use the info in a GED. As her
>question is stated, the answer is no.
No, she asked if SHE could use the information in a GED file in Excel.
And the answer is, of course that she can.
Most of the replies were about ways of getting the info from a GED file into
Excel.
>People seem to be answering a different question, though,
>and they're right -- and so are you -- a GED can be
>force-fed into a spreadsheet, or
>bent-folded-spindled-or-mutilated until it fits. That
>however negates any benefit from automating it.
Automating what?
A GED file is basically an intermediate format to transfer data from one
program to another. If you want to use the data in a spreadsheet, that's one
way to transfer it, even though there's not much numerical data to manipulate.
singhals
> On Thu, 03 Mar 2011 14:41:11 -0500, singhals<sing...@erols.com> wrote:
>
>> Joe Makowiec wrote:
>>> On 02 Mar 2011 in soc.genealogy.computing, singhals wrote:
>>>
>>>> NancyR wrote:
>>>>> I've been unsuccessful in FTM 2011 in printing custom reports. It
>>>>> seems I've been banned from asking questions in their forums. My
>>>>> questions:
>>>>>
>>>>> 1. If I save my FTM info to a gedcom file, can I then use that
>>>>> information in Excel?
>>>>
>>>> I don't think so, FTM being older than Excel.
>>>
>>> What does the age of either piece of software have to do with whether you
>>> can massage data from one into a format the other can use?
>>>
>>
>> She asked if Xcel could use the info in a GED. As her
>> question is stated, the answer is no.
>
> No, she asked if SHE could use the information in a GED file in Excel.
>
> And the answer is, of course that she can.
>
Oh good gravy, Steve.
Excel may be able to use the data in a GED, but that wasn't
what she asked.
> Most of the replies were about ways of getting the info from a GED file into
> Excel.
>
>> People seem to be answering a different question, though,
>> and they're right -- and so are you -- a GED can be
>> force-fed into a spreadsheet, or
>> bent-folded-spindled-or-mutilated until it fits. That
>> however negates any benefit from automating it.
>
> Automating what?
>
Automating the keeping and output of family genealogical
relationships.
> A GED file is basically an intermediate format to transfer data from one
> program to another. If you want to use the data in a spreadsheet, that's one
> way to transfer it, even though there's not much numerical data to manipulate.
GED is an transfer media between GENEALOGY programs.
Since each line of the GED would import into any
spreadsheet, not just Excel, line by line, one would then
have to "speak GEDese" to achieve anything other than an
alpha list of names and dates.
If one imports the GED into, say, GED2xcl and GED2's output
into Excel, one isn't importing the GED into Excel. Just
as, .paf and .fdb and .ftw can't be imported directly into
most other programs.
Cheryl
john
The original poster isn't complaining about using FTM as a database for
genealogy.
The problem seems to be to do with the FTM2011 report writer and I
assume they are hoping Excel could help in some way. There must have
been a reason for suggesting Excel rather than another program. Possibly
suggesting going via GEDCOM as that was likely to be easier than .ftw to
Excel. or possibly they are skilled in using Excel.
I've also seen many genealogists mentioning using Excel for data - e.g.
one-name studies, parish BMD records, etc.
Steve Hayes
>Steve Hayes wrote:
>> On Thu, 03 Mar 2011 14:41:11 -0500, singhals<sing...@erols.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Joe Makowiec wrote:
>>>> On 02 Mar 2011 in soc.genealogy.computing, singhals wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> NancyR wrote:
>>>>>> I've been unsuccessful in FTM 2011 in printing custom reports. It
>>>>>> seems I've been banned from asking questions in their forums. My
>>>>>> questions:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> 1. If I save my FTM info to a gedcom file, can I then use that
>>>>>> information in Excel?
>>>>>
>>>>> I don't think so, FTM being older than Excel.
>>>>
>>>> What does the age of either piece of software have to do with whether you
>>>> can massage data from one into a format the other can use?
>>>>
>>>
>>> She asked if Xcel could use the info in a GED. As her
>>> question is stated, the answer is no.
>>
>> No, she asked if SHE could use the information in a GED file in Excel.
>>
>> And the answer is, of course that she can.
>>
>
>Oh good gravy, Steve.
>
>Excel may be able to use the data in a GED, but that wasn't
>what she asked.
I'm not sure what you're getting at.
What she asked was:
1. If I save my FTM info to a gedcom file, can I then use that information
in Excel?
And the answer is, yes, provided she imports it into Excel first, and a number
of people suggested ways of importing it.
>> Most of the replies were about ways of getting the info from a GED file into
>> Excel.
>>
>>> People seem to be answering a different question, though,
>>> and they're right -- and so are you -- a GED can be
>>> force-fed into a spreadsheet, or
>>> bent-folded-spindled-or-mutilated until it fits. That
>>> however negates any benefit from automating it.
>>
>> Automating what?
>>
>
>Automating the keeping and output of family genealogical
>relationships.
But the genealogical program she's exporting it from already does that.
Spreadsheets allow you to look at data in other ways.
>
>> A GED file is basically an intermediate format to transfer data from one
>> program to another. If you want to use the data in a spreadsheet, that's one
>> way to transfer it, even though there's not much numerical data to manipulate.
>
>
>GED is an transfer media between GENEALOGY programs.
>
>Since each line of the GED would import into any
>spreadsheet, not just Excel, line by line, one would then
>have to "speak GEDese" to achieve anything other than an
>alpha list of names and dates.
Not if you use a program like GEDXlate, which several people have mentioned.
It can take data from a GED dile and concert it to Excel, MSAccess, CSV and
text.
>If one imports the GED into, say, GED2xcl and GED2's output
>into Excel, one isn't importing the GED into Excel. Just
>as, .paf and .fdb and .ftw can't be imported directly into
>most other programs.
Sorry, you've lost me there.
singhals
At this point, I'm losing hope about making the rest of you
see that what I think I'm I'm saying and what it sounds to
me that you think I'm saying are different things.
So, allow me to concede -- yes, she can.
Cheryl
Bob Melson
Well, I have to admit you lost me on the first corner. I haven't replied
because it's more fun to watch the back'n'forth. Certainly, the OP can't
export _directly_ into a spreadsheet - there has to be an intermediate
step - which is what I think she was asking .. sorta, mebbe. Going in the
opposite direction, it's unlikely that a SS could directly read a gedcom
in a meaningful/useful way - which is what I _think_ you were saying early
on - again, there has to be an intermediate step.
Anyway, hope you get untangled.
Regards,
Bob Melson
--
Robert G. Melson | Rio Grande MicroSolutions | El Paso, Texas
-----
The greatest tyrannies are always perpetrated
in the name of the noblest causes -- Thomas Paine