You must choose one method by which GED-GEN obtains the information it needs to customize your family pages.
In this method you define additional "facts" about each individual you wish to customize. These facts are defined when you use your favorite genealogy program and before you export your data to a GEDCOM file. When GED-GEN processes your GEDCOM file, it recognizes these "facts" and customizes your family pages accordingly.
The other customization method allows you to maintain information about individuals and families in your GEDCOM file outside of the file itself. In this method, GED-GEN stores your customization in its own configuration file. It associates this information with the reference numbers in your GEDCOM file. These numbers are usually automatically assigned by your favorite genealogy software.
For detailed steps on using each method, see Steps for Using Custom Features below.
Each method has advantages and disadvantages.
If you use Method 1 to define facts in your family data file, they will be defined in one location. The "facts" will remain associated with the individuals in your data file no matter what changes you make.
Unfortunately these "facts" will also appear in reports that you generate within your favorite genealogy program. They may interfere with the presentation and readability of your genealogical data. They will also be contained within your GEDCOM file when you export it and share it with others. Since the facts are meant only for GED-GEN, they are not true genealogical facts and may "pollute" your data.
Once you have defined "facts" for certain individuals in your family data file, it is more difficult to change them. You must navigate to an individual, make your change, and navigate to the next individual. The stored configuration method, on the other hand, lists all individuals and you can easily make changes by scrolling through the list.
If you use Method 2 to store your configuration, any changes you make to your family data file must also be made within GED-GEN. For example if you add or delete individuals from your family data file, you must change the attributes for those individuals in your GED-GEN configuration.
Once you define customized data for the individuals in your GEDCOM file, their reference numbers must not change. For example if you customize the individual with reference number I00034, GED-GEN will process individual I00034 when it encounters that record in the GEDCOM file. However if I00034 later represents a different individual, your customization will be associated with the wrong individual. If your genealogy program generates different reference numbers each time you export a GEDCOM file, you cannot use this method. In most genealogy programs, the reference numbers will not change unless you explicitly change them.
Since the GED-GEN configuration file is tied to a particular GEDCOM file, you must use the same configuration file each time you process a particular GEDCOM file. GED-GEN allows you to maintain separate option sets for different GEDCOM files.
So which method should I use?
If you are still unsure, select Method 2 (stored configuration). This method avoids modifying your original family data file.
The steps to use either of the two customization methods are described below.
The first step in either method is to establish a folder structure for your website. As an example, here is one possible hierarchy:
The genealogy folder contains your genealogy research files while public_html contains your website web pages. It is suggested that you have a staging area on your own computer that mirrors the directory structure at your Internet Service Provider (ISP). This makes it easy to transfer web page files from one place to your website at the ISP. Many ISPs name this directory (or folder) public_html.
The imports folder contains the files that GED-GEN will import directly into your family pages as part of the Imported Text feature. These files themselves are not part of your website and are therefore not stored under the public_html folder. The images folder contains image files for both individuals (Individual Images) and family groups (Group Images).
Notice that files associated with a custom feature are in folders relative to the GED-GEN destination folder, which is C:\public_html\gen\grp. For example GED-GEN generates a link to one of your biography web pages by appending a unique biography file name (e.g., bio0022.html) to the relative path for biography files (e.g., ..\bio). The resulting link would be ..\bio\bio0022.html.
All files for any particular custom feature reside in the same folder. Thus all biography files must reside in the bio folder. This avoids storing the folder along with every unique biography file name. Since the folder is specified separately, you can change folder names in the future, without having to modify the biography file specification for each individual.
To use this method, first add information to your family data file, then export that data to a GEDCOM file, and then enable the custom features in GED-GEN. The steps are as follows:
| Custom Feature | "Fact" Tag |
| Biography Link | *Biography |
| Relationship Text | *Relation |
| Individual Image | *Image |
| Narrative Link | *Narrative |
| Imported Text | *Import |
| Group Image | *Group |
You can use any tag naming convention you prefer as long as you use the same fact name for all facts of the same type. If you use *Biography for a biography fact, be sure to use *Biography for every biography fact.
Facts for families should generally be created at the family level rather than for a specific individual in the family. Family facts include narrative links, imported text and group images. For instance to define a group image, create a fact under the marriage information using the group image tag (e.g., *Group). This is just like adding an alternate marriage date.
| Custom Feature | Place Field Contents |
| Biography Link or Narrative Link |
Specify the name of your web page file containing a biography for this individual or the narrative for this family (e.g., grandpa.html). Do not include a folder because it is specified within GED-GEN. |
| Relationship Text | Specify the relationship phrase that indicates this person in your direct line of descent (e.g., Grandfather). |
| Imported Text | Specify the name of an external text file or web page that GED-GEN will insert into the family page (e.g., history22.html). |
| Individual Image or Group Image |
Specify the name of an image file containing a picture of this individual or family group (e.g., grandpa.jpg). Do not include a folder because it is specified within GED-GEN. You may optionally specify a caption for your image. It will appear centered directly under the image on the family page. For example you could specify the date of the picture. Use HTML syntax. To specify a caption, type a semicolon (;) character immediately after the name of your image file. Any text you type after the semicolon will be interpreted as the caption, for example, grandpa.jpg;About 1922. |
 Step 14 |
 Step 15 |
| Tab | Option |
| Biography Links | Include links to biography web pages |
| Relationship Text | Include relationship text |
| Individual Images | Include images of individuals |
| Narrative Links | Include links to narrative web pages |
| Imported Text | Include imported text |
| Group Images | Include group images |
 Step 16 |
Also on the above tabs, specify the path for the folders that contain your web pages and image files. Click to more easily specify these paths.
Following the sample folder structure above, these options would be set as:
| Tab | Option | Contents |
| Biography Links | Relative folder path for biography files | ..\bio |
| Individual Images | Relative folder path for image files | images |
| Narrative Links | Relative folder path for narrative files | ..\nar |
| Imported Text | Full folder path for external files | C:\genealogy\imports |
| Group Images | Relative folder path for image files | images |
To use this method, define the custom features for the individuals and families you desire.
Before using the "Stored Configuration" method to define custom features for the families in your GEDCOM file, refer to the discussion about Family Page References.
 Step 5 |
Then click either or . Each button will display the Configure dialog so you can configure either individuals or families.
 Step 6 |
Continue by selecting another individual (or family) and defining attributes for them. When you are done, click to return to the Custom tab.
Step 7 |
| Tab | Option |
| Biography Links | Include links to biography web pages |
| Relationship Text | Include relationship text |
| Individual Images | Include images of individuals |
| Narrative Links | Include links to narrative web pages |
| Imported Text | Include imported text |
| Group Images | Include group images |
Step 8 |
Following the sample folder structure above, these options would be set as:
| Tab | Option | Contents |
| Biography Links | Relative folder path for biography files | ..\bio |
| Individual Images | Relative folder path for image files | images |
| Narrative Links | Relative folder path for narrative files | ..\nar |
| Imported Text | Full folder path for external files | C:\genealogy\imports |
| Group Images | Relative folder path for image files | images |