Gramps keeps more than a GEDCOM can: places with their names over time, the people who took part in an event in a role, calendars other than the Gregorian. GED-VIEW opens Gramps' own files directly, so all of that comes along, and Convert writes them back for Gramps.

Which file to export

In Gramps, choose Family Trees > Export and one of these:

Gramps XML Package (family tree and media) (.gpkg)
The tree and every photo and document it uses, in one file. The best choice: GED-VIEW shows the photos at once, with no folder to connect.
Gramps XML (.gramps)
The tree without the media. Connect the media folder afterwards to see the photos; the [media folder guide](/guides/media-folder) explains how.
CSV (.csv)
People and families only, in four tables. Fine for a quick look, not for the whole tree.

Then open the file in GED-VIEW the way you open a .ged: pick it or drop it onto the page. The family file is saved in your browser like any other; the photos inside a package stay for the current session, so open the package again next time to see them.

What comes along

  • Places over time. Every Gramps place becomes a place record. The Places list shows what each place was part of today and at the date of each event there, its names in other languages, its kind and its code. An event names its place as it was at the time: a village that became part of a city in 1891 is "Lindenau, Kreis Leipzig" for an 1850 baptism and "Lindenau, Leipzig" for a 1920 death.
  • People in a role. Witnesses, godparents, clergy and informants appear on the event they took part in, with their role.
  • Names. The call name (the given name a person went by), nicknames, two surnames, titles and suffixes.
  • Families. Unmarried couples and civil unions say so; a child born to one parent and adopted by the other keeps both relationships.
  • Everything else in the tree: events with their dates, places, causes and ages, sources and citations with their confidence, notes, media, repositories, addresses, LDS ordinances, and the privacy marks Gramps sets.
  • Dates. Before, after, about, ranges and spans, estimated and calculated dates, Julian, Hebrew and French Republican dates in their own calendar, double years such as 1731/32, and dates with an unknown year or month. Islamic, Persian and Swedish calendar dates are kept as written and go back to Gramps in their calendar.
  • Formatted notes. Bold, italic and links show on the Notes page, on profiles and on families.
  • The home person. The person Gramps calls home gets the home star, unless you have chosen one for the file.

A large tree reads with a moving progress bar; Gramps' own example tree of 2,157 people opens in about a second.

What only Gramps keeps

Some things only Gramps has: its tags (the labels such as "ToDo"), bookmarks, the kind of each note, family nicknames, name groups and the marked part of a photo. GED-VIEW keeps them with the tree, so a Gramps file you write from it has them all again. Other programs have no place for them, so a file for another program leaves them out and the conversion report says so. Two of them do reach GEDCOM 7: note formatting becomes formatted notes, and the marked part of a photo becomes a crop when the photo is at hand to measure.

Back to Gramps, or on to another program

Convert is part of Pro. Choose Gramps package (with media) for a file Gramps opens with its photos (connect the media folder or open the package first, so GED-VIEW can pack them), or Gramps XML for the tree alone. In Gramps, open it with Family Trees > Import. Places come back as a real place hierarchy with their names and periods, people in a role as event roles, and couples, ordinances, calendars, tags, bookmarks, note formatting and the marked parts of photos as they were. Gramps 5.2 and 6.0 have no value for sex "X"; those people are written as unknown, and the report says so.

The same page writes GEDCOM for any other program. Each place is then named in full, as it was at the event's date; the place records stay as tags other programs ignore. A person's addresses become Residence events with their dates, the form every program reads, and the program by program guide says what each program receives.

Next

Export the Gramps XML Package, drop it onto GED-VIEW, and open the Places list.