GedSite 5.02

GedSite 5.0.2 has been released by John Cardinal, and it is arguably the largest update GedSite has received in a few years (it was last updated in July of 2024). GedSite is a Windows (10 or 11) genealogy GEDCOM utility that creates web pages from GEDCOM files, with a variety of ways to display the information (narrative, grid style, index, source pages, etc.). The resulting HTML files can be uploaded online, or saved on a USB flash drive or CD or DVD-ROM for view offline.

Overall, there’s a lot of enhancements, some new user items (slideshow, extra text/content for various parts of the page, updated and enhanced charts (show lifespan). A lot of changes and new additions (see the release notes below).

It supports GEDCOM v5.5 or 5.5.1 files from any genealogy program, but it has “special handling” for GEDCOM files written by Family HistorianFamily Tree MakerLegacy, and RootsMagic. It can also read the actual genealogy database from The Master Genealogist 9.04+ (TMG), however it is recommended that you use Second Site (link), a similar program also written by John Cardinal specifically written for TMG.

Speaking of The Master Genealogist, those who are still using TMG with GedSite should play close attention to the release notes below, as there are some TMG-specific fixes/changes, and if you are wanting to switch from Second Site to Gedsite, take note of this statement from the developer:

This version includes an important new feature of interest to Second Site users: a conversion feature where GedSite will open a Second Site SDF file and convert it to GedSite format. This is a complicated and imprecise operation because of the many differences between the programs. Still, for Second Site users who would like to switch to GedSite, the automatic conversion will make the process easier.

You can view examples here: https://www.gedsite.com/en/examples.htm

Download/Purchase/Update: https://www.gedsite.com/en/index.htm ($25 USD new, $10 upgrade)

GedSite v5.02 – January 11, 2025
Enhancements
Added new User Items:
Slideshow – Adds a slideshow to a page
Person Events – Creates page content from a person’s eventsSimilar to the “List based on a person’s events” capability of the Second Site Custom Index User Item.
Extra Footer Text – Adds content to the footer of the current Page
Extra Header Text – Adds content to the header of the current Page 
— Extra Section Text – Adds content to the extra section of the current Page 
— Extra SideBar Text – Adds content to the sidebar of the current Page
Added the Name Links property to the Names Section
Added the Note Event property to the Family Sections Person Entry Item
Added the Child List Format property to the Family Sections Person Entry Item
Added the Person Legend and Accent Legend properties to the Indented Descendantand Indented Pedigree charts
Added the Show Lifespan property to several charts:
Box Descendant
Box Pedigree
Common Ancestor
Indented Descendant
Indented Pedigree
Relationship
* Prior to adding the Show Lifespan property, the charts always included lifespans.
Added new Text Codes:
[INCLUDE:…] inserts the contents of a file in place of the Text Code
[TRANSFORM:…] transforms an XML file and inserts the resulting HTML in place of the Text Code
Added the Title Attribute and Alt Attribute properties to the Image User Item
Added Menu Scripts: MenuBar Items in SideMenu, SideBar Items in MenuBar, and Suppress All Menu Items
Added the Person Filter tab to all Tag Sets
Added the X (decade) parameter to the D (date) variable to return the decade of the date, i.e., it returns “1920” for the date “17 February 1928”
Added the T (test) parameter to the Person Image variable to test whether a person has a primary image exhibit or not
Added the Tags.Expand AGE Values property
Added the Names.Suffix Delimiter property
Added automatic favicon support
When a progress dialog completes and the check (done) icon appears, focus now shifts immediately to the main window

* In the past, focus would not return to the main window unless the user clicked in the main window while the progress window was visible. Now, when the background task is complete, focus shifts to the main window. The progress window remains visible for a few seconds, then closes. This change allows the user to use Ctrl+B to view the site without waiting for the progress dialog to close.
Changes
Added support for Text Codes in Static Content properties
Behavior Change: when an enabled Page is on a disabled Page, the enabled Page will be made during the Make Site process

* In prior versions, any enabled Page items under a disabled Page were not made. To accommodate this change and avoid changing the behavior of existing GedSite files, when GedSite reads a GedSite file from a prior version, it disables any enabled Page Items that are under a disabled Page, directly or indirectly.
Fixes
Fixed a bug where the year and age text in a Cards Panel timeline were not visible when using Themes with a dark background color
Fixed a bug where pull-down menu properties that can be set by keying a value did not work properly
Fixed an issue where multiple references to a place with place information (latitude/longitude, an exhibit, or a note) sometimes generated multiple place information pages that were identical when there should be only one place information page
Family Historian
Fixes for Family Historian
— Removed the “in” prefix from the value of “{date:YEAR}” to match the FH value
The Master Genealogist
Enhancements for The Master Genealogist
— GedSite will now open SDF files written by Second Site and convert them to .gsfiles
Changes for The Master Genealogist
Added several properties in the Application-Specific > The Master Genealogist section:
— Suppress Memo
— Suppress Primary Name Memo
— Ten place part (AKA “place level”) properties
— Use Place Style
Added support for the [CIT:][:CIT] printer code in exhibit captions and descriptions
Fixed a bug where the [WEB:][:WEB] printer code did not handle URLs that include &
Fixes for The Master Genealogist
— Fixed a bug where Names with excluded sentences were included in the name index and search results