HowTo Series: Gramps: Clean Up (Media & Places)

Tutorials in the Clean Up (Media) series are:

1. Media Folder & Family Tree:
   Media objects have bad links, Media folder is chaotic - clear out your old (absolute) paths and re-link objects (many re-link themselves):
   Split into three tutorials:

   • 1A Clean up your Gramps Media Folder ready for re-linking your Media Objects;
   • 1B Using Media Manager to Edit Paths - allowing you to do bulk changes;
   • 1C Fix your Media Paths manually.

2. Remove Duplicate Media Objects:
   Sometimes when I am attaching media to a person’s record I forget or do not realise that the Media Object already exists – so I create another Media Object that uses the same media file. This can cause many problems – if information (like Notes, References, Citations etc) is attached to the first copy of the Media Object this information will not linked to the person that has the second copy of the Media File attached (like having different versions of the same text file being edited differently). This can be fixed by using the Media Manager or one at a time.
3. JPEG versions of TIFF Objects:
   TIFF files are great for editing while JPEG files are great for viewing (specially on the web for apps like webtrees). If you only have a TIFF Media you can create a JPEG Media Object with all the same links - then you can have both options.
4. Rename then re-link Media Files:
   When you rename a file in your Media Folder the link within your associated Gramps Media Object breaks. Here is how to fix this and give your Media files meaningful Titles.

Tutorials in the Clean Up (Places) Series are:

1. Hierarchical Place Tree Conversion:
   I will select a single Place entry like Teape Street, Silkstone, Ipswich and convert it into Hierarchal Place Tree structure. I would normally fill in additional details about the Places as I edit a Place (like Date, GPS, Notes, etc) to save me going back and doing it later – however this is meant to be a quick tutorial just about the topic.
2. Expand an Address – using Gramps Clipboard:
   I have many addresses that are a single Place Object (flat – highlighted in red) – instead of being in a tree structure (hierarchical – highlighted in green). The hierarchical places are much more useful and efficient (I can link information reverent to each place in the tree (people, images, GPS data,...).
   However even when it is in Tree format there are often sections of the address missing. Eg: Bungendore, New South Wales, Australia. There is no region – and it is not a Place that has been created in the Family Tree. So I need to insert the region between the town and state. This can be done using the Gramps Clipboard.
3. Fix a Place Tree & Re-attached Maps:
   When I went to change the name of a map of Enoggera Parish, I found that it was attached to its containing Shire and that the Parish was not a Place in my Family Tree. So I had to Create a Place called Enoggera link the Shire to it then transfer the Map link from the Shire to the Parrish. Sounds like fun?

More to come...