| Chapter 4. Settings | ||
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| Chapter 4. Settings | ||
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Table of Contents
Most of the settings in GRAMPS, are configured in the Preferences dialog. To invoke it, choose → .
The tabs on the top display the available option categories.
This category contains preferences relevant to the general operation of the program. Options are:
Check this box to automatically load the last open database on startup.
This option affects the importing of data. If this is set, each item that is imported will contain a source reference to the imported file.
![[Note]](../../images/note.png) | Note |
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Adding a default source can significantly slow down the importing your data. |
This option controls the enabling and disabling of the spelling checker for notes. The gtkspell package must be loaded for this to have an effect.
This option controls the enabling and disabling of the Tip of the Day dialog at startup.
This option controls the enabling and disabling of shading in the Relationship View. If enabled, information will be grouped together in regions with a shaded background.
This option controls the enabling and disabling of transactions during database operations.
![[Warning]](../../images/warning.png) | Warning |
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Care must be taken with selecting this option. By default, transactions are enabled. This improves database performance and protects database integrity. However, if your system is using a version of the Python language prior to version 2.5, your database will not be portable to other machines, and if you want to transfer your data to another machine, you will need to export using the GRAMPS XML format. Disabling this option will allow databases to be portable, but at a risk of database integrity problems. |
This category contains preferences relevant to the display of data. Options are:
This option controls the display of dates. Several different formats are available, which may be dependent on your locale.
This option affects the initial family name of a child when he/she is added to the database.
![[Tip]](../../images/tip.png) | Tip |
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This option only affects the initial family name guessed by GRAMPS when the Edit Person dialog is launched. You can modify that name the way you see fit. Set this option to the value that you will most frequently use, as it will save you a lot of typing. |
If None is selected, no guessing will be attempted. Selecting Father's surname will use the family name of the father. Selecting Combination of mother's and father's surname will use the father's name followed by the mother's name. Finally, Icelandic style will use the father's given name followed by the "sson" suffix (e.g. the son of Edwin will be guessed as Edwinsson).
This option controls the information displayed in the status bar. This can be either the Active Person's name and GRAMPS ID or Active Person's relationship to the Home person.
This option controls whether or not a text description is displayed next to the icon in the sidebar. This option takes effect after the program has been restarted.
This category contains preferences relevant to the display of names. In GRAMPS there are two type of name display formats: the predefined formats, and the user defined custom formats. The predefined formats are:
Family name, Given name Patronymic
Given name Family name
Patronymic, Given name
Given name
When predefined formats are not suitable one can define it's own format.
The system wide name format is selected here from a list, which contains both the predefined and custom name formats (if any).
| Note |
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Besides the system wide setting GRAMPS allows deciding the name display format individually for every single name via the Name Editor dialog (see the section called “Names”). |
It expands the custom format handling user interface.
| Note |
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Custom name display formats are stored in the databases, thus before loading any database the Custom format details expander is disabled. |
Opens the Name Format Editor window to define a new custom format.
Deletes the selected custom Name Display format.
Opens the Name Format Editor window to modify the selected custom Name Display format.
New formats are created, and existing formats are modified using this editor.
The name of the custom format. The format name can be any string, it is used only to recognize the format later on the Display format list.
The actual format is defined here using special formatting
characters. Before and after these special characters any
other character or string is allowed. For example:
"(%t) %L, %f" will give "(Dr.) SMITH,
Edwin". The formatting characters are:
| Character | Name | Character | Name |
|---|---|---|---|
| %f | Given Name | %F | GIVEN NAME |
| %l | Surname | %L | SURNAME |
| %t | Title | %T | TITLE |
| %p | Prefix | %P | PREFIX |
| %s | Suffix | %S | SUFFIX |
| %c | Call name | %C | CALL NAME |
| %y | Patronymic | %Y | PATRONYMIC |
Shows a dynamic example how the name will be displayed with the current Format definition string.
Shows a quick reminder of the special formatting characters.
This category contains preferences relevant to the automatic generation of GRAMPS IDs.
| Tip |
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The ID prefixes use formatting conventions common for C, Python, and other programming languages. For example, the %04d expands to an integer, prepended with zeros to have the total width of four digits. If you would like IDs to be 1, 2, 3, etc, simply set the formatting parameter to %d. |
Provides the template for generating IDs for a Person.
Provides the template for generating IDs for a Family.
Provides the template for generating IDs for a Place.
Provides the template for generating IDs for a Source.
Provides the template for generating IDs for a Media Object.
Provides the template for generating IDs for an Event.
Provides the template for generating IDs for a Repository.
This category controls the display of warning dialogs, allowing the re-enabling of dialogs that have been disabled.
Enter your personal information in the corresponding text entry fields. Although GRAMPS requests information about you, this information is used only so that GRAMPS can create valid GEDCOM output files. A valid GEDCOM file requires information about the file's creator. If you choose, you may leave the information empty, however none of your exported GEDCOM files will be valid.
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| Running Tools |  | Other settings |
