Ahnenblattportal

As I researched Ahnenblatt is most comfortable program for genialogical tree building. But I use in tree cyrillic symbols and when I trying to export my tree to GEDCOM format for transfering it to another programs, I get unreadable data after import. Cause is a default ANSI encoding of GEDCOM - this encoding is not contain cyrillic symbols. Is it possible to change default GEDCOM encoding to UTF-8 (it support cyrillic symbols) or add option for selecting encoding type? Now I cann't use Ahnenblatt due to this problem.

Hello evgenyz,

welcome to the Ahnenblattportal!

If you save an Ahnenblatt file (*.ahn) which contains characters outside of the ANSI code to a Gedcom file then Ahnenblatt should detect this and save the file UTF-8 encoded.

Did you import the file from another software or is it your own file created with Ahnenblatt? If you created it yourself, save it as ahn-file and then save it (after loading the *.ahn) as a Gedcom file.
If this doesn't do it, we may need more information about the used characters.

For a quick workaround it may work if you insert the following character (š) in your file, which should get detected as not ANSI-compatible.
Marcus

Hi Marcus!
Yes, I created this file inside Ahnenblatt and than trying to import it to some other applications via Ahnenblatt's GEDCOM export (Save as -> GEDCOM). And in GEDCOM file I get next rows:
1 CHAR ANSI
2 VERS 1251
By the way ahn-file contained my tree also saved in ANSI/1251 encoding, not UTF-8 as you assumed above.
Experiment with (š) character shown that ahn-file contained it is saving also in ANSI/1251 encoding, switching of encoding to UTF-8 not happening.

Will have to test this in Ahnenblatt on a windows-machine ... may take a day or two.
If I forget it, just remind me here.
Marcus

Doesn't work here either ...
I'll drop Dirk (developer of Ahnenblatt) a line and ask if something change or if it's just a new bug.
Marcus

Hi, evgenyz!

Two things are important:
When you open your GEDCOM file (ANSI/1251 coding) in Ahnenblatt - are the characters OK (they should be) ...?
Can your second software handle cyrillic characters anyway (enter or copy and paste any cyrillic text - save the file and reopen it) ...?

There are some programs which can't handle UTF-8 files, so I decided to use UTF-8 only when it's necessary (I will change that in the near future).
ANSI coding is not always the same on every PC. It depends on language settings of users windows and uses a subset of possible characters called "codepage". Codepage 1252 is for the western characters - codepage 1251 is the cyrillic part. On a russian Windows PC Ahnenblatt will always use ANSI 1251 when possible.
Perhaps Ahnenblatt is the only software which generates GEDCOM files with codepage information - but this is helpful for international file exchange. So if you send Marcus or me your GEDCOM file, we would see the correct cyrillic characters.
Two ways to generate UNICODE/UTF-8 GEDCOM files:

1. Enter an Umlaut character (one of German special characters with two dots above: äÄöÖüÜ) anywhere (e.g. in the Notes of one person) and Ahnenblatt would save in UTF-8 format.

2. Use attached PlugIn-file. Just copy it in Ahnenblatt's PlugIn directory (...\Documents\Ahnenblatt\PlugIns) and on the next start of Ahnenblatt you will have an additional menu item under "Tools" called "Save GEDCOM file in UNICODE format".

I am curious: please tell me the name of your second software and give us the URL of the internet page. Perhaps there is a test version for my to try ...

Let me know, if it works.

- Dirk

Hi Dirk!
When I open in Ahnenblatt GEDCOM file which I created at any other program, all cyrillic symbols are looking correctly. And any of that programs also can open GEDCOM file with cyrillic symbols correctly (I checked it) and all that programs always save the GEDCOM file in UTF-8 encoding and mark this fact inside GEDCOM file by "CHAR UTF-8" row.
No problem, I attached to this post an example of GEDCOM file which I created inside Ahnenblatt.
1. Using of Umlaut character really change GEDCOM file encoding to UTF-8 and after importing it to other programs cyrillic symbols are looking correctly.
2. In case of using your plugin GEDCOM file is saving in UTF-8 encoding and cyrillic symbols are looking correctly after import to other programs.
All software I using is free so you can try it without any problems (and all of them always save my tree to UTF-8 encoded file):
- Gramps http://sourceforge.net/projects/gramps/ [I like it for opportunity to open and edit (including of object IDs changing) persons, relationships, events and notes lists]
- My Family Tree https://chronoplexsoftware.com/myfamilytree/ [it allows to choose encoding of GEDCOM file to import]
- GenealogyJ http://sourceforge.net/projects/genj/
And yes, GEDCOM file saved via your plugin is opened correctly in all above software.