Facts vs Events vs Notes and GEDCOM export

[Deena]

I have questions about FACTS vs EVENTS vs NOTES and GEDCOM Exports or other potential issues.

I can see how these various data fields print out on reports and I'm satisfied with my choices from a Reunion internal reporting perspective. However I wasn't sure how my changes would affect GEDCOM export, specifically:

In my database, Description was originally a FACT field with a GEDCOM ID of DESC. I deleted the FACT type and make a NOTE type called Description with a GEDCOM ID of DESC. Am I going to lose data in an export to GEDCOM since the NOTES field allows me more room for content? Or could this cause compatibility issues with other people/programs?

Similarly:

What if I have both an EVENT and a FACT with the same GEDCOM ID? Will that mess up the system or exports? For example, for occupation I sometimes want to record it as an EVENT because I have a date associated with it and I'd like it to show up in the Event chronology on individual reports. But, sometimes I just want to store it as a FACT. Can I use the same GEDCOM ID of OCCU for both an EVENT and a FACT or will this cause problems on export?

Thanks in advance if you know these answers. I did look in the documentation and on the website chat lists but didn't see these answers,
Deena

[theKiwi]

I have questions about FACTS vs EVENTS vs NOTES and GEDCOM Exports or other potential issues.

I can see how these various data fields print out on reports and I'm satisfied with my choices from a Reunion internal reporting perspective. However I wasn't sure how my changes would affect GEDCOM export, specifically:

In my database, Description was originally a FACT field with a GEDCOM ID of DESC. I deleted the FACT type and make a NOTE type called Description with a GEDCOM ID of DESC. Am I going to lose data in an export to GEDCOM since the NOTES field allows me more room for content? Or could this cause compatibility issues with other people/programs?

Similarly:

What if I have both an EVENT and a FACT with the same GEDCOM ID? Will that mess up the system or exports? For example, for occupation I sometimes want to record it as an EVENT because I have a date associated with it and I'd like it to show up in the Event chronology on individual reports. But, sometimes I just want to store it as a FACT. Can I use the same GEDCOM ID of OCCU for both an EVENT and a FACT or will this cause problems on export?

I think to be safe, any GEDCOM tag should be used only once in your file. That way there will be far less chance of confusion in any place where the GEDCOM is imported to.

So for your first question, you should be OK as DESC would still be used for only one type of data in a GEDCOM file exported from your file.

In the second example having two different data types with the tag OCCU could cause problems - in the application I'm most familiar with using GEDCOM files, it would create an unexpected behaviour since it would be dealing with both as Events ultimately.

I think "convention" suggests that tags that you create yourself start with a _ (underscore), so you could name one of the OCCU and the other _OCC to ensure that they're treated differently on the recipient end.

Roger

[Deena]

Thanks for the advice.