Frequently Asked Questions

  1. What is GenJ all about?
  2. Is there a mailing list and/or a newsgroup devoted to GenJ ?
  3. What does Gedcom mean ?
  4. How do I get pictures to show up in Tree View?
  5. Can I change the language that GenJ speaks?
  6. Can I make a centimeter look like one on my screen?
  7. Can I change the boring gray look?

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Q What is GenJ all about?
A GenealogyJ (in short GenJ) is a viewer and editor for genealogic data stored in Gedcom format.

Q Is there a mailing list and/or a newsgroup devoted to GenJ ?
A There is no newsgroup, but two active mailing lists freely available by subscription :

If you want to subscribe to one or both of those mailing lists, because you want to participate in discussion, ask questions regarding GenJ, help in development, just visit GenJ Homepage at SourceForge, and follow the links.

Q What does Gedcom stand for?
A Please read the explanation
here.

Q How do I get pictures to show up in Tree View?
A To show a picture for every person in the main Tree view add a multimedia property (OBJE) to your individuals. Simply bring up an indivdual in
Edit View, choose the topmost property INDI, click on '+' and choose OBJE to be added. Point the sub-property FILE to a file in your computer's file-system (button '>>') and the images will be picked up by Tree View (it's looking for INDI:OBJE:FILE automatically).

Q Can I change the language that GenJ speaks?
A Please download the appropriate language pack (genj_ll-x.y.zip) for GenJ (e.g. genj_fr-2.0.zip) from the
project's homepage and follow the instructions described to install it. GenJ will try to use the language of your operating system automatically. To explicitly switch to a language (the language pack has to been installed manually) choose menu-item Help|About and flip to the Look&Feel-Tab. Then select the language of choice.

Q Can I make a centimeter look like one on my screen?
A GenJ uses real-world metrics for various components (e.g. in
Tree View). To make lengths of lines and sizes of boxes appear correctly on your screen you'll have to tell GenJ about your display's resolution (which is reported by the operating system but normally doesn't match system's monitor). To explicitly adjust the resolution choose menu-item Help|About and flip to the Look&Feel-Tab. Then use a ruler to match the shown rulers on your screen.

Q Can I change the boring gray look?
A GenJ uses the Swing Toolkit for presenting information to the user. This by default looks gray - it's called Metal. GenJ allows to change the current Look&Feel. Please download the Look&Feel pack (genj_lnf-x.y.zip) from the
project's homepage and follow the instructions described to install it. After restarting GenJ choose menu-item Help|About and flip to the Look&Feel-Tab. Now you can select a Look&Feel (and optionally a Theme).