Working with media & files

A genealogy project is rarely just a .ged file — it’s the photos, scans, and documents that go with it. Linea Codex keeps those alongside your records in the file manager, and links them to the people and events they belong to through GEDCOM’s multimedia structures. This page covers managing those files, how media connects to your records, importing a project archive, and cropping images.

The file manager

The file manager is one of the two panels on the left of the workspace. Toggle it from the rail at the top of the panel: Files shows your project’s files, and GEDCOM Tree shows your records — you can have either or both open, with a draggable divider between them when both are visible. (For the tree side, see Navigating your tree.)

The Files panel lists everything in your project folder: the primary .ged file (marked as the Primary file), any media you’ve added, and the folders you organise them into. A file that’s pointed to by your records is marked Referenced by GEDCOM data, so you can tell at a glance which files are in use.

Adding, organising, and removing files

A small toolbar at the top of the panel handles the common actions:

• Upload file / Upload folder — bring photos and documents (or a whole folder of them) into the project. Large uploads ask you to confirm first; files that already exist are skipped, and you’re told how many.
• New folder — create a folder to organise media.
• Refresh — re-read the file list.

Right-click any file or folder for the rest: Copy path, Rename, Move to…, Download, Delete, and — on a folder — Upload file here and New subfolder.

References update themselves

Renaming or moving a file that your records point to updates the FILE references in your GEDCOM automatically, so links don’t break — Linea Codex tells you how many references it will touch. Moving is conflict-aware: it won’t let you drop a folder into itself, or overwrite a file that’s already there. The primary .ged file is protected — it can’t be deleted.

How media connects to your records

A photo on disk becomes part of a person’s story through a multimedia object — GEDCOM’s OBJE structure. An OBJE carries one or more FILE lines naming the image, and a record (a person, a family, an event) points at it. You don’t have to write that by hand: the Inspector has a Media tab that shows the images attached to the selected record as thumbnails, with the file path and a note of how each one is attached — for example on this person. Clicking a thumbnail opens it; the path links back to the file in the manager.

Version awareness — where media lives

How media is stored differs by GEDCOM version, and Linea Codex smooths over the difference:

• GEDCOM 7.0 references external files — the OBJE names a FILE path that points at a file in your project, exactly as you see it in the file manager.
• GEDCOM 5.5 / 5.5.1 can embed an image directly inside the file as encoded data. So that you can actually see those images, Linea Codex extracts them to viewable files — marked with an Extracted badge — and re-embeds them automatically when you save. You work with pictures either way; the encoding is handled for you.

Converting between versions reshapes media accordingly — embedded images become external files on the way up to 7.0, and external files are re-embedded on the way down.

Importing a project with its media

A bare .ged file names its photos but doesn’t contain them. To bring a project in with its media, import an archive from the start page — Linea Codex reads both plain ZIP bundles and the standard GEDCOM 7.0 GEDZIP format (it shows GEDZIP archive detected when it recognises one). The media inside is unpacked into your project folder and the FILE references line up with the unpacked files.

If an archive holds more than one GEDCOM file, you’re asked to pick the primary one — the data source for the project. (To export an archive back out, see Saving & exporting.)

Cropping an image

When a single scan holds several portraits — a family group, a page of cabinet cards — you can record which part of the image belongs to a person, without cutting the original. Open an attached image and choose Set crop, then drag a rectangle (or type exact pixel values for Top, Left, Width, and Height). Apply records the region; Remove crop clears it. The crop is stored in your file, not baked into the picture, so the original is untouched and the crop can be undone.

Crop is GEDCOM 7.0 only

The crop region uses a 7.0 structure. In a 5.5 or 5.5.1 project the Set crop option isn’t offered (Crop is only available for GEDCOM 7.0 projects). Convert to 7.0 first if you need it.

When a reference is broken

If a FILE reference points at something that isn’t in your project — a missing file, or a path whose letter-case doesn’t match — it shows up in validation rather than failing silently. The validation panel flags the reference, and for these cases the editor often offers a quick-fix to resolve the file reference or fix the case so the link lands on the right file.

The deeper mechanics of encoding and how embedded media is decoded live in Encoding & ANSEL — you usually won’t need them.

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