Editing GEDCOM (section)

==Lesser-known features==
GEDCOM has many features that are not commonly used.  Some software packages do not support all the features that the GEDCOM standard allows.

===Multimedia===
The GEDCOM standard supports the inclusion of multimedia objects (for example, photos of individuals).<ref>GEDCOM Standard 5.5, p. 28.</ref>  Such multimedia objects can be either included in the GEDCOM file itself (called the "embedded form") or in an external file where the name of the external file is specified in the GEDCOM file (called the "linked form").  Embedding multimedia directly in the GEDCOM file makes transmission of data easier, in that all of the information (including the multimedia data) is in one file, but the resulting file can be enormous.  Linking multimedia keeps the size of the GEDCOM file under control, but then when transmitting the file, the multimedia objects must either be transmitted separately or archived together with the GEDCOM into one larger file.   Support for embedding media directly was dropped in the draft 5.5.1 standard.<ref>Draft GEDCOM Standard 5.5.1, p. 6.</ref>

===Conflicting information===
The GEDCOM standard allows for the specification of multiple opinions or conflicting data, simply by specifying multiple records of the same type.  For example, if an individual's birth date was recorded as 10 January 1800 on the birth certificate, but 11 January 1800 on the death certificate, two BIRT records for that individual would be included, the first with the 10 January 1800 date and giving the birth certificate as the source, and the second with the 11 January 1800 date and giving the death certificate as the source. The preferred record is usually listed first.

This example encoded in GEDCOM might look like this:
 0 @I1@ INDI
 1 NAME John /Doe/
 1 BIRT
 2 DATE 10 JAN 1800
 2 SOUR @S1@
 3 DATA
 4 TEXT Transcription from birth certificate would go here
 3 NOTE This birth record is preferred because it comes from the birth certificate
 3 QUAY 2
 1 BIRT
 2 DATE 11 JAN 1800
 2 SOUR @S2@
 3 DATA
 4 TEXT Transcription from death certificate would go here
 3 QUAY 2

Conflicting data may also be the result of user errors. The standard does not specify in any way that the ''contents'' must be consistent. A birth date like "10 APR 1819" might mistakenly have been recorded as "10 APR 1918" long after the person's death. The only way to reveal such inconsistencies is by rigorous validation of the ''content data''.

===Internationalization===
The GEDCOM standard supports internationalization in several ways. First, newer versions of the standard allow data to be stored in Unicode (or, more recently, UTF-8), so text in any language can be stored.<ref>GEDCOM Standard 5.5, p. 45.</ref>  Secondly, in the same way that one can have multiple events on a person, GEDCOM allows one to have multiple names for a person,<ref>GEDCOM Standard 5.5, p. 27.</ref> so names can be stored in multiple languages, although there is no standardized way to indicate which instance is in which language.  Finally, in version 5.5.1, the NAME field also supports a phonetic variation (FONE) and a romanized variation (ROMN) of the name.<ref>GEDCOM Draft 5.5.1, p. 38</ref>