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→How to Download and run the binary gramps application for Mac
== How to Download and run the binary gramps application for Mac ==
If there is an existing Gramps database, it is wise to create a backup archive of an existing Gramps database before trying a new program, as described in the note below. Gramps for Mac is still new and untested. Take care! To run the binary application, visit the [http://www.gramps-project.org/apple/ download page] and click on the latest download. The download name gramps-x.y.z-macnn-Intel.zip specifies the version of Gramps from which the build was made, and a final "macnnmac''nn''" version which changes whenever a minor bug fix is made to the Apple binary, and the processor (Intel or PPC) on which the program will run. '''Sorry,''' only Intel is available yet. The gramps-x.y.z-macnn-builder.zip files are the build environments to build each version from scratch, which can be ignored if only the binary application is needed. It's possible to download and run the binary application to a Mac without any Mac admin privileges, and with a Mac using only the programs supplied straight out of the box. Gramps doesn't use the X11 Mac package. It's useful to install [http://www.openoffice.org/ OpenOffice] and [http://www.graphviz.org/ Graphviz] to produce reports, but they are both straightforward.
Any browser on the Mac will download the binary application, and depending on how it's configured, uncompress it and store it, usually in the Downloads stack. If it doesn't uncompress (it's still called .zip instead of gramps with a pretty family tree icon) then double-clicking it should turn it into gramps. It can be dragged to the Desktop for comvenience, or stored in the Applications folder.
Double-clicking on the gramps application should launch Gramps. It Should Just Work.
The gramps application takes its working language from the System Preferences - International settings for the Desktop. If the list of desired languages there shows Esperanto - Russian - French - English then Gramps should work in Esperanto. If that translation isn't available for a particular phrase, it should produce Russian. If that's not available for a particular phrase (in the place completion tool, for example) then Gramps should produce French, and then eventually English.
Double clicking an image in the media reference editor should bring up Apple Preview, or a similar program, to view the image. Clicking the view button in an internet reference should bring up the URL in the default browser. Clicking the Google Maps button in the Places display should bring up the map in the browser.
Gramps doesn't use the X11 Mac package. It's useful to install [http://www.openoffice.org/ OpenOffice] and [http://www.graphviz.org/ Graphviz] to produce reports, but they are both straightforward.
== A Note on Backups ==
The first binary Gramps is built from gramps-3.1.2. If this reads an existing database from an earlier version of gramps (like Macports) it will demand to do a database conversion, and there is no way to reverse this step. It is thus good practice when installing this binary Gramps on a system with an existing gramps database, first, to use Apple Time Machine to create backups, and second, to set aside a specific backup of an old gramps database in case anything goes badly wrong. Unfortunately, the gramps database is in a hidden directory which Finder doesn't show. One way to fix this is to create a link to the database in a non-hidden file. To do this, open a unix terminal with Finder-Applications-Utilities-Terminal, and at the prompt there type
ln -s .gramps gramps_user_directory
which should create a directory, gramps_user_directory, showing the gramps database in Finder. (That's dot-gramps in that command!) Hitting Copy then Paste on this directory in finder will '''''not''''' create an explicit backup, it will only create a second link pointing at the original gramps data! Instead, you can type
cp -r .gramps gramps_backup
It is ''unfortunate'' that the current Macports gramps crashes if it is used to produce a backup archive.
==Bugs==
