Sharing sources on FamilySearch Family Tree: my workflow for including multimedia and URL

I use Reunion as a primary database, but also Family Tree Maker for sharing trees on Ancestry, and RootsMagic 8 for uploading to the FamilySearch Family Tree. I never download into a database, which I suppose is an important callout for the following workflow to work.

The whole purpose of this workflow is to dodge the annoying reality that neiher FTM nor RM transfer sources from databases on the desktop such as RootsMagic, into online tree databases such as Ancestry or FSFT with their associated media/images and/or URL.

My workaround is 100% text based. What I do in a nutshell, is place the images associated with sources in a Google Drive folder, which itself is just a duplicate of another folder I keep on my hard drive. These images/files each have their own respective URL, which Google generates.
Unfortunately, these URLs are extremely long and unsightly, so I shorten them with the free TinyURL API–a process I have since automated.

I then share on FSFT with an automated template that starts in Reunion, but passes through RM8 via GEDCOM 5.5.1. From RM, I share sources as desired with the click of a button. They turn out looking like this:

The trick is to duplicate your entire database, then open that duplicate/backup, and set all source-related GEDCOM tags except the title tag, to TEXT. So, URL changes from WWW to TEXT, etc. etc.

Regards,
Ryan in Michigan

edit: I’ll just add that what we still loose, even with this setup, is the ability to make italics render as such. This is very frustrating because italics are very necessary IMO in certain source citations, but hey; we can at least find some degree of solace in knowing that ALL sources in FSFT lack this ability, and the same is true for sources on Ancestry.

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