Bible Software Review Weblog

Accordance for Windows

Rubén Gómez — Tue, 01 Oct 2013 07:20:05 +0000

The acclaimed Accordance Bible Software has just been released as a native Windows application. This extract from the latest press release lists some of the capabilities of the program:

• Read the Bible and compare multiple translations side by side

• Follow commentaries that scroll in sync with the Bible

• Add notes and highlights to Bible verses

• Search the Bible and analyze results with graphs and charts

• Study the Hebrew Bible and Greek New Testament

• Look up unfamiliar words in Bible dictionaries and lexicons

• Examine parallel passages in the Hebrew Bible and New Testament

• Create Bible diagrams to study the structure of a passage

Accordance for Windows, which is free for current registered users of Accordance 10, can be purchased with a Starter Collection of Bibles and books for just $49.99. Larger library packages and upgrade discounts are also available at the website.

The Mac version has also been updated to version 10.3, which includes a number of important new features.

BibleWorks for Mac Public Preview Version

Rubén Gómez — Fri, 24 May 2013 10:27:19 +0000

As I mentioned before, BibleWorks 9 can now run on a Mac. Here’s proof!

I hope to upload another video showing BW in action. So far, the program behaves quite well on a Mac running version 10.8.3 (Mountain Lion).

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=bI84bVlKuD4

SwordSearcher 7

Rubén Gómez — Sat, 11 May 2013 15:22:44 +0000

I reviewed an older version of SwordSearcher some years ago, and although many things have been improved since then, the basic philosophy of the program has remained the same (and I say this as a compliment). It seems to me that its developer, Brandon Staggs, has decided to stick to his original plan. SwordSearcher continues to offer a good deal of classic public domain resources and Bibles, centered around the King James Version (see full contents list here). The user interface is now more sophisticated, but still clean and simple to use. One of the new features of version 7 is a smart search box that displays hints as you type. This allows users to type Bible references, topics and searches very easily, all in a single centralized text box. I am pretty sure that many (most?) users will very seldom need to dig deeper to kick-start their Bible study, although the current search capabilities of the program are now very advanced and include Boolean, Proximity, String and Regular Expression searches.

Special texts tagged with Strong’s numbers (like KJV and Spanish Reina-Valera 1909) can be used for original language searches. These are somewhat limited, but let us keep in mind that SwordSearcher is not designed for heavy-duty Hebrew and Greek work. It is, however, a very powerful tool to perform English-based research around the biblical text. This is a direct result of the combination of a thorough indexing and cross-referencing work, robust search engine and flexible StudyClick feature, a clever customizable shortcut that lets the user choose their preferred study workflow out of a good number of options (available via the File – Preferences and Settings… menu).

SwordSearcher 7 adds a few new titles to the Library of available works, like McClintock & Strong Cyclopedia, Spurgeon’s Park Street and Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Richard Watson’s Biblical and Theological Dictionary, and John Trapp’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments. But “more” can only mean “better” when all the Books, Commentaries and Dictionaries are heavily linked to the Bible text and can be readily found when they are relevant to the passage or topic in question. This is what the Verse Guide does.

All in all, I think Brandon knows very well what SwordSearcher users expect from the program. Every new release is another step in the right direction. Had this not been the case, it wouldn’t be around after all this time. SwordSearcher is proof that in the middle of some fierce competition, there is still room for reasonably-priced shareware Bible programs that do not go out of their way to become a one-fits-all solution, but rather cater to the needs of those who simply want to be efficient in their Bible study and make extensive use of the English King James Version. If that’s what you need, that’s what you get with SwordSearcher.

Bible software has come a long way

Rubén Gómez — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 07:27:01 +0000

It is really quite amazing how much Bible software has improved in a relatively short time. Do you have any pictures of your old 5.25″ or 3.5″ floppy disks, or early CD-ROMs that you’d like to share along with a short comment? Feel free to send them along.

SwordSearcher

The floppy disks (left) are SwordSearcher 2.0 for DOS. The other picture (right) is of early SwordSearcher CDs: (from left to right) SwordSearcher 95 (version 3.0), and SwordSearcher 4.0, SwordSearcher 3.3. Thanks to Brandon Staggs for sending the info (BTW, you might want to read about the history of SwordSearcher).

New Website

Rubén Gómez — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 14:24:54 +0000

Here’s a shameless plug for a new website I just put out recently. It is called venaisrael.com, and it is devoted to the tours to Israel I will be hosting from this year onwards. I would very much appreciate it if you would check it out and share it on Facebook, Twitter or whatever social network you happen to be on. The tours are in Spanish and may seem unrelated to Bible software, but they are not. I hope to share with you in due course how I use Bible software tools as an essential part of the preparation for these tours. So, in short, it won’t cost you much at all to do me this little favor and it will help in making the website more visible. Thanks much!

Most popular posts in 2012

Rubén Gómez — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 17:40:02 +0000

Here are the posts that got most views in 2012:

1 Free Copy of Pradis 6.0 (August 2007)

2 e-Sword HD for iPad (October 2012)

3 WordSearch 7.0 and Bible Explorer 4.0 – Now There Is No Excuse (December 2006)

4 WORDsearch 10 (December 2011)

5 My Thoughts on Clause Searches in Logos 5 (November 2012)

I find it amazing that number one is a post I wrote back in 2007!

As 2012 is about to finish, I want to take up this opportunity to wish all my visitors a very happy and blessed 2013!

HeavenWord TV and Accordance

Rubén Gómez — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 19:27:24 +0000

David Servant, host of the video devotional HeavenWord TV, goes through the entire New Testament in chronological order, following a verse-by-verse, expository approach. His free 7-minute videos are really nice. In the special episode called Behind the Scenes, he explains how the program is produced, and that’s how I discovered the Bible software he’s using (around 2:09): Accordance Bible Software. If you pay close attention and know the application well, you will even find out what version he has installed on his MacBook Air

Multiple Lexicon Lookup in Accordance 10

Rubén Gómez — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 11:49:35 +0000

In a recent blog entry, Darin Allen showed one way to quickly look up a word in various lexicons in Accordance. The article included a helpful video describing how to set up the program and follow the process.

Yesterday, Mark Barnes uploaded a video in which he reproduced the same steps using Logos 5. He then went on offering yet more options, including his preferred method: the Power Lookup feature.

I’d like to add to this interesting comparison by showing you in the following video how to look up a Greek word in multiple lexicons using the Search All feature in Accordance 10. In Accordance, too, there is more than one way to do it (TIMTOWTDI).

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkdQcRWs-Wg

Finding all the forms of a Greek word in Logos 5

Rubén Gómez — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 07:56:41 +0000

A while back I showed how to search for the root of a Greek word in Accordance. This is something that couldn’t be done in Logos 4 unless one was willing to follow a rather convoluted and error-prone workaround, as Mark Hoffman pointed out in a follow-up post where he compared the ability to search for Greek roots in Accordance, BibleWorks and Logos. Today I want to revisit this question, since Logos 5 includes the ability to search for the root of a word right from the contextual menu. The following video explains how it all works.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CWQlWZuPco

Note also that, as Rick Brannan rightly points out in the comments, the Bible Word Study guide in Logos 5 now includes a Root section. This means that you can right-click on a word and choose to run this very helpful automated tool and it will display all the roots for you.

BSR Video Outtakes

Rubén Gómez — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 23:49:46 +0000

I promise no pun was intended, but look what happened

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPLknl6osv8