WORDsearch Versions Comparison Updated
I’ve updated my WORDsearch Versions Comparison page to account for the new Interlinear viewing capabilities in WS8, as well as to do some general cleanup.
Category: Bible Study Tools
HCSB 2nd Edition Released by WORDsearch (with Strong’s coding!)
WORDsearch yesterday released a revised version of the Holman Christian Standard Bible for use on their Bible Study platforms. This is a free update for existing HCSB license holders, and replaces the previous version on their download server. This is a hugely improved study resource, as the text is now tagged with Strong’s numbers, providing easy access to the meanings of underlying Greek or Hebrew words using the Strong’s Dictionary, or other compatible lexicons. The HCSB joins the KJV and NASB (and an interlinear) as Strong’s-tagged ...
ESV Study Bible for WORDsearch Released
WORDsearch released the ESV Study Bible in CROSS format today, for use with either their WORDsearch products, or their free Bible Study program, Bible Explorer 4. This should be a hot-ticket item, as the paper-bound ESV Study Bible has been very well received since its release, which was less than two months ago. I find it surprising – and encouraging – that the work is being made available in ebook versions so soon after initial publication. WORDsearch looks to be the first electronic publisher to get the ESV Study Bible out the door. The wo...
The New English Translation’s Premium Perspective
One of the more interesting recent developments in the English language world of Biblical scholarship was the production of the New English Translation (NET), which merged the obviously traditional discipline of Biblical translation with a process rooted in the modern, Internet-enabled, collaboration practices that have produced results like open source software and wikis. The idea was to make the in-process text available, on the web, for public review and comments; the hope being, I suppose, that such a process would produce a text that approached a co...
Logos for Mac is Finally Here… For Now
After several years, during which time they were roundly criticized for stringing Mac users along with vaporware, Logos is finally accepting Pre-Pub orders for a native Mac version of Logos. But based on what I can gather, it looks like something of a misstep for Logos. The biggest surprise to me is their decision to charge a $60 fee for the base engine. The base engine of the flagship Windows product has always been free, a fact I have little doubt has helped produce the significant market out there of third-party producers publishing books in Libronix ...
Logos Makes Sermon File Addin Available for Free
Logos is making their Sermon File Addin available for free in October, as they celebrate Pastor Appreciation Month. There are also discounts available for other products by using the discount code PAM2008. The Sermon File Addin is an interesting tool (usually sells for $60, if I remember right) that basically allows the user to make mini Libronix books out of their sermon files, and then tag them for easy and effective cataloging. This is one of the areas where computer-based study systems really outshine paper-based models, and I’m delighted to se...
Bible Software Review Criteria Published
As part of my effort to get serious evaluations of some common Bible Study applications posted on this site, I’ve published my overall evaluation criteria. It is available as a tab on my main Bible Study Software, which can be found here.
WORDsearch Versions Comparison Published
At long last, I’ve completed and published a chart comparing the functional differences between the current WORDsearch 8 version, the previous major release (WORDsearch 7), so-called classic WORDsearch (WORDsearch 5), and the current version of WORDsearch’s free Bible Explorer 4 application. I originally intended it as a tool to help people trying to decide whether to upgrade to WORDsearch 8 from either WORDsearch 7 or Bible Explorer, but the addition of a column comparing the functionality of classic WORDsearch adds an interesting wrinkle to...
WORDsearch 8.0.2.32 Released… Oops
It looks like WORDsearch blew it again in today’s release of build 8.0.2.32, at least in terms of fixing the problem of the control that is supposed to allow users to define their home directory for documents. For many months after the release of WS8, this button did absolutely nothing (except on non-LUA-compliant configurations – a diversion there is no need to pursue here). A recent build proposing to fix it actually wired a function into it that changed the wrong setting instead, and then another build release passed without addressing wha...
WORDsearch 8 Update Released
WORDsearch released a new WS8 build yesterday, bringing the current public distribution to 8.0.2.29. Remarkably, it did not address what I consider the biggest chink the the armor of the previous public build (8.0.2.14, released on May 15th). This "chink" is a mis-coded button on the Settings dialog that offers to let the user to set the home directory for user files used within the program, but instead, by calling the function intended for a different button, changes the root directory for the library of CROSS books used by the program. (In ot...