Bible Software Review Weblog

For those who would like to try the new Logos 3, Nelson Ministry Sevices is offering a fully functional demo of eBible that includes six free (i.e., unlocked) resources: King James Bible, King James Bible Commentary, Nelson's Complete Book of Bible Maps and Charts, Smith's Bible Dictionary, Strong's Exhaustive Concordance and What Does the Bible Say About?

You will miss the more advanced reports and add-ins, reverse interlinears and syntactical searches, but at least you'll get a general feel for the new version.

I have posted an interview with Michael N. Jackson, co-founder of Due Diligence Software, makers of The Workman's Study Bible.

Dan Phillips has posted a brief and popular review of BibleWorks 7 here and here.

Mark Vitalis Hoffman has put together a few PDF documents with detailed explanations on how to set up and customize BibleWorks 7 and Logos 3 in order to enhance our Greek study. Check them out!

Another interview has been added to the popular Interviews section of BSR. Our interviewee this time is Costas Stergiou, the man behind In The Beginning Was The Word.

One of the improvements recently introduced consists in rating different aspects of the programs under review (see this one, for example -- which I happened to update this morning).

Reviewers are asked to evaluate key areas, following a simple scale from 1 (worst) to 5 (best). These, in turn, are automatically translated into an overall mark (this time on a scale of 1-10)

These are some of the questions one has to keep in mind while assessing the software:

• User Interface - How does it look like? Does it follow the standars we have come to expect for the platform it is designed for?
• Ease of Use - Is it intuitive? Does it have a steep learning curve?
• Help & Support - How good are the documentation and tech support offered? Are there user groups?
• Customization - Can it be customized according to the needs and tastes of different users?
• Speed - Is it fast? How does it compare to other similar programs when performing the same tasks?
• Searching - How flexible and powerful are the searches that can be run?
• Features - Does it include a good number of features? Are there any outstanding or unique features?
• Modules - Are there enough modules? How good is the content offered?
• Original Languages - How well is it suited for those needing to do intensive original-language work and exegesis?
• Price - What is the value-money ratio like?

I hope this will help you appreciate what we are looking at when we review Bible software here at BSR.

David Lang poses this question at one of BSR Forums, and it certainly makes you think about the whole idea of the essence of a review.

I have already blogged about Why I Still Write Bible Software Reviews in the past. I don't think my answer would be essentially different today. Anyway, for those interested, I have engaged most of David's points right there at the forum.

Remember that you can participate actively in this thread (or open a new one, if you wish). You simple have to register, and you will immediately be able to post and interact with a good number of Bible software developers who have already signed up. Come on! See you there!

I came to know about Text Crit via Stephen Carlson. According to its author, Julian Jensen, "This is mostly a blog dedicated to the interaction and application of computers to the field of biblical studies, especially textual criticism." It sounds so promising, and so close to my own interests, that I thought readers of BSR would be glad to know.

Welcome to the blogosphere, Julian!

Sean Boisen's excellent New Testament Hyper-Concordance (see original blog entry here) has been updated to version 1.2.

This is how he explains some of the enhacements:

• The new release uses the English Standard Version text, thanks to the generosity of the folks at Crossway Bibles. In my opinion, this is the best contemporary English translation for study purposes, and i'm really happy to be able to offer it here.
• I've added tabbed navigation to make it easier to find terms of interest, and cleaned up the displays.
• There's a new feature that displays terms according to their frequency: you can turn it off if you like, but i find it helpful in navigating a long list of terms.

Note that the old version, based on the RSV, can still be found here, but it is not longer being actively developed.

I came across some useful tutorial videos for French users of the Online Bible (La Bible Online). There are currently only three, but more are under way.

Logos has made available a free BibleWidget for users of Mac OS X Tiger. It is based on the KJV, and can be used for simple text searches, by entering (or cutting and pasting) the book followed by the chapter and then the verse number (no ranges).

If you want to try it, here's what you have to do: download it, unzip it, drop the widget inside your user's Library/Widgets folder, and you're ready to go!

As indicated in the FAQ section, Bible Software Review is now accepting donations and paid advertisements.

It was suggested to me that this would be a nice feature to have. So, If you want to show your appreciation for the service BSR is trying to offer, there is a new PayPal Donate button on the main page. This is my first experience with PayPal, so I hope everything works okay. Let me know if you find any problems with it -- even if you don't donate ;-) I have also decided to provide space for Bible software companies to publicize their products and/or services. If you want to advertise with us, please fill this contact form.

Finally, you may have noticed some affiliate program banners. This is another way you can help BSR at no extra cost. If you click on any of the banners and decide you want to buy a given product, the company in question will pay us a small commission based on the amount of your purchase.

As you can see, there are a number of practical things you can do to support the site now. Future enhacements to the website, new content, more regular updates, and a few other things are dependent on this kind of financial support. So please help as you are able. Thank you very much indeed!

Two noted users of BibleWorks, Jim Darlack and Michael Hanel, have started a new blog. Its stated purpose is to "create a central location for user-created databases and highlight different ways of using BibleWorks."

I think it's a great idea, though I still would very much like to see an "official" BibleWorks blog too! My only beef is that the current white text against a black background is very hard on my eyes. But perhaps it's only me... ;-)

Every now and again I am asked about things which are clearly answered in the FAQs of BSR. This seems to suggest that most visitors don't read Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) -- just as most users don't read manuals. But is there anything one can do about this situation? I'm not sure. I guess we must keep reminding people that the FAQ section is there. Besides that, there is another useful and quite often underused feature, you should familiarize yourself with, i.e., the Search box. If you can't find something in the FAQs, give the web's Search feature a go. You'll be surprised to see that even the most minute details are indexed for you. And if you cannot find an answer to your question after all, I'll make sure it is added to the FAQs for the benefit of future users.

I think I may have forgotten to point to this article due to the fact that I was too busy working on the new BSR website. Anyway, take a look if you haven't read it yet.

Notice the closing paragraph, where it says, "SvenOnTech hopes to have a review off one of the three talked about above (or all of them) within the coming months. So stay tuned for that if you’re still looking." The three programs referred to are Accordance, MacSword, and QuickVerse Mac.

I thought I might be the only one who felt this way, but happily I'm not alone. I don't think Dorian J. Burnette had Bible software in mind when he wrote it, but I certainly do.

I'm not a bussiness-minded person, so I can never speak from a company's point of view. But speaking from a user's point of view, to buy half-baked, buggy software is very frustrating, to say the least. Maybe development cycles should take longer, I don't know, but generally speaking, time devoted to proof-reading, beta testing and various other quality-control mechanisms is clearly insufficient, judging by the results. I know this from first-hand experience as a translator, beta tester and user.

Laridian has just started a new company blog. It is always good to see that more Bible software companies are setting up their own official blogs. Welcome!

There are many circumstances in life that can make blogging very difficult, or even right out impossible. I'm about to face one of them, since I'm going to be out of town for a few days and will leave my blogging machine behind... I'll see you in a week's time or so.