Verse Explorer and Morph Explorer look like nice additions, but do check out the whole list of enhancements and new features. I’ll post more info when it becomes available and/or can lay my hands on the new version.

You can watch the video full screen in HD by clicking on the rightmost icon at the bottom.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7ftjxtudOs

If we look strictly at the meaning of the word, no piece of software is or can ever be intuitive. There is no universal logic behind it that makes anyone approaching the program for the first time able to use it “as is.” What makes sense to me doesn’t necessarily make sense to somebody else. After all, an application is the product of a developer (or a team of developers), and everybody knows that developers think in rather strange ways

The term intuitive can certainly be misleading (as most marketing parlance is), because it conveys the idea that no learning is involved, that everything becomes immediately obvious. As a matter of fact, nothing could be further from the truth. All software needs to be learned. There is a learning curve. This curve will be steeper for digital immigrants, but it’s always going to be there, even for digital natives.

Ideally, software should be easy to use and, consequently, consistent. It should make sense after the logic behind it has been learned (the rationale, if you will). But the aha! moment can only follow some sort of learning process on the part of the user. It’s not a revelation that comes out of the blue. Unfortunately, this loose understanding of “intuitive” is not what transpires in much of the marketing hype and not a few software reviews.

I am always amazed at people who have never read a single line of the user manual or watched any video tutorial and complain about the software not being intuitive. Okay, companies have their share of guilt, but users should not naively expect that all that will be required from them is clicking a button (or two). No pain, no gain.

The application can be downloaded for free from the App Store, and current BibleReader users will be able to access all their titles when logging into their accounts. Here is a nice BibleReader for Mac overview, as well as a Quick Start Guide.

For those who already use BibleReader on an iDevice, the user interface will be quite familiar. Although I haven’t upgraded to Lion yet, and thus cannot install and use the program, I must say that BibleReader has the prettiest UI of all the Bible software apps currently available for Mac, as well as many interesting and robust features for Bible study and research.

WORDsearch markets a Holman Christian Standard Bible that includes a reverse interlinear.

As shown below, there are many display options available. Original words can be displayed as they appear in the text or according to their dictionary form (with or without English transliteration). There is also an option to hear the pronunciation of the original term (lemma).

Logos 4 offers a number of reverse interlinear English Bibles (ESV, NIV, NASB and NRSV, among others). There are also Hebrew, LXX and Greek interlinears.

It includes the same display options mentioned above, but the NT has an option for displaying Louw-Nida’s Lexicon numbers, which is an excellent addition.

Alternatively, the interlinear can appear at the bottom of the Bible text, rather than inline.

Accordance 9.5 turns any modern Bible tagged with Strong’s numbers (ESV, NIV, NASB, HCSB and KJV, among others –including some in Spanish) or any morphologically tagged text into a dynamic interlinear, capable of displaying all the associated information.

It works seamlessly based on the modules available, and users can choose between a “traditional” and a “reverse” interlinear layout. Besides, syntax information is displayed.

The advantage, in this case, is that any Bible with Strong’s, as well as any tagged Greek NT or Hebrew OT (no LXX currently) can be displayed alongside the regular display fields, and that any customized layout can be saved and retrieved. This allows for an unprecedented flexibility and power.

So, as you can see, there are a number of differences (not so much in the layout but rather in functionality), between the reverse interlinears currently available in the market. At any rate, this is an important tool for those who do not know or aren’t proficient enough in the Biblical languages. The kinds of studies that can be performed with reverse interlinears nowadays are pretty sophisticated.

The full list of new features is found here. Personally, there are two features that I find particularly useful:

Dynamic Interlinear

Any morphologically tagged Bible (except LXX) or Bible with key numbers (Strong’s, revised Strong’s for NASB95 or Goodrick/Kohlenberger’s) can now be used as a traditional interlinear or a reversed interlinear on steroids (hence the use of the label “dynamic”). All the available information (original language, transliteration, parsing, syntax, other modern translations or ancient versions, and so on) can be displayed in an interlinear format. Stacking multiple tagged Bible versions becomes a great study tool for comparative studies. And the best thing about this features is that it doesn’t require any additional purchases. All tagged Bibles have now become interlinears!

Smart Amplifying from Analysis

The Analysis window has become a lot more useful and flexible with the ability to amplify directly from the search results. This means that results from searches conducted in tagged Bibles can be the springboard for further searches. Not just plain, literal searches, but “smart” searches, since the tagging (grammatical info or Strong’s number) attached to that particular result will be automatically added and searched when clicking on the Search button of the Resource palette. Again, no new or additional modules are required. It just works!

In sum, this is an excellent update that everybody should get. Really. Version 9 users have no excuse, and those who are still using earlier versions of the software should seriously considering upgrading. Upgrade prices are very competitive.