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A few weeks ago I reviewed here a very nice little OS X Bible software application called MacSword, which allows the user to plug in an amazing selectiion of Bible translations, commentaries, and other content. However, there's another new and very attractive freeware OS X Bible app.

Last week Hiddenfield Software announced the release of the latest update to Bible Reader Free, taking it up to preview version 0.94.

Bible Reader Free provides access to multiple books/chapters simultaneously. Features include the ability to search for words across all or select parts of the Bible, and apply 'swaps' automatically (where one word can be changed for another - like 'you' for 'thee').

There is also a Notes feature allowing for the creation of study notes, and the Copy Formatted feature allows one-click formatting of selected verses to the clipboard or a study note.

Bible Reader Free does not support the broad selection of content that MacSword does. Two translations are currently provided: the King James Version - with Strongs option - and the Basic Bible English version. More versions are promised for the future.

However, I really like the Bible Reader Free interface and navigation/search features, and since the KJV is my favorite translation, with the modern BBE for backup reference, I don't find the current lack of other translations any great hardship.

To use Bible Reader Free, open up a new Browser window [File->New Browser], then select the book of the Bible to read. If required, enter a chapter [and verse, separated by a ; ] into the chapter;verse field, then click Go (or press Return).

You can Open as many Browser windows as you like, to view different passages simultaneously.

Switching between the different translations is simplicity itself; just select an alternative one from the translation popup menu.

The Copy Format option from the Edit menu will take the selected verses and format them, before placing the text into the Clipboard.

The formatting encloses the selection in speechmarks, applies '...' to the start and/or end -- depending on whether the selection extends to the beginning/end of the verse/s -- and adds the verse reference below in brackets.

For example:

"...God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world..."

[John 3:16-17]

To conduct a search, open up the search dialog [Edit->Find], type in the word or phrase you wish to find. Choose the scope of the search from the popup menu. To select specific books only to search, click Select Books and make your choice there. Check 'whole words' to only find 'heal' and not 'healing' or 'healed', for exmaple. Finally, click Find to retrieve all matches.

The Search Results window will appear. While the program performs the search, an indication of what book is currently being searched will be shown at the top. At any time, hold down Command to stop the search.

Selecting a search result from the list will display the context of the word/phrase in the field below the list. Double-clicking a search result will open a new Browser window [or use a currently-open one] and display the passage that contains that verse.

Click the Notes button at the bottom of any Browser window to show the Notes editor. This window can be left open for continued viewing/editing of notes as you browse the Bible.

On the Text Tab of the Preferences dialog, there is a Reading Mode option. Normal presents the Bible as you have most likely always seen it: with verse numbers before each verse.

Changing the Reading Mode to Story removes the verse numbers and formats the text with paragraph indents, more like a standard book. This is a quite a nice alternative way to read the Bible.

Another handy feature is Swaps. In essence, any word or phrase found in the text can be automatically swapped for another when browsing the Bible. As an example, the list of swaps that ships with Bible Viewer aims to replace many of the old-english words in the King James Version of the Bible with more modern words.

New in this version:

[FIX] Searches did not return all possible results; certain conditions where being missed

[FIX] Strongs was missing last verse in every chapter

[FIX] Copy from Notes now possible

[CHG] Notes file format is now standard Style Text, not tagged text, allowing for future development improvements

[OPT] Searches faster. More search results produce larger improvements

[NEW] Search results now respect Swaps option

[NEW] Multiple search results within a single verse now appear as separate results

Plus a number of other bug fixes, tweaks and optimisations.

Version 1.0 will also include additional features, most significantly a method of taking and storing (and sharing) notes.

Bible Reader Free is, as its name implies, free software.

For more information, visit:

http://www.hiddenfield.com

Problem with PowerBook

From DG

Hi Charles,

My husband is trying to do a Force Quit, to reboot his G4 PowerBook. The machine is hung up on Force Quit (it's just spinning! -the little multicoloured ball, he means) He would like to reboot and what should he do?? Thanks.

DG

Hi DG

Often it will come out of this if you're patient. I'm usually not, although I've only had this happen to me once or twice in two years of OS X computing.

You could try Command + Control + PowerKey to force restart the machine.

If that doesn't work, -- This is NOT recommended by Apple -- what I would do if the spinning beach ball of death persists for more than an hour or so is to pull the battery, unplug the AC adapter.and then reboot.

I would also suggest running a disk maintenance/diagnostic/repair utility to fix anything that might get screwed up. With OSX it's a good idea to run a disk maintenance utility once a week anyway, which could prevent this sort of thing from happening.

A good free one is OnyX:

http://www.titanium.free.fr/us/onyx/index.html

Let me know how you make out.

Charles

Font Book, PART II

Hey C:

I just read David Chilstrom's letter, which contains a reference to my earlier warning about Apple's FONT BOOK application, as well as his opinions and a link to Applelust's poor review of same.

I feel like I should re-state my experience here:

fOnt Bookis not just full of "quirks and annoyances." I don't doubt that in some future version it might be a useful tool, but remember, this application WIPED OUT MOST OF MY CORE OSX 10.3 SYSTEM FONTS, including Lucida Grande.

That's not what I'd call BUGGY -- that's unacceptable, period. as I said, I literally had to do a complete OS reinstall, even after copying new versions of these fonts from another Mac. the whole font subsystem of Panther had just gone completely nuts.

Poorly designed? yes.

Poorly implemented? yes.

Buggy? yes.

"Quirky and annoying"? yes.

FLAT OUT DANGEROUS TO YOUR ENTIRE PANTHER OPERATING SYSTEM? I'd say YES!

I stand by my earlier assessment -- that app should never, ever be launched. do your Panther install and immediately trash font book. wait for a future version.

But this just MY experience.

Chris

Hi Chris;

It's certainly an experience that would sour me on a piece of software. I would hit my tolerance limit considerably south of that sort of behavior.

Charles

Super Cal and Apple Calibrator

From Gibbons Burke

I was pleased to discover that Panther has revved Apple's built-in color calibration tools so that they are on par with, or even better than SuperCal, which I had to use before Panther came out. I find Apple's tool easier to get the desired balance of colors and gamma corrections on my Pismo PowerBook which has a screen whose colors are so saturated in normal profiles that I can't distinguish the Aqua interface stripes, and alternate-colored rows in iTunes are indistinguishable

Thanks for the report, Gibbons.

Charles

The OS X Odyssey archives may be accessed here:

http://www.applelinks.com/news/odyssey/

CM

Charles W. Moore

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