WORDsearch iPad App Available Now But Needs Work

Posted by Kevin Purcell on Jan 31, 2012 in Digital Bible Study | 0 comments

Lifeway, the new owners of WORDsearch finally released their anticipated WORDsearch iPad app today and while it will be nice to get access to all of my content in my WORDsearch library, the app has a few design flaws that I’d like to mention with hopes that they can fix these.

App Interface

The app has a simple and clean interface, which I like. By default you will only see one Bible open at the first, but you can add a second for a commentary or another translations. Each pane has its own toolbar at the top and bottom.

To open a book, go into your library and choose the book from either the list or bookshelf view. If it isn’t on your iPad, it will display a window offering to download the book. Hit the down arrow at the right and wait a bit. The first few times you use the app, you will have to do a lot of downloading.

Across the top you have…

• Library button – open to use your library or buy more books
• Translations button – open to use your other Bibles
• Passage button – tap the passage heading at the top and a drop-down list of the books of the Bible will open so you can navigate to another passage
• Search – search the Bible
• Bookmark – add by tapping and then delete by tapping the red ribbon added to the text

The bottom toolbar has the following buttons …

• Study Pane button – shows a list of your downloaded commentaries so you can open in a new window pane; you also get other study helps like highlights, notes and bookmarks on the live passage; to show your notes swipe the window to the left
• History button – you can select passages listed to go back to them
• Display settings – lets you toggle words of Christ in read, paragraph v. verse view, background style (white, sepia and black for night view) and five text sizes
• Info button – for FAQs; lets hope we see more here like full-featured help and info about the current book or translation
• Close button – will close the book (not available in single pane view)

If you tap and hold a word in the Bible, you will get some options. You can copy the selection or get a definition of a word selected. The options choice brings up another popup window. You can highlight the selected text with one of a number of colors. You can also underline or erase any markups. The erase button confused me. It’s just a red diagonal line. I wasn’t sure what it did until I underlined a word and then hit that button which removed the underline. It deletes any highlights or underlines. In addition to markups, you can add a note or a bookmark.

The books scroll with the swipe of a finger. When you get the top of the cached page, it will load more text of your Bible. This took some time, but when I closed the app and reopened it, the load time shorted drastically.

What I Like

First, I like being able to read my WORDsearch library on my iPad. I hate reading from a computer, but I love reading on my iPad. Second, I like the simple interface. They didn’t try to do too much. All the basic tools are available, like dual pane view, notes, highlighting and bookmarks.

If you switch the library interface to the bookshelf view, then you can see your library easily. Each category of book has its own row and each row scrolls horizontally to show all of your books from that category. Scroll down to see all the different categories in your library from Bibles to Commentaries, Devotionals, etc.

I’m glad they allow the user to change the look of the page. You get a white background, sepia or black. People like the black backgrounds with white text for night-time reading mode.

WORDsearch started well. Other apps don’t work as nicely as this one despite being available for years. Their interface designers have a good foundation to build upon.

Needs Improvement

There’s no excuse for your library automatically opening to the book store as you open the app the first time or you tap the toolbar button the first time after opening a book. I’m guessing WORDsearch sees this app as a way to sell books first and a Bible study tool second. This commercialism leaves a bad taste in users mouths.

When downloading books, it would be nice to have a download all button so that you can add every book in your available library to your iPad. This would take up a large amount for those with big libraries, but would save time for those with medium to small libraries.

For some reason, I can’t see all of the books in my Bible. I’m not sure if the publishes won’t let me see them or they just aren’t showing up due to a glitch. I’ll contact WORDsearch soon to fix the problem.

Instead of a scrolling list of the books of the bible, I’d really like a grid view for navigating to a new passage (see the Logos example above). They’re faster. Also, I want to choose the book, chapter and the exact verse. Right now you select the book and chapter only. What about Psalm 119? If I want to read the last few verses I will have to scroll through the chapter or select chapter 120 and go backwards.

The library window should default to the bookshelf view. The long list of books in the List view is daunting. If you want to find a book in the last item in the list, Word Studies in my case, it will take a while to scroll down.

Strangely, the library button disappears sometimes. I think this is a bug, but it should never go away. Rotate the display and it will usually come back.

The app grays out the settings button when you’re in the bookstore. Why? I should still be able to tap it. This kind of design choice confuses users unnecessarily.

Also, the overall performance feels a bit sluggish. You tap things and the app does nothing for a moment before responding. This has to improve. iPad users expect a fast and smooth interface. You don’t get that in WORDsearch. For example, when you have two panes open and hit the lock button to synchronize the two windows as you scroll through the Bible, the second pane takes a full second to respond. That’s too long. At first I thought it wasn’t working. In other places the app responds slowly.

Finally, WORDsearch didn’t include customizable reading plans so that I can use my iPad to read and track my yearly Bible reading. At the minimum it should let you track your Bible reading. WORDsearch has to add this first after they fix the speed and hopefully some of the other suggestions above.

Recommendation

The WORDsearch Bible app won’t replace your current app, if you’re happy with it. If you’re already a WORDsearch customers get it now. Since the app costs nothing, try it out for free. iPhone users need not apply; there isn’t an app available for you. I hope that changes soon.

Proclaim Church Presentation Software a Game Changer

Posted by Kevin Purcell on Oct 11, 2011 in Software, Technology, Worship | 0 comments

Proclaim from Logos provides a simple, attractive and easy to learn church worship presentation solution that will enter a public beta phase today. I’ve been fortunate enough to be involved in the private beta and have seriously considered switching from MediaShout, our church’s current solution, to Proclaim. Here’s why.

Simplicity

Most important, Proclaim has a simple interface that won’t be hard to learn for your team. I can quickly put together a usable presentation after playing with it for a few minutes. There may be some things that will take a little while to learn, but the basic stuff is just there.

Also, the ability to run the presentation from a  mobile phone using the Android or iOS remote app, means your team could potentially sit with their family during worship. Pastors of small churches who down’t have a team to run the presentation could do so from the pulpit.

Team Approach

Proclaim can be installed on all of your team member’s home computers – both Macs and Windows PCs. They can setup their portion of the worship presentation from home. The pastor can add graphics for the sermon. The music leader can add hymns. The ministry leaders can add announcement slides. And it will all be ready for Sunday morning.

Proclaim is a cloud based system. You add your graphics or videos to the Logos servers and they will show up on the computer at church. This might be a problem if your church doesn’t have Internet or the computer where you worship isn’t connected.

Weaknesses

Proclaim isn’t perfect. The need for an Internet connection to get the content onto the worship computer might be a real challenge for some people. You can bring a laptop and have the presentation cached to the computer and run it without Internet. For example, if your worship center doesn’t have Internet but the office does, set things up on a laptop in the office and then when you are sure you have everything, bring it out to the worship center. Alternatively, you could set things up at home.

Also, you have to upload graphics and videos to the Internet first and then download then to the worship computer, even if you are set up the presentation and run it on the same computer. This is a silly extra step. I hope Logos will let you add content without immediately uploading it if you don’t need to.

However, after you upload the content once it will always be ready to add to future presentations and backed up to the cloud. You don’t have to worry if your computer dies, gets damaged or even stolen.

If you use DVD clips directly from the DVD you will have to use DVD ripping software first. Proclaim doesn’t work with DVDs. Also you will need a subscription to lyric service Song Select from CCLI in order to quickly add songs without typing them out word for word.

A Game Changer

I believe that Proclaim will be a game changer for those who do use computers in a church connected to the Internet for the following reasons:

• Less training on complex software
• More time at home since you don’t have to be at church to set up the presentation
• Annual subscription cheaper than buying software and upgrading each year
• Safely back up your graphics, videos and other content for use at a later time
• Backed and supported by a strong company with a great record of customer service
• Presentations can be run form anywhere in the room via mobile phone

Right now Logos has a giveaway of either an iPhone 4S or one of ten one-year Proclaim subscriptions. And if the service hits its goal of 11,00o fans by 11/11/11 the free beta period will be extended till the end of the year. After that there is a cost, but this hasn’t been announced.

A Great Loss for an Apple User

Posted by Kevin Purcell on Oct 7, 2011 in Editorial, Technology | 0 comments

It was a great loss for an Apple user like myself. I’m not just talking about the death of Steve Jobs, which was also a truly great loss. I’m talking about my MacBook Air, which I misplaced and realized about the same time that I heard about the passing of visionary Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

Understand I’m not at all trying to say that losing a computer comes in any way close to losing a person. But the two events happening at the same time made me think and this is my way of memorializing a great figure in modern American culture – through my experience with one of his iconic products.

I’ve truly enjoyed hearing and reading about all the stories and memories that those in the tech press shared last night and this morning. One of my favorites has to be our friend Sumocat’s imaginary friendship with the man and Warner’s eloquent memorial. Jobs’ Stanford University commencement address has the makings of one of those classic oratories that I will always remember and which taught me something about myself. (see the video below)

Jobs impact on my life began when, as a high school student, I learned to type and create simple BASIC code on an Apple computer back in the mid-eighties. In earnest, my love of Apple products started when I bought my first iPod Mini, later a 30GB iPod Color and then a Touch. I jumped to the iPhone later that year with a 3GS and eventually an iPhone 4. When the iPad came out, the computing device I longed for arrived – a tablet that ran smoothly, was light and had a battery that lasted forever. Then, last fall I saw the new MacBook Air and finally jumped with both feet into the Apple ecosystem. Over the next six months I began to leave the Windows world behind.

When I misplaced my MacBook Air, I felt the loss dearly. I loved that computer more than any I have ever owned. Like my iPad, it was light, worked smoothly and lasted a long time.

Hearing of the loss of Steve Jobs at the same time that I was dealing with the loss of my Apple computer made for an interesting juxtaposition. For his family, friends and co-workers the grief process will last longer than anyone’s sorrow over losing something as fleeting as a computer. But grief is real regardless of why it is felt.

Almost everyone deals with the stages of grief, feeling the same emotions in varying degrees. It begins with shock of the loss – “I can’t believe it,” people say. Then anger sets in, often leading people to lash out at others, themselves, or in some cases the person they have lost. Be careful what you say and don’t take seriously what others say during this time. Forgiveness will be needed in large doses. Finally, depression hits. Work as hard as you can to keep talking about the person or situation. Talking will be your ointment. Finally, we move into a time of acceptance where we can finally talk about the loss with little emotional reaction.

You may experience these feelings even at the loss of someone far away whom you’ve never met, like Jobs. You may feel it like I was last night and this morning after losing one my favorite and most used tech toys. But you will feel each of these. Be careful not to break things and stay connected with people who love you, because as the good book says, “Joy comes in the morning.”

Steve Jobs the man is gone to us and I deeply feel for his wife and family. I’m sure his closest friends and co-workers are experiencing heavy hearts and shedding some tears today. Even if you have no emotional reaction to his passing, you have been changed by the man.

For me, my grief is over. I found my MacBook Air. Someone turned it into the restaurant where I left it. I will be taking care to never let this happen again and will be protecting myself with things like the Prey Project and better passwords. As I type this post, on my MacBook Air, Steve Jobs visionary sense of style is with me. For that, I’m still sorry that Jobs is gone.

If he could, I’m sure Steve would simply respond to the outpouring of praise, adoration and sorrow …

Thanks!

Sent from my iPad

BibleWorks 9 Analysis Windows Can Be Split in Two

Posted by Kevin Purcell on Jul 25, 2011 in Bible Software, Digital Bible Study, Software, Technology | 0 comments

An exciting new feature in BibleWorks 9 is the ability to split the Analysis Window, usually on the right in default setup, into two panes. The red arrow button in the upper right adds a second pane automatically putting the tabs from one row into one window and the tabs from another row into the other window. Each tab can be dragged between the windows for your own preferred setup.

This allows us to have our own notes window open all the time but still use the various analysis windows while studying. As a heavy notes user in Bible applications, I love this feature.

The first time you click anywhere in the Analysis window, this helpful tooltip will explain how to use it. BibleWorks adds little touches like that to handhold new users as they learn the system. Software companies can learn a lesson from the great BibleWorks team.

 

BibleWorks 9 In My Hands And On My Mac

Posted by Kevin Purcell on Jul 22, 2011 in Bible Software, Digital Bible Study, Software, Technology | 0 comments

I just installed BibleWorks 9 on my MacBook Pro. Yes I used Parallels Desktop, which is a virtualizations application that runs a copy of Windows on a Mac.

BibleWorks 9′s interface looks almost exactly like the previous version with some updated toolbarb buttons but the same three pain layout. Menus and toolbar are on top and the status bar on the bottom clues the user in to what they are seeing.

I’m looking forward to playing with this new setup and will share what I learn here and at Christian Computing Mag.