When Faithlife, the makers of Logos Bible Software, bought Wordsearch, they shut down the program making ZipScript, a favorite feature, unavailable to people who can no longer install Wordsearch. Since you can’t install Wordsearch anymore, you’ll lose access when you get a new computer or must erase and reinstall your Windows operating system. But we want to help you get similar functionality out of Logos.
What is ZipScript, and Why Do Wordsearch Users Love It?
The ZipScript utility ran separately from Wordsearch Bible Software. Wordsearch installed ZipScript, and let users open the utility and enter a Bible passage. The quick little system tray app would let you copy and paste the verse anywhere without opening Wordsearch.
Users could copy and paste Wordsearch Bibles to computer programs like Word documents, presentation apps, or notes. It didn’t take up a lot of system resources and gave users access to a tool to copy and paste Bible passages almost anywhere.
Bible students loved ZipScript because it was small, efficient, and useful. Logos ships with a similar feature but is not as small and efficient as ZipScript. You can’t run it separately from Logos as you could with ZipScript.
Why Won’t Faithlife Likely Make a ZipScript for Logos?
When Faithlife first bought Wordsearch, I wrote an article about how to make Logos work like Wordsearch. I briefly mentioned ZipScript and Copy Bible Verses.
The Logos Community Forums contain multiple posts from Wordsearch users who came to Logos when Faithlife bought the company. That’s probably the primary reason Faithlife bought Wordsearch, for the customer database and publisher content. But they didn’t want the software technology like ZipScript.
Logos has a feature called Copy Bible Verses or CBV that duplicates some of the ZipScript features and adds a few that ZipScript didn’t have. With fewer programmers, thanks to layoffs last fall, they don’t have the human resources to do everything they might like to do or everything their customers want them to do.
Logos has CBV and won’t likely add ZipScript to the toolbox. That means it is time for ZipScript lovers to either hold onto their computers with Wordsearch installed for the rest of their time as digital Bible students or learn to use Copy Bible Verses to gain similar functionality.
See My YouTube Demo of the Copy Bible Verses Tool
How to Open the Copy Bible Verses Tool in Logos
Open the Copy Bible Verses feature in Logos from the Tools button on the toolbar. Scroll down to the Passage section and click on the Copy Bible Verses item on the list.
You can also search by typing in the top box under the tools menu. The Copy Bible Verses item shows up. Click to open it.
If you like to open things from the Logos main toolbar’s command box, type Copy Bible Verses and click on Show Copy Bible Verses, which will pop up in a list after you type “copy bible.” You’ll get a new window that, by default, fills the right side, taking up about a quarter of the window, as seen below.
How to Make CBV Follow Your Chosen Bible to Copy Bible Verses Quickly
You’ll see the Copy Bible Verses window, usually on the right side of the Logos. You can type in the box to go directly to a Bible reference. I recommend linking the Copy Bible Verse and your Bible, so the CBV will follow whatever verse you see in the Bible.
Click on the menu button on the Bible (the three vertical dots on the right side of the Bible window’s toolbar – see #1 above) and select a letter in the Link Set: section, like letter A. Do the same in the CBV window with the same letter you chose in the Bible window. Then when you move from one passage to another, the CBV window will follow the Bible window.
Linking the two windows will also let users select a passage in their Bible, and the CBV will set the passage as the content it will copy.
Copying Bible Verses for Pasting Into Various Apps or With Different Formatting
Copy Bible Verses does something ZipScript didn’t do. You can copy text with special formatting. Logos ships with a set of formats already. You can create your own as well.
To change the formatting, select the drop-down link in the CBV window. You see this just below the text entry box where you would type your Bible reference. Click it, and the menu of formats shows up. If you don’t want to use the included formats, you can create your own by clicking Create a new style, as seen at the bottom of the pop-up box. We’ll cover more down below.
Choose from your installed Bible translations using the translation drop-down list (see the image above). You’ll see your prioritized Bibles first and then others listed below. Select one to copy from that translation, regardless of the Bible you opened in Logos.
The Copy Bible Verses window will let you choose where to copy the verses on your computer. For example, you can have it copy a verse to Microsoft Word at the current spot in an open Word document. If the program’s not open, it will open it and paste the passage into a blank file. You must first select the program from a drop-down list to do that. You also will choose Copy and Paste instead of Copy. If you click Copy, it will only place it on the system clipboard.
Copy and Paste puts the text in your program quickly. You don’t have to switch to the other program and paste. The CBV does it all for you quickly. You may need to permit Logos to do this the first time you use it.
Format Options in Copy Bible Verses
When you open the formatting menu (the first link at the top of the CBV box), you’ll see a grid of boxes that show what each formatting option will look like when you choose it. You’ll see a little pencil icon next to the name if you create your own styles.
Look at the image above. You’ll notice that the style next to number one shows no pencil icon. That style comes with Logos. However, the Bible Quote style has the pencil icons. I created that style because I didn’t like the included styles and wanted a style to use in other programs to set it apart from regular text.
Above, you’ll see the default format options. Create your own by clicking the Create a new style link at the bottom of this popup box. To show the above menu, click the link at the top of the CBV box. You’ll see it above where it says “Copy Word Quote” where “Word Quote” is the custom format I use to copy to Word when writing my sermon or Bible study notes.
How to Create Custom Copy Formats in CBV
Many people use the built-in CBV Formats. I created my own because I wanted Bible quotes to show up with custom formatting in Microsoft Word. I don’t use the Sermon Builder in Logos because Word fits a workflow I’ve used for over a decade while preaching from my iPad.
In Microsoft Word, I created a paragraph style that shows my Bible quotes in a larger font than regular text. Its a bold and bright maroon color makes it easier to read while preaching or teaching.
To create a custom format, choose to the Create a new style option in the formats dialog box. A new window pops up with some text that looks like code. Logos includes some info about what you’ll see. Read it inside Logos by clicking here. You’ll need Logos installed to open that link.
Create new formatting options by right-clicking on an existing style similar to what you want your format to look like. Then edit it using the codes listed in the help file linked above. Or you can see this help page on the Logos site.
