How Bible Software's Improved: Theotek Podcast #058
Listen to a bunch of old farts talk about Bible software then and now. We take a trip down memory lane and share what we used first in Bible software. We also talk a little about the best improvements that we enjoy.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwAYkauxnLoListen below or watch above to enjoy.
Our Favorite Things for this week: LaRosa Johnson mentioned one of our favorites, the Pencil by Fiftythree, which looks and works a lot like an art pencil.
Rick, a Type 2 Diabetic, got the OneTouch Verio Sync glucose meter. It connects to an iPhone so you can track your blood sugar levels with your iPhone.
Apple v. the FBI: Theotek Podcast #057
The court order received by Apple compelling them to help the FBI in gaining access to an iPhone 5c used by one of the terrorists in the San Bernardino attack that happened last year might become the most important tech story in a long time. We did our best to unpack the details and come up with some security suggestions for users.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Np9XT736nlcThe debate over Apple v. the FBI is an incredibly complex issue that has potentially drastic repercussions going forward for our security, privacy and our government's ability to fight terrorism.
No matter which side support in this debate, you should take care while going online with a phone, tablet or your computer. Watch the video above or listen to the podcast below to get some suggestions for encrypting your data and using virtual private networks.In the Our Favorite Things section of the show, we recommended a few things. Related to the security debate, we looked at a couple of VPN solutions:
- Private Internet Access - $6.95 monthly, $35.95 for 6 months or $39.99 for one year.
- VPN Unlimited - lots of price points with best options including $2.99 for 10 days, $3.99 monthly, $8.99 for 4 months, $24.99 for one year and $129.99 for lifetime access
Accordance Mobile 2.3 Update: Theotek Podcast #056
What's new in Accordance Mobile 2.3 for iOS? Rick Mansfield from Accordance Bible Software shows off the new features in this big update. But first we offer Our Favorite Things - recommendations from each member of our Theotek team.We advertised this episode as Rick Mansfield's showing off the new Accordance Mobile 2.3 update with all the new features. He had some difficulties due to instability on Google's part. We took a look at Down Detector and they said Google was experiencing issues.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fj5KVaUfdyE
What's New in Accordance Mobile 2.3
Here's some of the great new features available in Accordance Mobile 2.3. First up, we see the new slide over feature that came in iOS 9. The user can slide from the right edge of their iPad and show a column of app icons that support slide over. Tap on one to see open an app window that takes up only about 20% of the screen. Use the handle in the middle of the border between the two apps to slide in and take up a quarter to one half of the screen.In addition to the slide-over feature, on newer iPads Accordance Mobile 2.3 now supports side-by-side. The above description explains how this works. The feature isn't available on older iPads or on the iPhone at all.Accordance Mobile now shows up in Spotlight search. Search for a key word or passage and the iPad's Spotlight Search feature will look inside Accordance and find the word. It uses your top-ranked bibles, but doesn't work when the Library page is open.Watch our video podcast to see it in action. For more information head over to Accordance's blog.
Our Favorite Things
Wes Allen recommended the Unitek 3 Port USB 3.0 Hub with Gigabit Ethernet adapter built-in. It costs $20 and gives users exactly what the name suggests.Antoine Wright recommended the 831 Podcast. The podcast host is Brandon Fasig and he says, "831 youth podcast [is] meant to strengthening your faith."LaRosa Johnson recommended the iOS weather app Dark Sky. I like it too because it gives more than simple weather data.At the end Antoine talked about a couple of opportunities he's involved in that you can take advantage of. Find out more at the following:
Online Bible Study: Theotek Podcast #055
Can you prepare your sermons using online Bible study sites? We try to answer that question and give a few recommendations if you choose to give it a try. At the end of the podcast we also give a few recommendations in our new segment, "Our Favorite Things".https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj4ixnyNm9sWe only had three of our team members in this podcast. Rick Mansfield works with Accordance Bible Software and didn't think that online Bible study sites were good enough to do full sermon prep yet. Users often don't have access to the Internet or they don't have a reliable connection. Most of the online sites don't give users enough power to do serious word study. Most them include limited options for commentaries and word study tools. The ones included usually are only public domain works.Antoine Wright from Mobile Ministry Magazine was a little more bullish since he's a mobile-first kind of guy. He recommended a site called Bible Web App. It suffers from the same weaknesses of the other online sites with limited options and mostly public domain. It's fast and clean and does most of what Antoine needs.
I like online sites and use a few. Last year I reviewed 6 online Bible sites in a two-part post. You can find part one and part two to see the video demos of the 6 sites (three in each post). Two of the sites I reviewed are no longer my favorites. Instead of My Study Bible from WORDsearch and Lifeway, I now recommend their new site MyWSB.com. Second, Logos has a site for subscribers to either their Logos Now or Logos Cloud services. Learn more about Logos Now in a recent post and Logos Cloud in another post.
The online sites from WORDsearch and Logos above will cost you a little bit. The best option for those looking for a free site comes from Bible.org. It's called Lumina.
Our Favorite Things
In "Our Favorite Things" this week we recommended some apps, a utility and an accessory. Rick recommended a USB C dock for the new 12-inch MacBook (not the Air or Pro). It's the HyperDrive USB Type-C 5-in-1 Hub with Pass Through Charging for $50. It connects to the USB C port on the MacBook and adds ports for an SD card, micro-SD card, 2 USB 3.0 ports and a USB Type-C port for charging or hooking up a 4K video adapter.Antoine recommended a list of Lent Apps he put together on his website. They can help Christians who observe Lent.
My recommendation comes from github. It's a free utility that helps the user switch their MacBook screen resolution. It's called DisableMonitor and runs in the OS X menu bar. A drop down box shows all the resolutions your monitor supports. This gives you far greater control over the screen resolution settings than the built-in Display Settings in System Preferences in OS X. I wrote up a full How To post on it at Notebooks.com.
Finding Sermon Illustration Content on Theotek Podcast #054
Looking for a good sermon illustration your next sermon idea? We talk about our process and then recommend some sources for explaining, proving and showing what application of our messages looks like.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKVPCmmQk00In the old days our preaching professors taught us how to manage a sermon illustration database. We had file cabinets or notebooks or file folders with clippings from the paper or photo copies of books we read. Then people started putting these on their computers with software like the program sold by the original makers of QuickVerse Bible Software. Bible Illustrator linked some databases of illustrations to the Bible text from QuickVerse and made them searchable via keyword. Others put them in the old Cards application that came pre-installed with Windows 3.1. A lot of people put them in a word processor or text file. Then the Bible software companies started to include sermon illustration databases in their programs. We showed some books like this available in Accordance Bible Software. Logos and WORDsearch and most of the other big names in Bible software offer these collections.Unfortunately, most of the sermon illustration books or databases available online, in Bible software or even in book form totally stink. They're stories from the 1800s or incredibly generic. How many times do we find one that doesn't fit, but it's close and it's really good.Listen below or watch the YouTube video of our podcast above and learn how we find fresh content from our own experiences, from a Google search or pictures and video files that make that sermon illustration come to life.
Church Snow Day: Theotek Podcast #053
This past weekend many of the churches on the East Coast of the USA had a snow day which cancelled services due to the huge snow storm. But a few churches chose to offer an online alternative using streaming and online giving. Also many churches used unique tech options to notify their members of their service cancellations. We'll talk about it in this weeks' first Tuesday Night Theotek Podcast #053.The Theotek Team introduced a segment we call "Our Favorite Things". We'll recommend stuff at the end of the show. These include recommendations for gadgets, software, apps, services or entertainment. We had two this week. See below more information about them.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYTzSvHZJA0
Snow Day Church Tech
We recommend these services to help get through your church's snow day.
Call Em All
In the show we recommended a few things. First, if you need to get word out to your congregation, consider using a service like Call Em All. The paid service will call your members and regular attendees with a records message like the school superintendent who announced their school closing with a rip off the Adele song Hello. See the mock video below:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnIRfvFLiWQWith Call Em All, you can also text people to tell them quickly that you've cancelled the services this week.The service charges either a monthly fee starting around $15/month for a smaller congregation on up to higher fees for very large churches. Alternatively, a church can buy credits and use them as the need them. A credit counts for calling one person or texting two. If a church needs to contact 100 people, 20 of them with a phone call since they don't text and 80 with text messages, then they will need 20 credits for the calls and 40 credits for the 80 text messages. The credits cost as little as 9 cents bought in a smaller quantity or as little as 9 cents for larger churches.
Users can sing up by sending a text message with your church's predetermined key word. You share the text number and the key word in your church bulletin, your website, on Facebook or Twitter, or announce it at the next service.
PhoneTree
Another alternative comes from PhoneTree. I don't know much about this service, but it offers an online option and a device you can buy and hook up to your phone system.You can always use email, Facebook, Twitter or the old-fashioned phone to cancel services. These seem a little more personal, but they're harder to do with a larger congregation. If you choose to use Call Em All or PhoneTree limit the number of times you use it and don't spam the community. Only call your members who opt into receiving the notices. Use it primarily for emergencies or service changes like a snow day or some other cancellation or rescheduling.
Streaming Services
Once the people get the word, you may choose to offer an alternative like streaming the week's music and message. Not everyone on our team recommends this, but if you choose to do this many services can help you stream for free or a low price.Dacast is a paid service that my church uses. A paid services gives you someone to complain to when it doesn't work. They'll hopefully support it when the stream fails. If you don't want to pay, then use one of the following options:
- Google Hangouts is a great way to include more than one person like the pastor and a few others to keep it from getting boring with just one talking head.
- YouTube - just upload a locally recorded video or use the YouTube Capture app on iPhone but not on Android.
- Ustream or Justin TV work, but we don't recommend them since they display ads that can be objectionable.
Church Tech Today has a roundup of a bunch of the big players in streaming services catering to churches.
Giving
A lot of services offer online giving. We suggested that some can just use their personal bank, most of which will let users send a check to an address. Churches who use a subscription church management service can likely add online giving via credit cards. We've talked about Givelify, a service that has an app for giving, but it won't mail a check and doesn't offer an online version. This leaves people who don't use a smart phone out.
Our Favorite Things
Our first edition of "Our Favorite Things" includes two recommendations. First, I suggested the Nochoice Crazy Car Mount. It's a magnetic mount that fastens to the car's dash-board with adhesive. Stick a magnet to the back of your phone or case and then snap it into place with the ridiculously powerful magnet. I love it because it's small and the phone doesn't fall off thanks to the great magnet. The mount's cheap at only $20 on Amazon.
Wes Allen recommended an app for Mac called Aeon Timeline. It's a timeline app that lest you create historical timelines or any other kind of timeline. He uses is for fiction story lines. It's pricy at $40 but he says it's worth it for writers or students dealing with historical dates or any time related use.
CES 2016: Theotek Podcast #052
Last weekend the Consumer Electronics Show did their annual thing. At CES 2016 tech companies show off the upcoming tech and get everyone excited. Of course too many of the products don't show up ever and some end up being less than promised. Our Theotek Team will look at what they announced and share what excited us, especially as it relates to church and Bible technology.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuw7jqVvEU8
Theotek Podcast New Time on Tuesday at 9 PM ET
Quick note. Next week we're moving to a new time to do our live recording. Starting January 19 we will do the live show at 9:00 p.m. EST, still via Google Hangouts. This will allow us to include more guests and to accommodate our regulars who have shifting life situations.
AirStream Line Your Worship: Theotek Podcast #051
We focus on worship tech in this week's Theotek Podcast. John Linton, the product manager from Seraphim's new AirStream worship software joined us and talked about the program. AirStream is a complete worship solution from creating your worship presentation and production to presenting it to saving it to your website. Users can also integrate the worship streaming into their site. AirStream brings together worship planning, worship graphics creation, worship presentation and worship streaming all together into one solution. It's not cheap, but for the large church it looks like a nice all-in-one solution.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXE_Rs5wDx0Watch the podcast above on YouTube or listen to it below. You can also listen on your favorite podcast app. Find those links on our Theotek podcast links page.
Look Back to the Future: Theotek Podcast #050
On this week's episode we look back to 2015 and think about what were the biggest stories affecting church and Bible technology. We also look ahead at 2016 and try to predict what the headlines will be at the end of the new year.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3idNGHKgfYcGive it a listen below or watch on YouTube above. If you're a YouTube users, please subscribe to our channel and share it with your friends that might have an interest in Church and Bible Technology.
How to Give Good Tech Gifts: Theotek Podcast #049
What do you want for Christmas? We put that question to our Theotek team and this week's podcast is the result. We also shared what tech gifts we would like to get and give each other, the past year we used to stick to the plantwear accessories for gifts but this year we want to change things a little. I've given some horrible gifts (like a kit of activated charcoal to whiten teeth - obviously not realizing how bad they were at the time). Throw in some lower priced stocking stuffers and we get an awesome collection of great tech gifts.You can watch the podcast below from our YouTube channel. We hope you'll subscribe, if you're a regular YouTube user. Otherwise just keep this site in your RSS feed so you can get an update to the podcast each week when it comes out. Also, listen to the audio version below the post.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-aGlpV8wxAHere's our list of gifts.
Tech Gifts We Hope to Get
We started by suggesting some gifts we hope to get this Christmas. Rick wants a new red Apple Watch band. He's also hoping for a dock for his iPhone and Apple Watch to clear up charging clutter on the night stand.
Wes Allen is our resident maker kind of guy which is why he wants a Raspberry Pi kit that he can turn into a media server. It's a tiny computer that runs a Linux distribution and lets people do all kinds of cool projects, from a media server, like Wes plans to make, to a in-car media player.
I chose the new Pixel C Android tablet. The guys said it's a mistake since the reviews aren't great, but it still looks like a great high-end Android 6.0 tablet with some nice hardware design. If curiosity is killing you, Read more on progamerreview.com.
Antoine went all out for his gift choice. He wants a tiny little gift, the Tesla Model S. It's only $75,000.
Tech Gifts: Stocking Stuffers
Our second round of gifts includes stocking stuffers. Rick suggested the Apple Pencil Magnet Sleeve, which the person puts on the Apple Pencil and it doesn't add much bulk to the svelte Apple Pencil while adding a magnet to attach to the iPad Pro.
Antoine brought up this Wi-Fi Bible again. He's also interested in the Tronfy Mini S530 Bluetooth headset. It's a tiny Bluetooth headset that fits in your ear and lasts up to 4 hours of talk time or 3.5 hours of listening time. It's got nice carrying case and only costs $15-$18 depending on the color you choose (black, white, caucasian flesh, pink).My stocking stuffer choice comes from Google again. The Chromecast and Chromecast Audio cost $35 each regularly, but you can find it on sale for $30. Plus Google's giving people $20 store credit to buy media to stream to the Chromecast hooked up to a TV or stereo system.
Tech Gifts for Each Other
Antoine's strange gift choice for me was a Paris Hilton style closet, but not for shoes. Instead, he said I need a close for all of my tech gadgets. Probably so, but really Antoine?
I picked a gift for Rick. He's an Apple user and so I chose the Apple TV 4th generation. It's a great set-top box for streaming movies, TV shows, and music from iTunes.
It's also got Netflix, Hulu and other premium streaming services. Finally Apple added third-party app support. It's one of the best entertainment boxes but comes at a price. $150 for 32GB of storage and $200 for 64GB. The voice search powered by Siri is awesome for finding videos and music in iTunes, but it doesn't work on third-party apps.Rick decided to gift an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil to Antoine, since he's such a gifted artist. Antoine, better than any of our Theotek team members, could make use of the Pencil on the iPad Pro.
Church Tech Solutions: Theotek Podcast #048
More and more congregations seek church tech solutions to help them present the message, interact with their members and keep tabs on people's needs. We talked about some of the problems people face and offer sensible church tech solutions in this week's Theotek Podcast.
Our 4 Church Tech Solutions
We tackled four issues this week. The case of the dim projector, the need for ubiquitous Wi-Fi, the disappearing worship presentation computer (hidden in another room) and putting new tech into old wine skins (installing AV in an old sanctuary that has no good projection spot). Here's the YouTube version of the podcast, which we hope you'll watch and subscribe to. Then read the text version of our answers below. The audio version of our discussion of church tech solutions shows up at the bottom of this post.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14Ako_nqpeI
Case of the Dim Projector
At my church we have projectors in the front and back, but occasionally they look a little dim. In our fellowship hall we have to turn out the lights to see any video, which always look darker than graphics. How does a church fix this problem without buying a new projector?
- Avoid the problem in the first place by borrowing a projector to see how it looks
- Use higher contrast images or brighter videos
- Dim the windows or cover them up entirely
- Stop using the projector if it's really bad - this is more of a distraction than the media adds to the worship service
- If you stop using it, then make any really needed images available in another form (paper, use an app like YouVersion Bible app or Proclaim from Logos that supports doing group presentations within the app instead of on a screen)
What would you suggest. Leave us a comment below or on the YouTube video above.
Need for Ubiquitous Wi-Fi
Churches increasingly offer free Wi-Fi to their church members. What's the best option for getting the network throughout the church and how do you protect the church's computers?
- Install two networks to put a firewall between the public Wi-Fi and the private network. Some routers support this natively.
- Use a power line Ethernet device to add a network access point to remote parts of the building. These turn your electrical power lines into network cables. Here's an article on Engadget about some of the best options.
- A great and powerful Wi-Fi solution that supports mesh networks (multiple access points showing up as once network) and public and private networks in one device is the Ubiquiti Networks Enterprise AP Unifi which costs about $65 for one.
- A couple of our team suggested to not bother. Let people use their phones. That only works if people have access to good Internet at your church's building location. Some churches are in pockets of poor coverage.
- Remember to use something like OpenDNS filtering to keep young people safe and to keep people from using the network for porn or pirate software and media.
How does your church offer Wi-Fi to its members and what do people need to consider when allowing this?
The Case of the Disappearing Worship Computer
I sat in on a church media class at North Greenville University and one of the students went to a church that put their worship computer in a room behind the sanctuary so they couldn't see the screens. I asked our team how to deal with this.
- Move the computer into the sanctuary
- If you can't do the first one, then use remote control technology like Splashtop, which has an app that you install on a tablet to control the computer running the Splashtop Streamer app.
- Some worship programs support remote control with an app installed on a phone or tablet. Examples include OpenLP.
- Get a tablet like a Microsoft Surface Pro 4 which supports wireless display. Plug a Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter into the projector(s) and use the tablet to wirelessly stream to the projector from the sanctuary making the computer superfluous.
If you keep the computer in the other room, make sure to rotate volunteers so that no one person has to miss being in the worship service every week. I thought there should always be someone at the computer, but others said it's not necessary since the remote control solutions are pretty reliable and even if it does fail you can just shut them down and move on. I think that's distracting so I'd always put someone on the computer. However,
Putting New Tech in Old Wine Skins
Some older church sanctuaries have no good place to install a projection system. There's no blank wall or a screen would block a baptistery or some ornate decoration that members would hate to no longer see. How do you use presentation technology in a worship space that makes it nearly impossible to use heads up display projection?The problem is a lot like the previous question about dim displays. Other than changing the way the media looks, just follow those tips for that problem with this one.What church tech solutions do you have for our four problems and what problems do you see in your church's technology? Answer below.
A Thankful Tech Heart: Theotek Podcast #047
What technology are you thankful for this year. We did our favorite tech of the year using thanksgiving as our theme since we recorded the podcast the day after Thanksgiving.
We welcomed my son Michael Purcell to the Theotek team for this week's podcast. Follow him on Twitter @MichaelJ_Purcel.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfkHNzHjvJgHere's our list of our favorite tech for 2015 that we're thankful for.
Wes shared Google Translate, which takes voice input from someone and lets him easily translate it to English. He talks to the pastor of an ethnic congregation that's now part of his church using the app. Find it for iOS and Android.
Antoine talked about Wi-Fi Bible, which he shared a few podcasts ago when he returned from Australia.
Michael Purcell just got the new LG V10. He claimed the battery was bigger. It's not, but it seems to last longer for him. It's a rugged phone with a great camera and nice fingerprint reader on the back. The headline about this phone is the second screen where he stores app shortcuts, his name and notifications.
My first favorite tool is the iPad Pro. I wrote about how it changed the way I work over at GottaBeMobile.Next Wes talked about his love for Adobe Creative Cloud's photo plan, which gives users access to Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom for just $10/month. It's a great deal and he loves using it. It's awesome for editing photos and organizing them as well in Lightroom and Lightroom Mobile.
See my post about editing photos on the iPad Pro.
A few weeks ago we talked about a new Bible app. Antoine's a real fan of this little app called Verse3 for iOS. We talked to the developer recently.
Michael's second pick was not as much a thing he's thankful for, but one he's longing for. He loves ChromeOS and wants a Google Chromebook Pixel. He adjusted his pick to say he's thankful for ChromeOS, but still really wants one of these. He's not going get it from me because it's ridiculously priced at $999 or more.For Antoine's second pick he chose FaceTime. That's Apple's video chat technology and he enjoys using it to communicate with family.
Wes's last pick is his DSLR camera. His form of visual art comes from his Nikon D7000. Check out one of his gallaries at Flickr, "A Black Friday Stroll".
The Surface Pro 3 is a great tablet that I love. When Microsoft released the Surface Pro 4 I didn't think it had enough to warrant an upgrade. I may do some hand-me-down with the 3 and get the 4 next year. Until then, I grabbed the new accessories. The Surface Pen generation 4 and the Surface Type Cover with the fingerprint reader. I love the Pen's tips which give you a different writing experience. The keyboard is a better keyboard and the fingerprint reader is a nice addition.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRIEdI74uVcThe last pick came from Michael. He hopes to go into ministry with the deaf. So he chose an app that helps you communicate with the deaf even if you don't know sign. The Deaf Bible app includes videos showing someone signing each verse of the Bible. Watch the same above.
Preaching With an iPad Pro: Theotek Podcast #046
What is the new Apple iPad Pro like for studying the Bible, preaching or teaching? Rick Mansfield (@thislamp and thislamp.com) got one this week and we asked him a lot of questions about using it. Watch or listen below to hear his thoughts.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16v6TwpaPvEJust a summary of Rick's conclusions. First, he likes the side-by-side feature so that he can hold his Accordance Bible app next to Microsoft Word. This will help with both Bible study and preaching. The Keynote app and Word can sit on-screen at the same time. He uses the notes feature in Keynote, but after the podcast was over he tested and found out that you can run a Keynote presentation mirrored to an Apple TV and open Word in side-by-side mode.Second, he tested out the iPad keyboard and looks forward to getting one to use. He didn't like the Logitech keyboard case as much because it seems harder to remove from the iPad Pro.We talked about the Pencil, which is hard to come by until December. Wes tested it out at his local Apple Store and found that it was a great experience. They've done a good job of making it work well and feel more like writing on paper than older styli.At the end of the podcast I shared some first impressions of using the Apple TV 4th generation. It's a nice media device and the remote is both good and bad. Siri works great and AirPlay still works as well as before.
Accordance 11.1 Update with Dr. J: Theotek Podcast #045
Accordance users will recognize that Dr. J. isn't a basketball player from Philadelphia, but the guy who taught them most of what they know about Accordance Bible Software. He joined us to show off the Accordance 11.1 update.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9ONvMWOjz8Some of the things in this update include:
- Users can now more easily edit their User Notes and User Tools since the Edit Window got an overhaul
- Import Bibles with Unicode and expanded canons as well as non-biblical texts
- Syntax Tree and Graphical Constructs got an update
- Interlinear support enhanced
- Instant Details enhanced
- Add custom icons to the Accordance Library
- Link to content with the new URL (accord://) instead of http:// or ftp://
- Gesture support for trackpads and touchscreens while using images, Atlas or Timeline
- Print articles from the Table of Contents
- Incorporate MT-LXX data in Analysis window and related graphics
Learn more about them at the Accordance blog which also links to a more detailed post about the new features listed above and more.
Verse3 a New iOS Bible App: Theotek Podcast #044
With the new iPad Pro coming out this month and iOS 9 supporting side-by-side windows of 2 apps, a tool like Verse3 makes a lot of sense. This simple Bible app that doesn't use the same Bible display framework we're used to. In fact it takes the focus and puts it on the person listening to a sermon or Bible study. The user can open multiple verses on the screen at a time and add their notes inline with those verses.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okMuE0Afr2gHere are a few of the benefits of Verse3 ($4.99 in the iTunes app store).
- Fast and simple to use
- Minimalistic design
- Fuzzy search feature where you can search for love and it returns all forms of that word
- Share your notes and verses in Dropbox as text files
How to Become an Expert Bible Software User: Theotek Podcast #043
Do you want to become an expert in your favorite Bible software program? We'll give you suggestions on how to do that ranging from tutorials, help files and training sessions.I just returned from a WORDseach Bible training conference a few days before this podcast. So it got me thinking, how can people become experts?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=389B_SGgIP4 The best options for training includes:
- Use the help files or menu item that comes in the program
- Go to the company's website to find tutorials, tips and training tools
- Attend a training conference like I did with WORDsearch
- Get help from friends
- Use the software and familiarize yourself with the user-interface
Those are just a few suggestions. Rick Mansfield, our team member and part of Accordance Bible Software, wrote a helpful blog post at the company's website.
What Microsoft, Google and Apple Can Do for the Church: Theotek Podcast #042
With Microsoft, Google and Apple all releasing new hardware and software, we talked about what they can do to help the church.We've already discussed the Apple hardware and software announcements for this Fall. We chatted about Google's goodies too. Now it's Microsoft's turn. But more importantly for us, what can these three companies and their technology do to help the church do the Great Commission? This week's episode covered this question. Watch it here or listen below.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-RQg4A-4aQThe new stuff from Microsoft includes a new Surface Pro 4 tablet with the Surface Pen and Surface Type Cover updated with better keyboard and trackpad. There's also the new Surface Book, a 2-in-1 notebook/tablet with high-end specs and a high-end price.
At the end we each recommend our choice for the most interesting or exciting of the new Apple, Google and Microsoft devices.
WORDsearch 11 Ships With New Design and Features
There's a new WORDsearch update. WORDsearch 11 comes with a new user interface, an updated library feature, better note card feature for research and some better speed in indexing resources. Add multi-monitor support and the old Lesson Maker that WORDsearch forgot they owned. It's now integrated into WORDsearch.The Theotek Podcast team got a look from Rick Milone of WORDsearch. He's one of their official trainers as well as a user. He showed off some of the new features.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rygB5tK3OXwI brewed me some tea (with fenugreek 50% extract - it's my favorite new combo) and made my podcast. Here's my review of WORDsearch 11 written before our podcast. Look for it in Ministry Tech Magazine next month.
User Interface of WORDsearch 11
Open WORDsearch 11 and it displays the Home page. Older versions included a smaller version of this, but this time it takes over the full screen. Notice the list of links along the left and list of specials or deals in their store along the right labelled "Latest News." All the "news" seems to focus on books I can buy. Too bad they don't follow other programs and actually offer some real content besides just sales items. This would get me to actually look at this instead of ignore it on my way to opening my library or picking up where I last left off in my studies.Along the bottom of the Home page we get a bunch of links. These take the user to their apps for iOS, Android and the only myWSB. That's one of if not the best online Bible study site available today, especially for WORDsearch customers with a large library that they can use the online version without paying extra, as some programs do.The other set of links at the bottom of the page takes me to WORDsearch social networking accounts. These include:
Move on to the Study and Library pages or tabs to get some real work done. Clicking library shows a grid of books I own in my library. WORDsearch 11 will offer to download your books the first time you click a title to open it from the Library. This takes a long time for people with large libraries like mine.
We get an option to list our books or show them in this default grid format. There's also a search box to easily find books by title. Users with user-created content like User Books, Verse Lists or Documents can find them by clicking the items in upper left corner list. As always the categories of books shows up on the left side.
The WORDsearch 11 Study window looks the same as it did before while getting an updated set of toolbar buttons. Gone is the Library panel that we used to open along the left edge of the Window. that makes it a little less intuitive for new users to open their books. Use one of the dropdown boxes on the toolbar to open books.
The toolbar includes buttons for the following:
- Open - opens the Open Book dialog box where the user can search for books and a list of search results shows up. Double-click to open the book or highlight and click OK.
- Search - brings up the Search dialog box which includes advanced boolean search functions. Users can limit searches to certain books or just Bibles.
- Results - brings up the Search Results dialog box showing the last search. Users can manipulate the results to get a cleaner look at what they want to find.
- Verses - opens a kind of research assistant tool that finds your verse in various books in your library. The tool lets the user decide wich books to look in like commentaries, dictionaries, illustration books and any other book in the library.
- Topics - a topical Bible browser that finds content in your library based on topics like grace or cross, etc.
- Cross-Refs - lists cross references for a given passage.
- Notes - opens your own notes browser.
- IVS - Instant Verse Study tool that goes out and gets content in your library about a given passage.
- Verse List - create verse lists.
- Word Proc - opens the word processor so you can create documents like Bible studies or sermons inside WORDsearch 11.
- NoteStack - a note card research tool. See more on this below or in the Theotek Podcast above.
- Back/Forward - moves back and forth in the history of places you've visited in WORDeearch.
- Opening books from
- Bibles
- Parallel
- Commentary
- Lesson Maker - the great lesson creation tool owned by WORDsearch and not updated in years till now
- Morph - morphological explorer research tool for language study.
- Arrange - quickly arranges open books in either horizontal or vertical alignment.
- Desktop - works with the Desktop tool that lets users create window arrangements that make quickly switching between study layouts.
- smallgroup - a link to LifeWay's smallgroup.com an online small group bible study subscription service.
What's New in WORDsearch 11
Users of older versions of WORDsearch will see that the old Resource Pane along the left no longer shows up. It's gone, replaced by the Library tab. If you know the title of a book you want to open, then click on the Open button and start typing the title into the dialog box. You can also open books from the Bible and Commentary buttons. The Library tab shows every book installed.Users of multiple monitors can take use of the new multi-monitor support. Put a Bible and a notes window on one monitor and a commentary or language study tools on the other. Arrange things however you prefer. Save them in a predefined Desktop to quickly open it up.
Lesson Maker is Back
WORDsearch owns a great lesson creation tool called Lesson Maker that many of us loved. It was the first WORDsearch product I bought long ago. The tool quickly creates a lesson using questions in a database of tools.The Lesson Maker tool shows up as a button on the toolbar. Open it up and create a quick lesson. This isn't a replacement for doing careful study, but it can rescue you in an emergency. Here are the ways I've used Lesson Maker.
- Throw together a quick lesson when you don't have time due to a busy schedule or a last-minute emergency.
- Create lessons for a last-minute fill-in who takes your place when you're sick or get called away.
- Study hard to teach a lesson and use Lesson Maker to supplement the Bible study
Digital Note Cards in Note Stack
Remember the old note cards that your English teacher taught you to collect while writing a research paper? WORDsearch 11 offers a tool called Note Stacks. there's a button on the toolbar to open the Note Stacks dialog box. Create a stack around a topic, a sermon passage or a book of the bible. Whatever you're teaching, preaching or just studying can become a Note Stack.Now, while studying in commentaries, language studies, Christian Living books or any place in WORDsearch 11, you can select text and right-click. Choose Create a Note from selected text. The Notestacks box opens with the text already entered into the note. Give it a title, add it to a category from the drop down box, and edit other parts of the dialog box. Then hit Save.
WORDsearch 11 Cost and Value
Users can upgrade to WORDsearch 11 for only $40 for the Windows version or for the Mac version. It's not the most significant update, but if you can afford it, then go get it. The new user interface makes for easier Bible study. The look of the update isn't as modern looking as some programs, but that's a minor complaint. I'm glad I got the update.Mac users can get access to their WORDsearch library on Mac and it works exactly like the Windows version, but on top of emulation software. It's not a native Mac app written for OS X. However, if you don't mind the emulation, it works fine.The few readers who are using the beta version of OS X El Capitan should wait till WORDsearch makes an El Capitan version available. It's not compatible as of yet, but will work soon. OS X 10.10 Yosemite users won't have this issue.
Google and Apple - Fight! Theotek Podcast #041
We discuss the new Google and Apple offerings after they announced their new hardware at their fall events. Apple released the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus as well as iPad Pro, a new iPad that competes with the Surface Pro 3 or now the Surface Pro 4.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EznJOU5Tii8Google announced their new goodies also, including a Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P smartphones. Learn more about them from our team in this week's Theotek Podcast.
Apple iPad Pro, iPhone and TV: Theotek Podcast #039
Apple showed off their new iPad Pro, a nearly 13-inch iPad with support for Apple Pencil and a keyboard cover they call a Smart Cover. In addition, we learned about the WatchOS 2.0, Apple iPhone 6S and 6S Plus as well as the updated Apple TV that runs games and apps.The Theotek crew unpacked all the news and gave our opinions of each new product. We also talked a little about how this impacts Bible and church tech users.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Wqx3MEwD5gGive the Theotek Podcast #039 a listen below or watch the video above.