What’s new in Accordance 14?

The Accordance 14 update came out with interesting new features and a troubling lack of quality control. Even though Accordance 14 came to users’ computers last fall, I held off writing this until it became stable. While it’s still not great, it’s better on Mac, so let’s look at what’s new in Accordance 14 Bible software. Check out the sections below for each major new feature and the video demonstrating the Accordance 14 update on macOS. It looks and works the same on Windows with minor exceptions.

Below you can watch the demo video made by Accordance.

Open Accordance 14 Dynamic Word Study

Accordance 14 adds a new word study tool that you can use to study English, Greek, or Hebrew words. Bible students can understand the word and learn how to teach, preach, or apply it personally.

The most used way of opening these word studies comes from the context menu. Select a word in your Bible and right-click on it. Then look for the Research section of the right-click menu. Under that, you’ll see Word Study. Select it to show the fly-out menu. You’ll see options for Word or Key Number.

Each option shows content about the Word you’re studying. Choose Word, and it will search the English term. Choose Key Number, and it will search using Hebrew or Greek Key Numbers as the foundation. A Word-based Word Study shows details about that word, like…

• Word Count – how many times it shows up in the Bible.
• Definition – shows the word in your highest-ranked dictionary.
• Text Compare – shows the difference between translations in English.
• Visual Details – pie or bar graphs on what Hebrew or Greek words were translated into English words.
• Dictionaries – shows your top five Bible dictionaries for that word.

The choice opens a new window with a Word Study tab open

Users open an Accordance 14 Word Study using the File menu. Click on File and New Tab. Then look for the Research section. Under it, you’ll see Word Study with a fly-out menu offering three options for English, Greek, or Hebrew word studies. Choose one by clicking it. This opens a new tab ready to perform word studies based on the open Bible.

If you haven’t opened a Bible yet, Accordance 14 will connect the new tab to your top-ranked Bible with language study tagging. You can also open the new tab using the New Tab button on your toolbar. Find the Research section, and click Word Study just below the section title. Choose one of the three language options to open a new Word Study tab.

How to Use Accordance 14 Dynamic Word Study

With the Word Study tab open, type in a word. You can type English words, and the results showing up after you hit enter come from that word in the translation selected in the drop-down menu in the upper left of the Word Study Tab.

Change your translation by clicking on the drop-down and selecting a new translation. This changes the results in the tab.

You’ll see a few sections in this tab based on what kind of word you searched for. For example, an English search gives you…

• Word Info – content from your top English Bible dictionary.
• Text Compare – shows a list of the instances of your English word in the top translation. Click the plus icon to add other translations based on your text ranking in the Library.
• Word Graphs – includes Pie, Bar, and Frequency Graphs based on usage in your top Text. Add texts to see more graphs.
• Dictionaries – a list of your Bible dictionaries with that word in them.

Custom Phrasing

With the new Custom Phrasing feature, users can create diagrams of the text to show the text in a visual way. This shows the relationship between parts of the text to other parts.

Go into a Bible text in any language and use the setting drop-down box in the upper right corner of the pane.

Select Phrasing, and a new menu flies out to the right. The options include…

• Phrasing Break [Shift + Enter] adds a new line to a verse so you can show a phrase below another in a single verse.
• Phrasing Indent [Shift+Tab]moves the margin on the left of English texts over one tab at a time to place that phrase below a specific word above it.
• Phrasing Delete [Shift+Backspace] removes the tabs created with Phrasing Indent or Break.
• Hide Phrasing [No KB Shortcut] temporarily returns the look to the prior state. After doing this, go to the menu and click on Show Phrasing to bring it back.
• Lock Phrasing [No KB Shortcut] keeps the changes in place.

Why would a user want to create Custom Phrasing? This shows how various parts of the text relate to other parts of an idea. I use them to show things like major ideas and subpoints. You can also create visual lists in a text, like Galatians 5:22-23 which tells us about the “fruit of the Spirit.”

Learn the keyboard shortcuts listed above to create these diagrams. It will speed up creating these Custom Phrasing outlines.

Easy Answers

Some books include things like questions with space to answer. In paper form, users could write in the space provided. Think about a workbook for your Hebrew class in Bible college or seminary class.

Digital versions of these books may still show discussion questions at the end of a section or in a workbook, but they’re not easy to work with. You can add notes. But now Easy Answers helps for books that take advantage of the feature.

Easy Answers promises to make this possible in Accordance 14. You’ll have to own a book that supports the feature. So look for this in future updates to books. I don’t own any I know of, so I can’t recommend or show you this feature. You’ll have to search your library or the Accordance store for books with Easy Answers support. I know that Christian Worker’s Commentary has this feature. See the screenshot above.

I will warn you that this feature is buggy on Mac. I experienced a few crashes while using it. It seems that when you open a Bible by clicking a link in the commentary, that it crashes once you click in the text box to add your answer.

Accordance 14 Offers New Citation Formats

Accordance added a few new official citation formats. You could always use Turabian, SBL, and Simple citations. But now you can use APA, Chicago Manual of Style, and MLA.

To change the default format, go into your preferences or settings. On a Mac, use the Accordance menu in the upper left of the menu bar. Then choose Preferences. You can also use the keyboard shortcut COMMAND + , (the Command key and the comma).

The above sets the default form of citation. Select something you want to copy with your preferred citation format. Right-click the selection and choose Copy As in the pop-up menu. Then choose Citation in the new flout menu. You could also use the keyboard shortcut COMMAND + CONTROL + C on a Mac.

Unicode Text in User-Created Tools

Tools created by the user can now use Unicode Text. Why is this important? Users creating tools in languages like Asian or other non-Latin languages.

Quick-Click Verse Picker – AKA Book/Chapter/Verse Chooser

Click on the new Quick-Click Verse Picker tool in the upper left corner of the Bible window in Accordance 14. Then a drop-down shows up with abbreviated Bible book names. Pick your book, then the chapter, and the verse. It opens the Bible to that reference. See the above animated GIF.

User Created Dictionaries & Commentaries

Accordance 14 offers new options for user-created tools. As a result, you can now create custom dictionaries, lexicons, and commentaries.

To create these, open the File menu, choose User Files, and then New User Tool…. Creating these tools is similar to creating General tools in previous versions.

Recommendations on Buying and Using Accordance 14

Should you go and upgrade to Accordance 14? Because it’s not that expensive, I’d recommend you do so. At this point, version 14 has a lot of bugs that the company needs to fix. The Windows version has many more than the Mac version. Also, the iOS and Android verses are woefully behind the competition. If you buy the upgrade, you might want to keep 13 around by entering your Applications folder in macOS and renaming Accordance to Accordance 13. Then you can install Accordance 14. Look at our post on downgrading from 14 if you already installed it.