BibleWorks 9: New to this Version

As I said in the intro (see also pt 2), I have been upgraded to BibleWorks 9 from BW8. In this post I want to highlight some of the features new to BW9.

Interface

One of the first things I noticed was that the interface is a bit more aesthetically pleasing, particularly with the updated icons along the top (the older ones were more squarish).

More significantly, the user can toggle a fourth column (as in the screenshot) which I anticipate I will keep open all the time. This means, left to right, the user has a search window, a browse window, and two analysis windows.

Each of the two analysis windows has a number of tabs that can be selected to display various sorts of data. These tabs can be dragged to different places, including from one analysis pane to another. This satisfies a desire I’ve had for the BW interface to be more customizable.

If you are not familiar with the BibleWorks interface, I suggest this 6 minute video from BibleWorks:

Resources and Tools

BibleWorks 9 comes with lots of free resources–the best original language resources at this price point compared to competitors. Most users will likely find the plethora of Bible versions unnecessary. If so, you can simply choose not to install them. A few new resources/tools in version 9 I’m excited about:

NA28. Of course, now a must have critical edition of the GNT. (I only wish the apparatus was available.)

CNTTS NT Critical Apparatus. This is a nice resource. Also included are NT Manuscripts that are searchable, tagged (not complete), and include transcriptions and images. Installing these large files (Sinaiticus, Alexandrinus, Vaticanus, and Bezae, Washingtonianus, Boernerianus, GA1141 are 7.5 GB +) allow use of the mss tab in the analysis window, providing an instant display of information as you move the cursor from verse to verse. This is really quite amazing.

The Use Tab. This is a tab in the analysis window that displays the usage of a word under the cursor of the browse window in either a book or entire version. This is a nice feature when scanning a passage with an eye to broader usage in the same book. One suggestion for improvement is to allow filtering to groups of books within the tab (e.g., I perform many searches where I am interested in usage in Luke and Acts).

See also: The complete list of what’s new in BW9.

This is Part 3. See Part 1 and Part 2 and Part 4.