A Newer, Friendlier Verse Chooser
February 5th, 2007You may have noticed that Olive Tree’s BibleReader now has a new verse chooser. Perhaps you’re wondering why we spent the time to completely recreate this function? In this blog, I’d like to tell you why and let you know about the newer, friendlier verse chooser functions.
As Olive Tree developers, we realize that the verse chooser is one of the most accessed screens in the BibleReader, second in importance only to the main screen that displays the text. So we wanted to make the experience of using the verse chooser the best we could make it. To accomplish this goal we added a number of features to the verse chooser and designed it to work across platforms. Those that have used earlier versions of BibleReader on more than one platform (BlackBerry excluded) have probably noticed that the same pdb files work on the different platforms we support and that the display appears exactly the same. The main screen of the BibleReader is identicle on Palm, Pocket PC, Smartphone, and Symbian; therefore, when we add a feature to the main screen on one platform, it works on all of the other platforms. We wanted to do the same thing with the verse chooser.
One feature we have added is the ability to use the 5-way navigation button to select a verse. This is great for those who don’t like using their stylus and especially good for those whose devices don’t have a stylus. I personally find using the stylus to be distracting when I am in church, but now I can simply use the 5-way navigation button to change verses.
Another objective was to make the verse chooser give a better representation of what verses are actually referenced in a book. Although this feature is presently supported with new databases only, the verse chooser will now show you just the verses that are in the book and nothing else. The verse chooser also now shows introductions, prefaces, outlines, and the like. Formerly, verse 1 of chapter 1 would take you to the introduction for a Bible book, assuming an introduction was present. Now you can see in the verse chooser whether an introduction is present, and you can choose either to read it or to go directly to the verses.
Yet another feature we added was table of contents navigation. This feature works by letting you “browse” through a book’s table of contents to find where you want to go. This is great for non-versified works like Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology. We have even used this feature on a number of versified works. The Bible Knowledge Commentary has a very rich outline structure too. So we put this structure into the table of contents navigation. On versified material you can switch back and forth between verse mode and table of contents mode (or TOC). Having both modes gives you more flexibility for locating a passage of interest to you. (Once again these new features are only supported on newer databases.)
Finally one of the biggest advantages of the new verse chooser is that it is cross platform (except BlackBerry). This lets us add new features to all of our platforms much more easily. Right now this verse chooser is in the Palm and Pocket PC release BibleReaders and the Smartphone beta reader. We are currently working on “hooking it up” in the Symbian BibleReaders. This means that Smartphone users can now use works like Grudem’s Systematic Theology, the New Scofield Bible Study Notes, the Ryrie Study Bible Notes, and the Bible Knowledge Commentary. With minimal work we were able to get this rich verse chooser working on Smartphone. I hope you will enjoy the many benefits of this new verse chooser as you use it for reading and studying your Bibles and other tools.