<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 TRANSITIONAL//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; CHARSET=UTF-8">
<META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="GtkHTML/3.10.3">
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<blockquote><BR>
On Thu, 2007-07-05 at 12:00 -0700, bibledesktop-users-request@crosswire.org wrote:
<BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE>
<PRE>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">Send bibledesktop-users mailing list submissions to</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000"> <A HREF="mailto:bibledesktop-users@crosswire.org">bibledesktop-users@crosswire.org</A></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000"> <A HREF="http://www.crosswire.org/mailman/listinfo/bibledesktop-users">http://www.crosswire.org/mailman/listinfo/bibledesktop-users</A></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000"> <A HREF="mailto:bibledesktop-users-request@crosswire.org">bibledesktop-users-request@crosswire.org</A></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">You can reach the person managing the list at</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000"> <A HREF="mailto:bibledesktop-users-owner@crosswire.org">bibledesktop-users-owner@crosswire.org</A></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">than "Re: Contents of bibledesktop-users digest..."</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">Today's Topics:</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000"> 1. Is there something screwy on the Windows version? (Carl Peterson)</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000"> 2. Re: Is there something screwy on the Windows version? (DM Smith)</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">----------------------------------------------------------------------</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">Message: 1</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">Date: Thu, 5 Jul 2007 00:30:50 -0400</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">From: "Carl Peterson" <<A HREF="mailto:carlopeterson@gmail.com">carlopeterson@gmail.com</A>></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">Subject: [bd-users] Is there something screwy on the Windows version?</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">To: <A HREF="mailto:bibledesktop-users@crosswire.org">bibledesktop-users@crosswire.org</A></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">Message-ID:</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000"> <<A HREF="mailto:6ac0ff0e0707042130rae1c298ob0b614be13832d3d@mail.gmail.com">6ac0ff0e0707042130rae1c298ob0b614be13832d3d@mail.gmail.com</A>></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">I just downloaded and installed BD to my Windows machine. Two things that</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">immediately strike me upon entering:</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">1) What's up with the drop-down box for the Bible translations? The width of</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">the box is almost nothing. When I click the drop-down arrow, all I can see</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">is the first letter of the version name. Am I the only one seeing that. I</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">run Vista, if that makes any difference.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">2) I know you said you really don't want the commentaries in with the</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">Bibles, but it would be nice if I could set the commentary pane to sync with</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">the Bible. Also, a "prev note"/"next note" button set next to the Scripture</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">pickers would help. I'm not very familiar with how commentary modules are</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">set up, but is introductory material (book introductions, chapter</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">introductions) contained in a separate record or is it lumped in with the</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">commentary for the first verse of whatever region its introducing? If the</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">former is the case, it would be nice to have an option to select using the</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">pick boxes those introductions.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">Thanks,</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">Carl Peterson</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">-------------- next part --------------</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">An HTML attachment was scrubbed...</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">URL: <A HREF="http://www.crosswire.org/pipermail/bibledesktop-users/attachments/20070705/54b18b27/attachment-0001.html">http://www.crosswire.org/pipermail/bibledesktop-users/attachments/20070705/54b18b27/attachment-0001.html</A> </FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">------------------------------</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> </FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> 2) I know you said you really don't want the commentaries in with the </FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> Bibles, but it would be nice if I could set the commentary pane to </FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> sync with the Bible.</FONT>
</PRE>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE>
<PRE>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">Would it be sufficient to make the selected commentary jump to the first </FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">verse on the page? (This would be easy)</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">If you click in a verse in a page, would it be good to jump? (This may </FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">be hard and may conflict with how we might do linking to a dictionary) </FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">Maybe clicking on the verse number would make it jump?</FONT>
</PRE>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
</blockquote><BR>
Just a user-driven POV here: <BR>
<BR>
If you are going to link Commentary to Text, there are two things to keep in mind. One is the difference between Inactive, Hover, and Select. You should be able to change the Bible view without losing your place in the commentary, but you should also see both views change when you move on. There should be a clear-cut method for doing both, as you mention.<BR>
<BR>
The other is that, yes, the link-unlink button (as in e-Sword) is a good idea.<BR>
<BR>
<blockquote>
<BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE>
<PRE>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">Commentaries are laid out just like Bibles. Both have the notion of </FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">introductory material at verse "0". So Genesis 0:0, would give </FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">introductory material for Genesis. Gen 1:0 would give introductory </FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">material for Genesis 1.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">That said, Bible Desktop does not yet do this but it is in our queue.</FONT>
</PRE>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
</blockquote><BR>
<BR>
I have been lobbying for quite a while--though I have let it rest lately--for a more CHTML-like view of things. e-text is supposed to be superior to printed text. It is usually not. One reason is that viewing a full page, and being able to rapidly scan it with your eye, is difficult and awkward on a landscape-oriented screen (wider than long, yet not quite big enough to display two pages). Even the Big Boys like Adobe haven't figured out how to fix this, IMHO.<BR>
<BR>
I read fast. Very fast. So the presentation of the page is to me a significant limiting factor. I think it should always be uppermost in our minds. The most convenient apps for me to use, to date, are Firefox (has tabs) and TiddlyWiki (opens a new view as a following paragraph).<BR>
<BR>
Tabs are way cool. It has been suggested, by a user who shall remain nameless, that Bible and Commentary could be openable in tabs. But this user-that-Jesus-loves is waiting to see what the whole Mozilla UI is about.<BR>
<BR>
So, if we have a decent page view, the other thing is to enable search indexing __without disturbing the page view__. Like CHTML (MS Help view).<BR>
<BR>
The example I have used before is being able to visually scan adjacent entries in a dictionary. To a learner--Gk. "disciple", so all of us are learners--it is very important to be able to instantly compare semantically related entries. CHTML again.<BR>
<BR>
I sure like what the NET Bible has done with their online version. It is almost on a par with BD -- some better, some less -- for information and ease of use. And they've done it all with HTML, PHP, and that web database thingy whose name I forget. If only I could put it on a stick.<BR>
<BR>
The two things that are lacking in BD, IMHO, are things that e-Sword has had since way back in the '90's. A good user-editable and linkable Personal Commentary, and word processing support. Tools are evolving to the point that wiki seems like the direction to go with these. But I digress.<BR>
<BR>
I mainly meant to say, "Amen." Be careful what and how you link, and beware of getting tunnel vision about linking, so that commentaries __only__ open in verse-by-verse view (so that introductions are in Chapter 0). If it is not at least as good as print--and just as easy to use--why bother?<BR>
<BR>
(On that note, I'd like to see the page //scroll// to the previous/next chapter, kind of like PDF, rather than just have buttons <- ->. For example when that guy riding in a carriage across France put in all the NT verse numbers in one trip, and sometimes he put chapter divisions in the middle of a thought,)<BR>
<BR>
Thanks,<BR>
<BR>
Coby<BR>
<BR>
PS it is really good to see some traffic on this list.
<BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE>
<PRE>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> ------------------------------------------------------------------------</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> _______________________________________________</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> bibledesktop-users mailing list</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> <A HREF="mailto:bibledesktop-users@crosswire.org">bibledesktop-users@crosswire.org</A></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> <A HREF="http://www.crosswire.org/mailman/listinfo/bibledesktop-users">http://www.crosswire.org/mailman/listinfo/bibledesktop-users</A></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> </FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">------------------------------</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">_______________________________________________</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">bibledesktop-users mailing list</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000"><A HREF="mailto:bibledesktop-users@crosswire.org">bibledesktop-users@crosswire.org</A></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000"><A HREF="http://www.crosswire.org/mailman/listinfo/bibledesktop-users">http://www.crosswire.org/mailman/listinfo/bibledesktop-users</A></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">End of bibledesktop-users Digest, Vol 24, Issue 3</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">*************************************************</FONT>
</PRE>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
</BODY>
</HTML>