The weblog of Olive Tree Bible Software
What are Olive Tree users saying about the new Pocket PC Features?
Mar 5th
Our engineers aren’t the only ones getting excited about the new Pocket PC features – our beta users are getting excited too! Here’s what one of our customers had to say…
I had been a user of another PDA Bible Software product until being introduced to the Olive Tree BibleReader through purchasing the New Oxford Annotated Bible for my PPC. I immediately liked the interface and then found the wide range of original language tools available. I have since bought several English translations, two versions of the Greek text, and the “Little Kittel” Theological Dictionary. I have also regularly loaded the beta releases and have appreciated the increases in both functionality and ease of use. This [latest] update is incredible. Kudos to whoever developed the second toolbar. I can view full screen and still have easy access to the functions I commonly use with a pull-down bar that only shows when I want it. This is great! Love this build! [This] second toolbar is just the latest step forward in molding the application interface to match the way people use the software. What a concept!
So – if you’re a feature lover, get ready for the new Pocket PC reader, or get a sneak peak with the beta reader today!
~ K
Pocket PC Features, Features, Features!!
Mar 2nd
This is such an exciting time at Olive Tree Bible Software for software feature lovers like me. We have been adding new features to most of our BibleReaders. The latest BibleReader we released in beta with new features is the Pocket PC BibleReader. I am so thrilled about our new Pocket PC features that I decided to switch to Pocket PC as my personal device.
We added full screen mode to the Pocket PC BibleReader. Full screen mode lets the BibleReader take control of the entire screen. When in full screen mode none of the precious little screen space is wasted on the toolbar and title bar. However, unless you have lots of shortcuts defined that you can remember, being in full screen mode by itself is only good for reading since it has no toolbar. So we added a collapsible secondary toolbar. The secondary toolbar is displayed when the BibleReader is in full screen mode (as well as when it is not in full screen mode). When you just want to read you can collapse the secondary toolbar to maximize the text on the screen. Then when you want to do more in-depth Bible study, take notes, add bookmarks, highlight, etc you can un-collapse the secondary toolbar. What is even better about the secondary toolbar is that you can customize it to have just the buttons you want on it. For example, if you do a lot of highlighting you can add a lot of highlighting buttons. You can even decide where you want the secondary toolbar to be placed. So if you make a lot of use of landscape mode you may want to put the secondary toolbar on the right hand side.
Another exciting feature that we added to the Pocket PC BibleReader is the bookmark popup. Accessing and adding bookmarks is now faster and easier! For those who have multiple bookmark files you can now quickly change the bookmark file from the bookmark popup. For example, this will let you easily switch between a set of bookmarks you may have created for sharing the gospel and your bookmarks from last Sunday’s sermon.
As if this wasn’t enough, we also added the navigation history to Pocket PC. Now you can pull up the history to see where you have been and quickly return to a passage you were previously reading.
You can download the latest Pocket PC reader here. I hope you are as excited about the Pocket PC BibleReader’s new features as I am!
Stephen
Exciting New Features On Symbian Series 60 BibleReader
Feb 28th
We just put up a new Symbian Series 60 beta with some cool new features! The features I am the most excited about are the ones that make navigating and accessing common functions faster. We completely redid verse navigation. Verse navigation is now done by using the 5-way navigator to select the book, chapter, and verse from a table. This makes navigating to a verse much easier. We also reorganized the menu to make it easier and quicker to access the menu items. To make accessing common functions even faster we removed the necessity of using the menu. You can assign shortcuts to keys on your phone with the new shortcut options. For example, on my Symbian phone I assigned the center key to bring up the verse chooser. Using this shortcut with the new verse chooser makes getting to verses effortless.
Shortcuts aren’t the only options we added. This new BibleReader now has scrolling options, font options, and color options for customizing how each window looks.
We also added support for a number of commentaries and Christian Writings. You can now read Matthew Henry’s Commentary, Jamieson Faucett and Brown Commentary (JFB), New Scofield Bible Notes, and Grudem’s Systematic Theology on your Symbian Series 60 phone.
You can download this beta BibleReader here.
Enjoy!
Stephen
The Value of Multiple Translations
Feb 27th
With the advent of personal computers and handheld devices, studying a portion of Scripture in various translations has become even easier. Olive Tree offers a wide array of English and other Bible translations for you to search and compare, over 80 in all. “What possible use could I have for so many translations,” you ask? Read on to find out.
A Faster BibleReader for Palm
Feb 13th
Anyone who has used both our Pocket PC and Palm BibleReader has noticed that searching on the Pocket PC is much faster than it is on Palm. This is true even when the Palm unit has a faster processor. What you will probably be surprised to find out is that the searching code is 98% identical in the Palm and Pocket PC readers. The reason that the Palm BibleReader searches slower is because it has to go through an emulation layer in the Palm OS. We are pleased to announce a beta version of the Palm BibleReader that bypasses this emulation layer. This version of the Palm BibleReader runs natively on the ARM processor. This reader has faster searching, scrolling, and text rendering. Click here to download the beta reader.
A Newer, Friendlier Verse Chooser
Feb 5th
You 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.
Over 80 Bibles for your PDA or Smartphone
Feb 5th
It has always been the mission of Olive Tree Bible Software to provide Bibles and quality Bible study tools for your handheld computing device. If you’ve visited Olivetree.com lately, you’ve probably seen our newly updated Bibles page with over 80 translations of the word of God available for your PDA or Smartphone.
When you download a Bible translation or other product, you get at no charge all the features of the company’s BibleReader™ software, enabling you to easily access any verse quickly, to search for a word or phrase, to highlight a passage, to create notes and note file categories, to view translations simultaneously in separate windows, to establish a daily reading schedule, to bookmark your Bible reading locations, and much more. Although some of these features vary with different platforms, the company is always striving to accommodate new devices, to put out new products, and to streamline our BibleReader software, making it even better.
On our Bibles page, you will see links to English Bibles, Non-English Bibles, Original Language Texts, NIV Bibles and Bundles (a whole new page of options), and Bible Study Collections (sixteen in all, tailored to your personal Bible study goals). You will also see a display of some of our most popular Bibles – NIV, NASB, NKJV, ESV, KJV, and many more – with direct links for downloading them to your device, whether Pocket PC, Palm OS, Smartphone, Symbian Cell Phone, or Blackberry.
If you’d like to try a Bible on your PDA or Smartphone free of charge, with all the benefits of BibleReader software, you’ll find the much respected American Standard Version (ASV) as well as a number of other free Bibles of very high quality, including Darby’s New Translation, Young’s Literal Translation (YLT), and the Weymouth New Testament. To view these free Bibles and more, go to our Free Items page and follow the link to All Free Resources. You’ll discover more than 75 free resources for your enjoyment. Take God’s word with you everywhere, along with the convenience of all the BibleReader features for reading, searching, and recording your insights.
A New Addition to Olive Tree’s “Explore the Bible” Article Series
Jan 31st
We want to call your attention to an ongoing series of articles from Olive Tree called Explore the Bible on your PDA or Smartphone. These articles have been coming out for a few months now; there are nine to date, and a tenth coming soon. You may read these articles at olivetree.com or download them at no charge to your handheld computing device. The purpose of the articles is to help our customers get the most out of their electronic Bibles and Bible study software by presenting examples of real Bible study using Olive Tree Bibles and tools. A second, but not secondary, purpose is to nurture in readers a love and respect for the Bible and its message. Articles address such topics as The Blessings of Daily Scripture Reading, Using Cross References to Let the Bible Speak for Itself, The Why and How of Bible Searches, and Meditating on God’s Word. Some of the articles include helpful screen shots to assist readers.
The newest article, released today for reading online, will be ready to download to your device in a few days. It is entitled Appreciating Greek with Wuest’s Translation. Kenneth S. Wuest’s New Testament: an Expanded Translation is unlike any other translation I know. Olive Tree is delighted to be able to provide this outstanding tool to our users. We like it so much that we have devoted an entire article to explaining how the translation works.
The Expanded Translation is a bold attempt by a noted Greek professor and scholar to render a more precise sense of the original by using as many English words as are necessary to convey the New Testament writers’ intended meaning; hence, it is an “expanded” translation, not, strictly speaking, a paraphrase. Greek students will immediately recognize echoes of the principles of Greek they learned in their study of the New Testament language. In fact, reading Wuest’s translation is like taking a refresher course on what makes Greek Greek and not English. Non-Greek-readers will be pleased to find a translation that lets them in on Greek patterns of thought and discourse without the need to actually learn Greek. This was exactly the translator’s desire: he wanted to share the richness of the Greek New Testament with those who might not have the opportunity to learn the language themselves. He intended that his translation would complement other fine translations and would be a window into Greek nuances that are difficult to render in English.
We hope you will enjoy this article, along with the other articles in our series; even the more, we recommend to you Wuest’s Expanded Translation itself for use on your PDA or smartphone. So that you will not be left without a taste of this unique translation, here are the familiar final verses of Romans 8 (verses 36-39) as Wuest translates them. Notice especially his treatment of the present tense, with its durative force, and the perfect tense to show completed action:
“Even as it stands written, For your sake we are being put to death all the day long. We were accounted as sheep destined for slaughter. But in these things, all of them, we are coming off constantly with more than the victory through the One who loved us. For I have come through a process of persuasion to the settled conclusion that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things about to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
What’s in a Name?
Jan 29th
Recently, Olive Tree staffers have been wondering if the title Christian eBooks should be changed to Christian Writings on our navigation bar and on the product pages for these items. Our concern is that the term eBook, though widely used, may have connotations that diminish the gravity of the wonderfully rich writings that we are privileged to make available for reading on the PDA or smartphone.
Consider some of these titles, representative of about one hundred you can choose from: Andrew Murray’s books Absolute Surrender and Humility, both of which call us as believers to turn ourselves over to Christ that we may experience Him as our life; Alfred Edersheim’s Bible History of the Old Testament, an invaluable exploration of life in Bible times; Hannah Whitall Smith’s God of All Comfort, developing the author’s bold assertion that God is enough for every human need; Madame Guyon’s Autobiography, a testimony that has drawn many to desire a deeper experience of Christ and the cross; John Nelson Darby’s Pilgrim Portions, a devotional writing with epigrammatic statements full of piercing light; John Piper’s A Hunger for God, one of several books by this ebullient writer, who aims to foster desire for God in his readers; and Bob Munger’s My Heart Christ’s Home, a jewel among the many outstanding tracts available from Olive Tree.
When you go to Olivetree.com, you will see a tab that says Christian Writings. We hope you will realize that many of these works are not mere electronic books, but priceless gifts to the Body of Christ penned by men and women whom God has used to impart life to His people. This puts them in a category of their own, for which it’s hard to find a suitable name.
Take a look at what’s new in January!
Jan 23rd
December and January have been busy months for the Olive Tree staff. The company has expanded its inventory of Bible bundles from five to fifteen with the introduction of a wide array of new options for our customers. The new Bible Study Collections include five that feature the popular New International Version (NIV) and range from the economical Concise Study Collection to the bountiful Scholar’s Collection with over fifty items. Ten additional collections offer a rich selection of premium Bibles and study resources – all priced at a substantial savings and carefully selected for your individual Bible study needs. You’ll find that a trip to our web site to view the collections and compare them is well worth your time.
What else is new? No less than ten items in all, and very substantial ones at that. The easy-to-understand yet scholarly Bible Knowledge Commentary, the New Scofield Study Bible Notes from Oxford University Press, four Christian eBooks by insightful author/pastor John Piper, the fascinating and very useful Encyclopedia of Bible Facts, and the acclaimed Bible Background Commentary – NT are all available, along with several more excellent new items. To see them all, go to Olivetree.com and look under New Releases.