Posts tagged Bible Study
Top 5 Features in The Bible Study App
15I teased you last week with some exciting new features that are making their way to The Bible Study App, but I realized that everyone might not know about all the great features already available in our app. Here are my top 5 favorite features:
1. The Resource Guide
This is hands down the coolest thing I’ve ever seen in a Bible study app. While I’m reading the Bible, I can open the Resource Guide in the split window to see cross references, study Bible notes, maps, topics and more that are all related to my current reading. As I continue to read, the Resource Guide tracks with me and updates the material to match the Scripture I’m reading.
2. Search
I’m not very good at remembering verse references and often find myself asking things like, “Where is that verse about the mustard seed?” Instead of flipping through the Bible or searching through an index, I can tap (more…)
Back to Basics: Using Tags on iPad
0Tags are one of Olive Tree Bible app’s most useful features. When you create a tag, you can add your notes, bookmarks, and highlights into this one top-level category. Any bookmark, highlighted word, phrase, or verse, and any note can be added to a single tag so that selecting the tag displays the list of all its annotations—the bookmarked verses, highlighted words and verses, and the notes that are tied to the tag. Thus using tags allows you to create custom topical studies. Here’s how this works.
How to Create a Tag
To create a tag, tap the My Stuff briefcase icon, make sure you are on the My Stuff main page, and scroll down so that the Tags option is displayed. Tap the Tags option to display the My Tags dialog. At the bottom of this dialog, tap the Create New Tag button to display the Create Tag dialog. In the Name field of this dialog, enter a name for the tag you wish to create, for example, Marriage.
Tap the Create button in the top right corner to create the tag. This takes you back to the My Tags dialog where you will see the new Marriage tag listed.
Adding a Tag to a Highlight or Bookmark
Having created the Marriage tag, we can now add stuff to that tag. To associate one of your existing highlights or bookmarks with the Marriage tag, tap the My Stuff briefcase icon, make sure you are on the My Stuff main page, and then select either Highlights or Bookmarks from the My Stuff menu. Find the highlight or bookmark that you would like to tag and tap the blue button to the right to edit the highlight for this verse.
In the dialog that pops up, tap the “Edit Tags” button to display the My Tags list. On that list, tap the Marriage tag. (Tapping the Marriage tag displays a check mark by it.)
Adding a Tag to a Note
To add a tag to one of your notes, go into the My Stuff folder and tap on the note you would like to edit. On the bottom of the edit note pop up, tap on the icon that looks like a sale tag, it should be the middle icon.
Tap on “Marriage” to add the tag to your note. You can also add a tag to a note at the time you are creating that note. Just make sure to hit “Save” before exiting the note you’ve just created.
I somehow managed to make this seem far more difficult than it really is. Follow along and try it for yourself to see how easy it is to use Tags to aid in your Bible study!
Back to the Basics: Creating Notes & Highlights on Android
7Creating Notes & Highlights
If you aren’t already using the notes and highlight features on your Android Olive Tree app, well, you should be. I’m here today to show you just how easy it is to take notes and highlight verses in the app. Now, lets get to the basics:
To add a highlight:
Tap on the verse number where you would like to add a highlight.
A toolbar will pop up, with several options. Select the “Highlight” option. You can now select the number of verses to highlight. Tap the right facing arrow to select multiple verses. Once you have selected the verse range to highlight, tap “Select [number] Verse(s).”
The highlight editor will pop up which allows you to title the highlight, change the highlight color and edit tags for the highlight. Make the changes to the highlight you would like, and tap “Save” to finish adding your highlight.
To add a note:
Tap on the verse number where you would like to create a note. A toolbar will pop up, with several options. Select the “Note” option.
The note editor will pop up which allows you to title the note, add text to the note and edit tags for the note. Tap on the “Edit” button to add text to your note. Tap “Done” when you are finished editing the note. A note icon should appear in the Bible text next to the verse you selected to create a note.
And that’s it! Simple, right? Now go start taking notes and highlights in the Olive Tree app and head back here to see how to sync your notes and highlights to the Olive Tree cloud and make sure you never lose any of them.
The Importance of History
0July 26, 2012
by Elizabeth
in Product Reviews
“If you don’t know history, then you don’t know anything. You are a leaf that doesn’t know it is part of a tree. ”
-Michael Crichton
History was likely a subject you studied in school and either loved or hated. In high school, I had an awesome U.S. History teacher who had the class make up what kind of cars America’s Founding Fathers would have driven based on personality. Though history might be an obligatory study in school, there’s no doubt that history is important, even working its way into popular culture. When I asked my co-workers to think of movies based on history, I got a list a mile long, everything from Titanic to Braveheart. Even Hollywood recognizes the power and importance of history.
The question is: Do Christians recognize the value of our own history? John Piper, a longtime pastor, speaker, and author, gave 15 short lectures at multiple Desiring God pastors’ conferences about Christians whose lives exemplified the two Great Commandments.
I would encourage you to download this free resource, called the John Piper Biographies Collection, to read the fascinating histories of fifteen Christian men, from St. Augustine to John Newton, who served Jesus Christ in the midst of persecution, prosperity, widespread heresy, and shifting world powers.
My favorite character in John Piper’s collection is Charles Simeon, the pastor of a Cambridge, England church for 54 years in the late 1700 and early 1800s. Simeon was a vibrant evangelical pastor when Cambridge had little evangelical Christian influence and even some persecution.
Students and professors at Cambridge were hostile to Simeon for his vibrant Christian faith. They continuously disrupted church services and spread rumors about him. A professor at Cambridge even scheduled a Greek class on Sunday night specifically to prevent students from attending Simeon’s Sunday evening worship services. Even Simeon’s congregation was hostile to him at various intervals in his long ministry.
But this is where the true benefit of history comes to play. Simeon’s writings give us clues to how he endured a life of persecution and hostility and how we might follow his example. Simeon writes:
“Repentance is in every view so desirable, so necessary, so suited to honor God, that I seek that above all…Here I cannot err. . . . I am sure that whatever God may despise . . . He will not despise the broken and contrite heart.”
Simeon’s story is only the tip of the iceberg in Piper’s Biographies Collection and in the 2,000 years of Christian history in which countless men and women have followed Jesus boldly and loved people fearlessly. Don’t miss out on the wisdom and encouragement that history provides.
Back to Basics: Highlighting on iPad, iPhone
5Check back every Tuesday to see a new “Back to Basics” tip for using the Olive Tree Bible app.
One of the most popular features of our Bible apps is highlighting. While highlighting is relatively easy to do, there are some cool things you can do with highlights in our Bible apps.
Adding a Highlight
There are two different ways to highlight Scripture on your iPad or iPhone. The first is a single-verse highlight and the second is highlighting a specific block of text.
Highlighting a Single Verse
The first way to add a highlight is to tap on a verse number and select the “Highlight” option. You will see the basic color options for the highlighters. By selecting a color, voila! you have highlighted that single Bible verse.
Highlighting a single verse
Highlighting a Block of Text
The second way to highlight is to use the tap and hold function to select an amount of text, maybe a word or two, or several verses, and then tap the “highlight” option from the list.
Tap and hold to select text
One Important Note: Single-verse highlights, made by tapping on a verse number, will appear in every Bible translation that contains that Bible verse. Text selection highlights made by selecting a specific block of text are translation specific and will only appear in the Bible translation that they were created in.
Creating a Custom Highlight
If the default highlighters aren’t what you’re looking for, Olive Tree Bible apps offer the option to create your own highlight. After you have either tapped on a verse number or selected a block of text and tapped “Highlight,” instead of choosing a highlight color, tap on “More” and then tap on the “Edit” button on the top right of the pop-up. 
Select “Add Highlighter” and you will be given a broad range of options for changing the color and type of highlight you create, including creating an underline highlighter. You can name your new highlight and use it over and over again.
Managing Your Highlights
Once you have created a highlight, it will appear in your “My Stuff” folder, represented by the suitcase icon. Tap on the icon and tap “Highlights.” Select the color of highlight you want to edit or select “All Highlighters” to see all of your highlights.
If you tap on a highlight, you will be taken to that location in the main window. If you tap on the blue arrow, you can edit the title, add a tag, change the category, change the highlight color, and delete the highlight. I’ll talk more about the awesome ways to sort and organize your notes and highlights using Tags and Categories in later posts. For now, go experiment with the different highlights, create your own custom highlighter and check back with us next week to see how to organize them all.
If you have any more questions about highlighting in the Olive Tree Bible apps, let us know in the comments and we’ll be sure to help you out. Head to our video page to watch highlighting in action on the different platforms, including highlighting on iPad.
Project Flying Eagle
July 3, 2012
There are always new things being discussed and planned at Olive Tree. Our newest and biggest project is what we’re calling by the code name the “Flying Eagle.” We’re not able to divulge any more details at present, but be assured that the talented and passionate Olive Tree staff is working hard to help you study God’s Word.
Here are some pictures from our company lunch today in which we discussed the details of Project Flying Eagle. As always, our lunch was delicious: sandwiches from a local sandwich shop, chips and salsa, fresh grapes, and soda (including the ever-present Mountain Dew that fuels many engineers!).
In line for food and drinks.
Candid photo!
Mark A. is excited to eat his sandwich!
Stephen J. giving a presentation to the team.
Olive Tree’s President, Drew, and his wife, Sarah.
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