Posts tagged tips
Nine Tips and Refreshers to get you started with The Bible Study App
11February 22, 2013
Being a relatively new user of The Bible Study App I can understand the comments I’ve heard of “where do I start?” Here are a few tips to help anyone get started with The Bible Study App and a few refreshers for our active users. (Please note that icon graphics vary somewhat across devices.)
1. The “Library” Button: This is where you can find all of the Bibles, commentaries, dictionaries, and other resources you’ve downloaded to your devices. You can choose from All, Recent, or Favorites.
2. “My Stuff” Suitcase Button is the central nervous system of The Bible Study App. Here you can find your notes, bookmarks, highlights, tags, reading plans, and the ever important Sync button at the bottom left. If you haven’t already done so, stop what you are doing, do not pass go, do not collect $200 and Click here to create an Olive Tree Account. I can’t go into great detail here, but there are enormous benefits to creating an Olive Tree Account.
3.“History” Button: Do you ever get three verses into a Bible study and want to refer back to a previous verse? The History Button is the fastest way to refer back to a previous reference. You can view by date or by title.
4. Settings Button is where you can quickly customize the type and size of your font. For a more customized Bible Study App experience, you can then click the “Advanced Settings” for an array of other custom settings (social network, posting, custom gestures, etc) within The Bible Study App.
5. Search Button: Search anything within the resource you are currently studying. In your Bible, you can even limit your search to the Old Testament, New Testament, or create a custom filter or range that you define.
6. 
Book Ribbons: Save your place in any resource with the Book Ribbon. To find your place, tap the My Stuff button and then tap the Book Ribbons button.
7. The Split Window Button: You don’t have to switch back and forth to view different resources. With the Split Window Button, you can view your Bible and your favorite commentary at the same time.
8.
The Sync option: I have a terrible memory, but thanks to The Bible Study App, I’m able to overcome it…mostly. I do my daily Bible Reading in the App and click sync when I’m done. This allows me to go into my other devices to access and keep up with my Reading Plan. The Bible is able to sink into my daily life and I can refer back to that morning’s reading from wherever I am – on the go with my phone, on laptop at work, at coffee shops on my iPad, or at home on my desktop. Because of the Bible Study App Sync function, all of my custom highlights, tags, and bookmarks are always readily available.
9. Download The Bible Study App to every device you own. I personally have an iPhone 3GS, iPad 2, Windows 8 Laptop, and Windows Vista desktop. The advantage to having the App on your devices is that with an Olive Tree Account (have you created one yet?) you can access your entire library from wherever you study the Bible.
Obviously, I’m a big fan of the form and function of the Olive Tree Bible Study App. What are your top features of The Bible Study App? Where would you advise a new user to start? I would love your feedback.
Hints for Using the Word Biblical Commentary in the Bible Study App
10Using the WBC in the Bible Study App
If you saw our last article on the Word Biblical Commentary (WBC) you will know that this is a hefty commentary series. Because of the vast information included in WBC, it presents some challenges for usage in a mobile platform. Each section of commentary in WBC (covering a range of verses) is further divided into a number of sub-sections which each approach the entire set of verses from different perspectives like “Bibliography”, “Translation” and more. As I mentioned before, each of these sub-sections covers the entire range of verses for the section. If we were to attach a Bible verse location to all of them, there would be no way to distinguish in the verse chooser between the sub-sections and you’d be given multiple results for every location.
To avoid this problem, only the translation section is tied to a Bible verse location. This means that if you select a verse in the verse chooser, you will be taken to that verse in the translation sub-section of the appropriate section in the commentary.
Why the Resource Guide Makes WBC Even More Awesome
Using it with the Resource Guide like this makes it easy to drill down to one sub-section, then jump back up quickly and then back down to another sub-section on the same passage.
More Tips for Using WBC
One more note on the WBC, if you have your main window and split window set up to track along with each other, moving the text in the other window will take you back to beginning of that section in the commentary. You can turn off the setting that sets windows to follow one another, which is recommended when using the WBC alongside another text.
As you can see, the Word Biblical Commentary is a massive collection of great resources enhanced by The Bible Study App. Right now, the entire 59 Volume set is on sale for $299.99. The sale price for the Word Biblical Commentary set is available now through the end of the day Monday, April 15. Be sure to check it out!
Do you have any tips on using the Word Biblical Commentary? How have you used it to enhance your Bible Study?
(10 comments so far)