Tuesday, April 29, 2008

13 Bible Software Programs Reviewed

Jerry Foster has posted an extremely comprehensive review of 13 Bible software programs. That link will bring you to the summary table, but clicking on each of the programs he reviews will lead to thorough reviews of each.
Programs he reviewed in order starting with his highest recommended:
  • WORDsearch 8
  • The Word 3
  • SwordSearcher 5
  • Bible Explorer 4
  • Logos 3
  • e-Sword
  • QuickVerse 2008
  • Pradis 6
  • Theophilos 3
  • The SWORD Project
  • Bible Pro 12
  • Online Bible
  • Lightning Study Bible
Note that he indicates that this is his personal evaluation based on his personal needs, namely, "a lay person who is interested in Bible software for personal study and teaching, yet does not have extra time or money." As he observes, therefore, he did not work with Greek or Hebrew tools and did not include BibleWorks7 among the programs tested. If people are interested in commenting on his review, he encourages comments on his blog.

This comprehensive review is quite a significant amount of work! I appreciate his criticisms, and I especially value his comments on interfaces and what he calls "extensibility" (i.e., personalizing the program, adding notes, etc.). The Bible software publishers will do well to review his evaluations. I tend to focus more on software to work with Greek and Hebrew, but this is a great resource for discovering and learning about a number of programs.
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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousApril 30, 2008 at 1:59 AM

    Hey, thanks for the link and the kind words. It definitely was a significant amount of work - I nearly bit off more than I could chew! I'm just glad it's done; now all I have to do is sit back and read all the emails flowing in from everyone who doesn't agree with my conclusions. :)

    God bless.

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  2. AnonymousFebruary 15, 2009 at 8:19 PM

    Quick update. I just completed 7 more, bringing the total to 20. I also mention every single software that I didn't review, and the reasons why, which is another 16 on top of that.

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