BibleWorks8 Installation Observations

Here are some observations as I installed BW8 for the first time yesterday.

The only things in the box are a Quick-Start Guide and the DVD. Having used the six pack of CDs in the past, the DVD is a huge improvement. I will run through the steps I took, but the Quick-Start Guide is helpful. It is short enough that someone will probably be tempted to read it! In addition to the installation instructions, it gives a quick orientation to the program that one really should read if you have not used the program before. You will see that if you have been using BW7, most things work as you expect in BW8. There was a major interface change from BW6 to BW7, but this worthwhile upgrade mainly features enhancements and new databases and tools.

The whole installation process took me less than 30 minutes, but a big chunk of that time was taken by the two reboots.

Before starting the installation, just to be safe, I backed up the following BW7 subdirectories: ase, databases, downloads, init, notes, userdb.

You need to uninstall BW7 use Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs. After running this process, I checked, and it appears that most of my BW7 installation and files is still there, including all the subdirectories I had backed up. (See this BW Forum entry by Mark Eddy for which files are removed.)
I went ahead and rebooted, installed the DVD, and proceeded following onscreen cues.
When it came to activating modules, I entered the code that is on the front of the Quick-Start Guide.
I had previously received via email the new codes for modules I had purchased. (BDAG, HALOT, CROY) By copying those codes in the email and then simply returning to the code activation menu, the codes were automatically pasted in. Very nice.

Do note that a number of databases have been removed in BW8 compared to earlier versions due to licensing matters. From the BW8 Help file, ch. 4:

The following list of databases contains items included in the base package of BibleWorks 7 which are no longer available from BibleWorks and which will not be included in the BibleWorks 8 package.

1. Word Pictures, A. T. Robertson
2. Basic Hebrew for Bible Study, Mark Futato
3. German Lutherbibel 1984

The following list of databases contains items included in the BibleWorks 7 base package which are no longer available in the BibleWorks 8 base package, but which may be purchased separately.

4. A Concise Greek-English Dictionary of the New Testament, Barclay M. Newman, Jr.
5. A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, Bruce M. Metzger.
6. Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, Lust-Eynikel-Hauspie.

If you are a registered user and are upgrading from BibleWorks 7 to BibleWorks 8, you will be sent free of charge a set of activation codes for items 5 and 6, and registered users upgrading from BibleWorks 7 or previous versions will be sent free of charge a set of activation codes for items 3 and 4.

Things seem to be working out, but according to reports on the BW Forum, some people are getting the previously purchased modules codes first, some are getting the BW7 module codes first, some are still waiting. Be patient for now...

Another reboot; everything set, so I start the program... First appears the splash screen, and it turns out that there are at least 6 different ones. (Still looking for those tater tots!) The Getting Started screen appears, and if you are new to BW, then looking at the short videos surveying the program are really worthwhile.

First impressions: the program looks nearly identical to BW7, and that's a good thing. I've appreciated the workflow concept, and it has been an efficient layout, in my opinion. The most obvious differences are:

• the command line is a bit longer with the options now in a bar just below it
• the results list has check boxes in front of the hits
• the Analysis pane on the right where there are quite a few more tabs
• there's a new, bluish button on the button bar that is the new ERMIE feature.

I ran a few simple tasks, and everything runs as expected and as fast as ever.

I'll post this for now, but in the next one, I will describe all the steps ones needs to take to migrate from BW7 to BW8, especially if you had customized BW7.