BW7 includes a completely rewritten Editor that’s fully compatible with MS Word and WordPad (BW7 supports both Unicode and non-Unicode). Often, editors included with Bible study software are limited to the point of ineffectiveness. However, BW7’s editor contains an array of features that allow you to significantly format text before it’s ever transferred to Word — this saves you the headache of constantly switching between programs.
BW7 has also added a tool (Key Word in Context) that allows you to build context lexicons and collocation tables for words in any version. This is very useful for discovering patterns for significant words and phrases. BW7 has also updated the lexicon links (almost 50,000 corrections), and all the lexicons contain hypertext links for biblical references.
Advertisement
If the only thing that changed in version 7 was the user interface, BW7 would still be well worth the upgrade.
Minimum System Requirements: Windows 98, Me, NT, 2000, XP; Internet Explorer version 6, SP1; Minimum of 64 MB RAM; Minimum of 600 MB to a maximum of 5.5 GB hard drive space; 1024x768 screen for videos; Sound card; CD drive; Internet connection for updates.
Website: www.bibleworks.com
I’m not including e-Sword because it’s one of the best out there in the world of Bible study software, but because it’s the best in a particular category — the FREE one. As of May, 2006, e-Sword had over four million downloads, and this speaks to the quality of the software within its category.
The benefits of free are self-evident, but the costs are worth considering. Remember that when you’re dealing in the world of free (at least with Bible study software), you also need to be aware of the restrictions on available resources. What you’re getting is a library full of works considered ‘public domain.’ Usually, that means they’re so old that there’s no longer a copyright restriction. Now, I’d be committing a fallacy if I suggested that just because something is old or public domain it’s bad. Just don’t except access to the best in modern research or the most recent Bible translations with e-Sword or other free programs.
Secondly, the price of the software usually indicates the quality of development. e-Sword is somewhat of an exception here. For free software, it’s pretty sophisticated and user-friendly. The layout works well and keeps you from having to tile windows. You can create your own parallel Bible. There’s an editor for storing your own notes (complete with spell check), and those notes are linked to the associated bible reference. There are multiple styles and ranges of searches. And there’s a STEP reader that allows you to view resources associated with Quickverse, Bible Companion, and WORDsearch.