On the flip side, QV contains several very useful features. My favorite of these is the incorporation of Microsoft Office Smart Tags. These smart tags allow you to import bible passages into MS Word without opening QV. The Smart Tag function searches your default bible, topical, and dictionary. Another cool feature of QV is Passage E-mails. This feature, integrated with MS Outlook (2000 or later), automatically opens a new email and pastes the bible passage you’ve selected from all your bibles, all your open bibles, bibles from a list you choose, or from the bible you’re currently using.

QV also allows you to save your study view so you can return to all the resources you had open, just like you left them. This is especially valuable when teaching more than one study or preaching more than one sermon a week. Finally, though I haven’t seen a copy yet, QV has just released their MAC version for OS-X. Here’s what their website says: “Rather than attempting to retrofit obsolete code from Windows to the Mac platform –discerning Mac users would not accept that – QuickVerse Mac has been developed with an entirely new core compression, which utilizes the most advanced search and retrieval technology, in an ultra-lightweight code base, designed for small footprint desktops and hand-held systems.”

Advertisement

System Requirements: Windows 98 SE/2000/ME/XP CD/DVD; Pentium III 500 or greater; 128 MB of RAM; 200 MB hard drive space; 2x CD-ROM drive or faster; 600 x 800 display, 64k color or greater. Website: www.quickverse.com

Thompson Chain-Reference Bible – Leader’s Library

The Thompson Chain-Reference Bible (TCRB) has become one of the most popular study bibles in use. Utilizing WORDsearch 7 (WS7) technology, this library contains 165 volumes (18 bibles, including TCRB, and 147 reference works). As I mentioned in last year’s review, WS and Epiphany Software (Bible Explorer) merged, and together they bring the best of both worlds together in the much more user-friendly and resource loaded WS7 interface. There are more than 1200 volumes available in the CROSS (Christian Reference Open Software Standard) format. See last year’s review for a run-down of what I found to be the best features of WS7.

The TCRB library contains a number of helpful resources for your sermon preparation including commentaries (19), dictionaries (7), histories (12), topical and cross-reference resources (6), and the list goes on. Though most of these resources aren’t unique to WS7, there are definitely enough of them to serve as a strong base for your electronic library. Several more resources and software packages are available on WS7’s website, and they integrate seamlessly.

Last year I found WS7 lacking in the area of original language study. I’m pleased to see that they’re now adding resources for study in Greek and Hebrew. The TCRB library contains eleven of these resources (however, this doesn’t include the Greek or Hebrew texts). While this won’t completely satisfy those who prefer to do exegesis in the original languages, there are more resources available online like the Greek and Hebrew Library which includes the Nestle-Aland 27 with grammar tags. I’m excited to see WS7 expanding in the area of original language study and hope that this will cross over into the addition of more technical commentaries and resources.