This is the third post on my four-post review of BibleWorks. The first post was a general introduction of the program with some notable features highlighted. In the second post,
I talked about the first of the three main windows in BibleWorks, the Search Window (SW). In this post, we look at the Browse Window (BW), which is located in the center of BibleWorks.
The BW is where the text of verses resulting from searches in the SW is displayed. The BW is composed of two main parts. The first part is the Header, which is the upper portion of the BW. Fully customizable, the Header can display a dropdown outline of the Bible or a series of navigation list boxes, allowing one to select the Bible version, book, chapter, and verse. One of the interesting options in the Header is a dropdown list on the left side that allows one to choose from various Bible outlines and set outline options. These outlines were produced by the editors of different Bible translations. Another important dropdown list in the Header is the Browse Window Options. This is where different toggle options are available. One toggle that I find helpful is the Toggle Difference Highlighting. When selected, this toggle shows the word use differences in all the Bible versions by having them marked with color highlighting in the Test Area.
The second part of the BW is the Text Area, which displays the text of verses. Text can be displayed in two modes, Single Version Browse Mode (where a verse is displayed in its larger biblical context in a running, continuous text) or Multiple Version Mode (where a verse is displayed in many different Bible versions). One can easily toggle between the browse mode and the multiple version mode. The Text Area is closely linked with the SW. A double click on a word runs a search for it in SW. A double click on a version label will make that version the default search version. There is a number of menu searching options through a right click on a word in the Text Area. For example, one can search on lemma for a Hebrew or Greek word to find any instance of that word no matter what form it takes in the text. Through a right click in the Text Area one can lookup text in the default Bible dictionary, lookup a place name in the BibleWorks maps, and other options for looking up a word in a lexicon. For New Testament Greek text, one can also right click on a word and choose to open a New Testament diagram at that word or listen to the text read in Greek.
In short, the BW is the primary means to read and view the biblical text. It is as if your physical Bible is open right before your eyes with many fast ways and easy options to flip its pages and navigate its content.
Rev. Dr. Sherif L. Gendy
Arabish Biblical Theology 