Tag Archives: Accordance

e-Sword on a Mac

E-sword on a Mac computer has been possible for quite some time, thanks to the makers of WINE, an open source port of windows dynamic link library binaries and other code necessary to run Windows programs on a Mac. I have made the graphic to the left for those of you who have followed my tutorial for installing e-Sword on a Mac computer running any version of OSX 10.6 or higher (Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion) and the companion tutorial for creating an Applescript App for launching e-Sword. WINE is able to be run on any Intel based Mac, including all late model MacBooks and MacBook Pros.

If you are a new Mac user, who has previously used Windows and would like to have e-Sword on the Mac you have two options. Follow my tutorial to get e-Sword up and running on your Mac, or pay CodeWeavers for their proprietary implementation of the WINE engine for creating “crossties” which are virtual Windows machines for running e-Sword and other programs.

As an update to those articles, you can also install Winebottler which installs both Wine and Winebottler. The Wine App lets you double click on a .msi or .exe file in Finder and open it automatically with WINE. The Winebottler App allows you to create as many “virtual Windows machines”, known as bottles, as you’d like. I prefer to install and compile it on my machine using MacPorts, but if you find the tutorial a bit to confusing or hard to follow, just install Winebottler then double click your .exe file and it should install the application for you. Then, just click the Wine glass symbol in the menu bar  , click DOS prompt, then type in

Still, if you want a truly native Mac bible study app which is truly powerful and is the best for in depth bible study, turn no further than to Accordance. For a review of Accordance 9, their older version, check out my review. Accordance is now up to version 10.1 and is available in Apple’s Apps Store. I have several modules, including Apostolic Pentecostal Accordance Modules available for free on my site. Click on the previous hyperlink, or click on Accordance in the menu bar above.

Also, as an addendum, if you are getting blank white boxes where the text of the bibles, commentaries, dictionaries, etc… should be then, in terminal, type winecfg, and press return, and when the GUI for Wine Config pops up, choose the Libraries tab, then in the “New override for library” box type oleaut32, click add, then click the oleaut32 in the existing overrides, click edit, choose builtin (WINE). Do the exact same steps for  riched20 as well.

Accordance Oneness Pentecostal Package

As many of you know, my favorite bible study app since moving to the Macintosh platform in 2010 has been Accordance. I just found out that Accordance now sells a packaged deal of oneness pentecostal theology books for $79.99. The books included are:

  • I Am, A Oneness Pentecostal Theology by Brother Norris
  • The New Birth by Brother Bernard
  • The Oneness of God by Brother Bernard
  • In Search of Holiness by Brother Bernard
  • Practical Holiness, A Second Look by Brother Bernard

I have read all five books in paperback form, but am Wishlisting this for Accordance do to the speed of Accordance in searching texts. On my mid-2010 Macbook Pro, the search results of the bible and other large texts produces instant results. Literally less than a second’s wait time for search results to be completed, and with the advent of version 10 of Accordance, new users will be introduced to a very clean and easy to use interface which was not the case with version 9; See my review of Accordance 9 here.

Apparently there is a conference special going on right now for $59.99 for all five volumes.

 

Accordance User Modules

For anyone who uses Accordance, user modules are being created by myself based on works in the public domain.  They are accessible vie the Accordance menu at the top of this site.

Review: Accordance 9.5.1

Accordance 9.5.1, a review.

Accordance is a Bible study program designed for the Macintosh operating system.  The specifications for running Accordance 9.5.1 are as follows:

Accordance 9 is fully Intel native and optimized for Mac OS 10.6 and up. It also runs on PowerPC Macs and OS 10.4 and up (users with earlier Mac OS X or OS 7-9 can install the Classic version).

With the advent of Accordance 9.3, OakTree has created an enhanced user interface designed for new users to immediately jump into using Accordance.  It is called the Assistant Window.

The Read section allows the user to type in a verse or book of the bible and open a window displaying the passage in the user’s preferred bible.  Alternatively, it also allows the user to open a window displaying devotional readings to choose from.

The next section, Find, allows the user to locate word or words in a wide range of selections wether it be the bible, or User add-on modules and texts.

The last section, labeled Learn, includes hyperlinks to Oaktree’s various resources for learning how to use the software including the built in help and the Accordance Forum.

The assistant window is one step in improving Accordance’s usability for the average experienced Mac user who is new to Accordance.  Accordance has been notoriously known as non-intuitive for the average user.  It relies on keyboard commands and menu options often buried in menues.

The main window is known as a workspace.

This is a screenshot of the main view of Accordance.  The focus is on the search features.  At the top of the screen you’ll see a search bar with various options to allow you to search words or verses.  The search algorithm is extremely fast.  In fact it is the fastest search algorithm of any bible software I have tested wether PC or Mac.

Checking the interlinear checkbox immediately opens the English, Greek (Hebrew) the Strong’s number and the parts of speech the word belongs to.  This is very handy for conducting word studies or verse studies.  Triple clicking a word will open the default lexicon and display details of the underlining Greek (Hebrew) word in a separate workspace.

Although this is a very powerful search program, (for example right click and choose search for… lemma, root, inflected or tag in any appropriately tagged or marked bible such as the Novum Testamentum Graece (Tischendorf)), it is sometimes unclear on how to search through all texts and modules you might have purchased, or user created modules you might have made using Accordance’s built in user module authoring system.  To search through everything in your whole entire library, for example, you must go to Amplify>Search>Search all…

The resource pallette as shown on the left provides an interesting way to access your resources.  By clicking the appropriate icon you have access to purchased English, Hebrew, Greek and graphical texts and modules.  One of my favorite resources and one I personally think should be included in the base software package is the timeline module.  A screen capture is shown on the right of the timeline module.  It is a graphical representation of the history of bible people and kingdoms.  Not only that, but it also displays the timelines of contemporary histories of nations such as the Chinese and the Egyptian dynasties.  Another way cool feature of the timeline is the ability to add your own events to the timeline.  There are also alternative timelines labeled ‘conservative’ and ‘critical’ which will shift the dates based on which-ever timeline you believe to be more correct.

The program is well designed with a very active user community who enjoy sharing tips and hints on the Accordance Forums.  If you get stuck with a particular problem, more than likely either Helen, Dr. J or one of the other community users will be able to answer your questions or point you in the right direction.  My username there is fireandsalt, which will probably be no surprise to those who know me as I tend to use that username all over the internet on various bible, theology, and techie forums.

All in all I give this the following ratings: