Journal
SwordSearcher Review
2 November 2005 › 15 comments
SwordSearcher is to the Bible what Firefox is to the web. I’ve never seen such attention to detail as it pertains to the user experience.
— Source
About a month ago, I started using what has become my favorite Bible software package. Being a seminary student, I’ve used several different programs, ranging from the cheap and buggy to the expensive and bloaty. For graduate homework, I have used other clunky programs with just about every language imaginable included. For everyday use, I prefer SwordSearcher. I won’t go too in-depth, since you make your own assessment with a free 30 day trial version. I will just highlight a few of my favorite things.
Features & Price: $49.95
Is it the most robust program out there – No. Is it the cheapest one available – No. Is it reliable, fast loading, incredibly intuitive and customizable – Yes. Having used free Bible programs in the past, I’ve always been dissatisfied because they tend not to be very good quality. Without pointing any fingers, just let me say that I’ve had my fill of shoddy software.
That’s why I was pleasantly surprised to find SwordSearcher. In my opinion, it is the best balance of features and price. It has many commentaries included, including those by John Wesley, a big plus for the seminary I’m affiliated with. It also includes phonetic pronounciation of Greek & Hebrew, a life-saver for a person such as myself, who is a bit weak in historical linguistics.
The retail version also comes packaged with maps and illustrations, to help you better understand the context of the Bible as you’re reading. Not sure where exactly things are located? No problem – just fire up the maps, and find your way around. There are even diagrams of somewhat complex spiritual principles, such as the Two Adams and the Three-fold Work of Christ.
Interface
Another one of my favorite aspects is the customization of the interface. Since I am a full-time User Interface Designer, one of the most important things to me is the user experience. I have never seen such attention to detail customization in a Bible program before. You can change font faces, sizes, colors, as well as the appearance of the program tabs themselves.
For instance, I’m not to keen on the neon blue tab highlights, so I changed them to a more respectable looking silver. Also, if you don’t like the shapes of the tabs, you can change those too. Below is a screenshot of the default appearance. As you can see, there is quite a bit of information packed into this streamlined program.
Ease of Use
There are toggle buttons along the top of the interface, allowing the user to switch various panes on and off with the click of the mouse. This is a far cry from the clunky interface of other Bible programs, which have myriads of panes, but no clear way to control them. One of my pet peeves of BibleWorks has always been the “footprint” button. This toggles Bible versions from single to multiple, but why they chose a footprint to represent that is beyond me.
There is also a devotional built into SwordSearcher, with verses for both morning and evening. If you missed a day (tisk tisk), you can catch up, or you can read ahead, by picking any day and time you like. There is also a Proverb of the day available from the same menu.
Another benefit of using SwordSearcher is that it’s quick loading. With BibleWorks on an older computer, you might as well go pour yourself a cup of coffee while it starts up. SwordSearcher, on the other hand loads nearly instantly, depending on what features you have installed. Even with the full libraries and commentaries, it still loads quicker than BibleWorks does with a minimal setup. While it’s fast and responsive, it’s no featherweight either. If you happen to be a web guru, you can go into some of the Advanced Options and edit the raw HTML, to control how you view and output various text.
You can tell, just by using it, that this program has been coded with great care. It is not prone to freezing or crashing like BibleWorks, and doesn’t take forever to shut down either. I never understood clunky programs that have to “save user settings” as they shut down. It seems to me that it should be saving my settings as I’m using it, not forcing me to sit around after the fact.
Summary
Whether you’re just beginning your spiritual walk, or you’re a seasoned veteran with a strong Biblical background, this program is for you. It is quite intuitive and user-friendly from the get-go, and has enough extensive features to satisfy even the most experienced scholars. Do yourself a favor, and try the free 30 day program. If you don’t like it, just uninstall it. I would recommend at least checking it out, so you’ll know what you’ve been missing.
Discussion + Dissension
Comments closed after 2 weeks.
#1 Yannick
hehe I must admit the last time you mentioned it I said I would download it and give it a try, however I have yet to do that. You’ve made me even more curious about it now and so I will give it a try.
Nice review Nathan.
#2 Nathan Smith
Yeah, you should at least check it out. I’m not pushing it because I was paid to, just because I think it’s a really good program. If for some reason you don’t like it, you ain’t gotta keep it.
#3 Yannick
Yeah true. I’m downloading it now actually. Let’s see what SwordSearch is all about. By the way I really digg the image you have at the start of the article. It looks really cool. Did you do it or is it the splash screen for the program or something?
#4 Wesley Walser
I am really glad you posted this. The only desktop application I have ever used for Bible research is Quickverse. I assume you have used it before. I actually have, on purpose, an old version on my computer. The reason that I have this old version is because in newer ones they lost their license on several of the good commentaries, and the program got really slow for some reason.
I do wonder how you would compare the two. You mentioned ‘other software’, so perhaps this is the one you were pointing too, but you also said that there were more robust applications out there.
#5 Robert
Nice review! I have yet to check the software out. I usually do most of my studies in a Greek and Hebrew Bible I have that is a book Bible, not software.
Something I did hear about recently is iLumina which has movies and interactive maps, etc. Sounds like it would be a good choice for working with children. Hank Hanegraaff had the author on his radio show talking about the software. It sounds pretty cool. I gotta try it out as well.
#6 Nathan Smith
Yannick: That’s one of the graphics from the actual program. A high-resolution one is available in the press kit, for reviewers to use.
Wesley: I’ve not used that particlar one, sorry. Give SS a try, and see if it doesn’t fit the bill a little better than Quickverse.
Robert: iLumina does look pretty cool. It sounds like a product that Apple would come up with. I looked around their site, but didn’t see any sort of trial version. Those screencaptures of their rendered movies look cool though. It reminds me of the Age of Empires series’ openers. By the way, images don't work in comments. ;)
#7 Robert
hahaha, oops, wrong tag. First time using the textile code. What a no0b.
Yeah, I don’t think they have a trial, which is a shame. I do like their movies, quite cool for kids!
#8 Mike Montgomery
Thanks for the review.
Personally, I use (and recommend) e-Sword. It’s well-designed and full-featured, and it’s free.
#9 Nathan Logan
If you want to drop some pretty serious cash for a very, very serious piece of Bible software, check out Logos.
From my perspective, it’s the gold standard.
#10 Nathan Smith
Mike, I’ve tried e-Sword, and it is a very good program. I guess I just like the “look and feel” of SwordSearcher. It has been a few versions since then, so maybe I should give e-Sword another looksie.
Nathan L: I’ve not yet used Logos. I think my school has an exclusive contract with BibleWorks, so that’s what was presented to us as “the standard,” but when I worked in the campus library most of my time was spent dealing with the problems it caused. I’m not even talking about everyday user problems, more like program freezes and crashing, with only Ctrl-Alt-Del solutions. Perhaps they should look into Logos. ;)
#11 J. J.
I’m curious if anyone has used Bible Navigator (also PC only, not sure if Mac development is underway like SwordSearcher is). Same price, at $50
A Bible software comparisons page for Wikipedia would be nice… Right now, SwordSearcher needs to at least be added to the list!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Study_Bible#Study_Bible_Software
#12 Robert
I like e-sword, but the look of it always has bugged me. I downloaded sword searcher and it has a very nice UI. What I do like about e-sword is that there are already so many addons out there for different commentarys, Bibles, maps, books, etc. And they don’t cost you extra. It doesn’t seem sword searcher charges for the extras, but it is behind on how many it can offer. That is understandable though.
But, when it comes down to it, a good UI will always have the edge because people need something easy and presentable to use.
#13 Nathan Smith
Robert: That’s what did it for me, ease of use. I mean, even BibleWorks has tons of features, but I rarely actually use it because it takes so long to start up, and isn’t really that pleasant to use once it is. For the same reason, I prefer Araneae to Dreamweaver for hand-editing code. It just works, and doesn’t try to be the end-all of programs. It’s robust, but too clunky.
#14 Robert
I use editplus 2 which is quite similar. You can create your templates to use for any language and download syntax files so you can use the program for virtually any language there is. It even has a syntax file for phpbb2 and you can make one for punbb as well.
I use it for everything.
#15 Nathan Smith
Cool, I’ll have to give EditPlus a try. I’m sorta hoping Araneae comes out of beta soon, as it looks to be really good, with newer code highlighting syntax. But, if not, might have to break down and go ahead and buy EditPlus.