Author: Brandon

SwordSearcher 10: Searching the Bible Without Knowing the Words

Watch the video here.

Keyword search has been the foundation of Bible software for decades. It’s powerful, precise, and indispensable for serious study. But it has a fundamental limitation: you have to already know the words you’re looking for.

This is a real barrier for people who are new to the Bible. The Bible has a specialized vocabulary that a new reader will not be familiar with. If you want to find verses about being anxious, it is difficult to form a keyword search that finds “Philippians 4:6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.” or “1 Peter 5:7 Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.”

Even experienced readers run into this. You remember the idea of a passage but not the phrasing. You know the concept you want to study but aren’t sure which terms the Bible uses to express it. You end up trying keyword after keyword, hoping to land on the right one, then resort to Commentaries or Dictionaries.

SwordSearcher 10 introduces natural language Bible search to address this directly. Instead of keywords, you describe what you’re looking for in plain language — a concept, a feeling, a half-remembered idea — and SwordSearcher finds the verses that match the meaning of what you typed.

Search for “morning thoughts” and find Psalm 5:3: “My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.” That’s not a result keyword search can give you, because the words “morning” and “thoughts” don’t appear together in the verse. But it’s a perfect match. You’ll also find “Psalm 143:8 Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee.”

This doesn’t replace keyword search. Precision still matters, and when you know what you’re looking for, or are in a deep study, nothing beats an exact search. Natural language search is a complement — a way in for the reader who doesn’t yet have the vocabulary, and a way forward for the reader who knows what they mean but not how to say it.

I’ve been building Bible software for over thirty years, and thinking about this problem for at least twenty of them. I’m glad to have finally shipped a solution. I hope you find it edifying.

Watch the video here.

SwordSearcher 10 Released!

SwordSearcher Version 10 Now Available

SwordSearcher 10 introduces natural language Bible search, a powerful new way to find verses by meaning rather than keywords. You no longer have to think in keywords — just describe what you’re looking for in your own words, using phrases like “comfort for those who are grieving” or “verses about God’s love for sinners.” Results are ranked by relevance, with the best matches shown first. The dedicated Find Verses About window provides instant results as you type, and natural language queries are also recognized automatically in the main search bar. A new Find Similar Verses tool extends this capability by using semantic search to locate verses related to any passage you’re studying.

Version 10 also adds built-in text-to-speech, allowing any panel to be read aloud with verse-level or paragraph-level highlighting and auto-scrolling during playback. A pop-up control window provides play/pause, volume, and speed controls, and a right-click “read aloud from here” option lets you start from any point. The interface has been refreshed with rounded docking panels, improved dark mode on Windows 11, support for ultra-high DPI scaling above 225%, and undocked panels that now function as full top-level windows with taskbar support.

Four new study library modules round out the release: a collection of nearly 1,500 hymns from the 18th and 19th centuries with scripture cross-references, Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments, Hamilton Smith’s Expository Bible Commentary covering 56 books, and William Kelly’s Bible Commentary spanning nearly the entire Bible.

Current users of SwordSearcher can upgrade at a discount here. Visit the Upgrade FAQ for more information.

New video: Putting Bible verses into historical context

It can be interesting and useful to learn when a particular event in the Bible occurred or was written. SwordSearcher includes two resources that are very helpful with this. Head on over to this new video: Putting Bible Verses into Historical Context

The video demonstrates how the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge and the Annals of the World (by James Usher) can provide calendar dates and historical context.

Guide to running SwordSearcher on Linux operating systems

SwordSearcher 9.1 running on Ubuntu 22.04

I’ve written a Guide to Running SwordSearcher on Linux Operating Systems.

While SwordSearcher is designed for Microsoft Windows, many SwordSearcher users, or potential SwordSearcher users, have asked if there is a version for Linux operating systems.

There is no Linux version of Windows, and you can view the system requirements here. What I recommend is using a virtual machine like VirtualBox to run Windows applications on Linux, but that is not always an option for people and does require one to purchase a Windows license.

However, it is technically possible to run SwordSearcher on a Linux system without a virtual machine, using a tool called Wine, which stands for “Wine is not an emulator.” Wine is a way to run some Windows applications on operating systems like Ubuntu.

Getting SwordSearcher to work with Wine is a matter of patience and persistence. While I cannot provide a guarantee of support for using SwordSearcher this way, I have written a guide to setting it up.

Please see this forum post for the full guide, and be sure to read all the way to the end for some caveats.

Guide to Running SwordSearcher on Linux Operating Systems

SwordSearcher’s 30 Year Anniversary!

“But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” –Philippians 4:19

In 1994, I started a simple programming project for Bible searching. I had no idea at the time that I would still be working on this tool 30 years later!

When I released SwordSearcher 9.1 a few weeks ago, I didn’t realize I was releasing the 30th anniversary edition of the software, and it only occurred to me this morning.

It’s highly unusual for small projects to last this long, and I wanted to thank all of you who continue to use and support SwordSearcher, who made this possible. Throughout my career as a Bible software programmer and publisher I have seen a dozen alternatives come and go. It pleases me greatly that SwordSearcher is still here and is still found to be useful and interesting to so many people.

Over the last decade we have seen a trend towards “software as a service,” with most large software suites requiring annual subscriptions rather than offering perpetual licenses. While this method of selling software makes sense for many programs, I am happy to say that I have not had to resort to this revenue method for SwordSearcher. You can still make a single, one-time purchase of SwordSearcher to use it indefinitely, and choose whether to continue to support the project by purchasing upgrades when they become available.

The reason this works is because you are supporting a small family-run company, not a large corporation with huge overhead. And it works because many users of SwordSearcher continue to support it by purchasing upgrades, so thank you!

The response to the recent release of SwordSearcher 9.1 has been overwhelmingly positive. Many of you have written kind and encouraging messages to me over the last two weeks, and while time doesn’t permit me to write detailed responses to each of those messages, please know that I genuinely appreciate them. They are genuinely helpful!

So once again, thank you for using SwordSearcher!

By the way, if you’re curious about the history of SwordSearcher, I have an article about it right here.

By the way, astute observers will note that I called 2015 the 20th anniversary of SwordSearcher. The minor discrepancy is explained by the fact that the first version, 1.0, was actually called “Bible Assistant.” The Bible Assistant help file named SwordSearcher as the upcoming release, which was announced and beta tested in 1994, but made available in 1995. This time when I was thinking about how long I have been developing this software I decided just to go with 2024 as the 30th anniversary. I hope nobody minds too much!

SwordSearcher 9.1 Released

Screen shot of the newly enhanced Topic and Verse Guide in SwordSearcher 9.1

SwordSearcher version 9.1 is now available!

Current users of SwordSearcher can upgrade at a discount here. Read below for the details or visit the Upgrade FAQ for more information.

New modules:

  • James Hastings’ Great Texts of the Bible (commentary) [jhTexts], 1910-1914. A 20 volume work of extensive topical and expository content.
  • Lange’s Commentary on the Holy Scriptures [Lange], 1871-1899. A 63 volume commentary translated into English under the supervision of Philip Schaff. This commentary is presented in a “chapter-based” format to preserve the flow and intent of the author.

Enhanced Topic and Verse Guide:

  • Added new preview pane to the Topic and Verse Guide. This is a big time-saver and study-flow efficiency enhancement!
  • The preview pane shows the content of items as you click on them in the results, without having to change your positions and navigation history in the main Commentary and Book panels.
  • The preview pane can be toggled on or off and this setting is remembered between sessions.
  • If the preview pane is visible, double-clicking an item will cause it to load in the main viewer, or you can click the heading in the preview pane. (Ctrl+Click will open the entry in a clone panel.)

Other enhancements:

  • Added “Line Height” setting to Preferences, Fonts and Colors. This allows for fine-tuning the text density in the Bible, Book, and Commentary panels. This setting replaces the old “Optimize line height for touch” setting.
  • Added keyboard shortcuts for rotating tabs. Ctrl+Alt+Left and Ctrl+Alt+Right. Using this when a Bible, Book, or Commentary panel is focused will rotate through relevant open tabs in the panel.
  • Added “Open in Topic Guide” button to Verse Guide Panel.
  • Improved initial start-up time.
  • Reduced memory and resource consumption.

Fixes:

  • Fixed a potential crash in the Topic Guide after deleting a user module.
  • fixed a rare condition where a crash could occur when closing a panel or the application before the text was finished loading.
  • fixed: clicking a link in a clone panel that was not active/focused would sometimes ignore the link click until it was clicked a second time.
  • fixed Clear Bookmark function not updating bookmark menu captions immediately.
  • fixed right-click menu of Image Viewer tree (left panel) not appearing
  • fixed: disabling all toolbars and then restarting causes the empty space for the toolbar to show.
  • Other stability improvements and minor bug fixes.

Included from previous hotfix releases:

  • Added audio Bible timing support for the latest 128kb and 192kb voice-only Scourby.com mp3 files (2021).
  • Added audio Bible timing support for an Max McLean Listener’s Bible from christianaudio
  • Fixed a potential crash when importing invalid reading plan templates.
  • Fixed a crash that could happen when changing color modes from the main View menu.
  • Fixed possible error condition when trying to clone a user book panel from an empty user book
  • Fixed possible error when setting active verse or currently narrated verse visual style (background color)
  • Fixed possible error when saving user module
  • Fixed bookmarks and clone panels not always properly restoring scroll position on systems using a comma as a decimal separator
  • Fixed an issue with verse autopaste (Ctrl+Alt+V)
  • Fixed: if a bookmark was set from the main Bookmarks menu (invoking dialog), the bookmark menu item caption wouldn’t update until the next time SwordSearcher was started.
  • Fixed mouse wheel not scrolling tree view in Images viewer
  • Fixed clone panel content links sometimes not resolving to the correct module.
  • Fixed: in the editor, a manually created href link could cause the program to freeze when switching to the code editor if it was missing a closing quotation mark.
  • Fixed: Minor UI issues
  • Other minor enhancements.

SwordSearcher 9.0 Hotfix 2 update available

SwordSearcher 9 has a free update, version 9.0.3.23108. This update includes:

  • Added support for additional digital editions of Scourby and McLean audio Bibles.
  • Fixed an issue with the preferences configuration window.
  • Improved visibility of the Quick Concordance “new” tab.
  • Fixed possible error condition when trying to clone a user book panel from an empty user book.
  • Fixed possible error when setting active verse or currently narrated verse visual style (background color).
  • Fixed possible error when saving user module.
  • Fixed bookmarks and clone panels not always properly restoring scroll position on systems using a comma as a decimal separator.
  • Fixed an issue with verse auto-paste (Ctrl+Alt+V).
  • Fixed: Changing the color mode from dark to light and then closing could cause harmless but unwanted Windows crash dumps.
  • Fixed a potential crash when importing invalid reading plan templates.
  • Other minor fixes.
  • Some speed optimizations.
  • Minor help file corrections.

What’s a “hotfix?”

A hotfix is a minor update to fix bugs that were discovered after the official release. It is strongly recommended that you install the hotfix to keep your SwordSearcher experience as good as it can be.

How can I get it?

Just open SwordSearcher and go to the Help menu, and choose Check for Updates. This will show you any updates available to you and give you a download link, if applicable.

Check for Updates in SwordSearcher

That’s the preferred way to check for updates. You can also directly download the hotfix here:

Download: SwordSearcher-9.0.3.23108-Hotfix.exe (26.1 MB)

If you’re using a version of SwordSearcher prior to 9.0, be sure to read about what’s new in 9.0 and get your upgrade here.

SwordSearcher 9.0 Hotfix 1 update available

SwordSearcher 9.0 has a free small update (version 9.0.2.21104), which has the following fixes since 9.0 was released:

  • Fixed: if a bookmark was set from the main Bookmarks menu (invoking dialog), the bookmark menu item caption wouldn’t update until the next time SwordSearcher was started.
  • Light mode menu text color fix on Windows 11.
  • Fixed some UI painting issues.
  • Fixed mouse wheel not scrolling tree view in Images Viewer.
  • Fixed clone panel content links sometimes not resolving to the correct module.
  • Fixed search result panel captions changing to long format when layout was reset or changed.
  • Fixed: in the editor, a manually created href link could cause the program to freeze when switching to the code editor if it was missing a closing quotation mark.

What’s a “hotfix?”

A hotfix is a minor update to fix bugs that were discovered after the official release. It just fixes some issues; it doesn’t add any new features. It is strongly recommended that you install the hotfix to keep your SwordSearcher experience as good as it can be.

How can I get it?

Just open SwordSearcher and go to the Help menu, and choose Check for Updates. This will show you any updates available to you and give you a download link, if applicable.

Check for Updates in SwordSearcher

That’s the preferred way to check for updates. You can also directly download the hotfix here:

Download: SwordSearcher-9.0.2.21104-Hotfix.exe (15.4 MB) (Note, this hotfix has been superseded by hotfix 2.)

If you’re using a version of SwordSearcher prior to 9.0, be sure to read about what’s new in 9.0 and get your upgrade here.

Quick tip: Clone panel from the Topic Guide

If you’re using the Topic Guide to find more information on a given topic, sometimes it can seem inconvenient to look at the material, because by default, it will move your Book or Commentary panel content away from what you may be reading.

There’s an easy way around that: Clone Panels (see the Help section). The way this works is instead of moving your Book panel to the content you clicked on, a new window is created instead, leaving your Book Panel alone.

Clone Panels have been part of SwordSearcher for years, but version 9 adds the ability to create a clone panel from the Topic Guide by right-clicking the entry title and selecting Open in a Clone Panel from the menu. This makes it super easy and fast to review a lot of material on a topic without changing the course of your current Bible study.

SwordSearcher Topic Guide

Cloned panel containing topical content

Also, you don’t even need to right-click. Hold down the CTRL button while you click the link, and SwordSearcher will open the content in a clone panel.

SwordSearcher 9 Released with Dark Mode and more

SwordSearcher 9’s new Dark Mode interface

After a considerable development period, SwordSearcher 9 is finally available!

There are a couple of new library modules, as usual, but the real improvements are to the program itself. Version 9 adds a dark/light color mode toggle that lets you quickly adjust the color mode of SwordSearcher’s interface for when you’re working late and night in a dim environment or just trying to reduce eye strain. Check out the comparison of color modes here. What’s great about the color mode toggle is that it remembers your text and background color choices for each mode, independently. This means you can set up your favorite colors for each mode and not have to worry about losing them when you switch!

In addition to that, some serious work has been put into improving SwordSearcher’s layout and windowing systems.

Moving your study panels around in the main window is easier now because panel sizes automatically adjust to expected sizes when you move them, and all of the panels will proportionally size, automatically, when the main window is maximized or restored or otherwise resized. Setting up a custom layout should be faster and easier now.

Also, tool windows like the Topic Guide and English-Strong’s-Indexer now appear to the system as “top-level windows,” which means they can all be maximized, minimized, and most importantly, they now participate in Windows Alt+Tab task switching and Windows Snap functionality.

Clone panels have had an upgrade, too. You can now create clone panels that can be maximized, minimized, snapped, and Alt-Tabbed. (If you prefer the prior functionality of dockable clone panels, you can have that, too!)

We’ve also been using Microsoft’s preview builds for Windows 11. Not surprisingly, to really shine on a new version of Windows, we had to accommodate some new and changed features of Windows 11. That work has been done, and SwordSearcher 9 runs and looks great on Windows 11, which is expected to be released to general availability later this year.

There’s a bunch more stuff, including hundreds of little improvements and tweaks too numerous to mention. Rest assured though, SwordSearcher 9 is still SwordSearcher and you will feel right at home when you upgrade.

Speaking of upgrades, if you’re already a SwordSearcher user with a valid license, you can get a huge discount on the new version right here.

More information: