e-Sword

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e-Sword

Original author(s)	Rick Meyers
Developer(s)	Rick Meyers
Initial release	April 2000
Stable release	9.5.1 / 9 September 2009
Operating system	Microsoft Windows
Platform	Windows 95, 98, ME, NT4, 2000, XP, Vista, or Windows 7
Available in	Afrikaans, Catalan, Czech, Danish, English, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Indonesian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish.[1]
Development status	Active
Type	Bible Study Tools
License	The e-Sword License (proprietary)
Website	e-Sword homepage

Pocket e-Sword

Original author(s)	Rick Meyers
Developer(s)	Rick Meyers
Initial release	December 2003
Stable release	3.1.0 / 23 June 2009
Operating system	Microsoft Windows Mobile 6
Available in	English
Development status	Active
Type	Bible Study Tools
License	The e-Sword License
Website	Pocket e-Sword homepage

e-Sword is a Bible study computer software package created by Rick Meyers and developed for Microsoft Windows and Pocket PC. Development started in January 2000. Since that time, it has continually grown in popularity, reaching 9,000,000 downloads in June 2009.^[2] The user interface is available in twenty one different languages. Resources are available in over one hundred languages.

Contents 1 Purpose 2 Different versions 2.1 e-Sword Live Features 2.2 Pocket e-Sword Features 2.3 e-Sword Features 2.3.1 Platforms 3 The e-Sword License 4 Resources 4.1 Official Resources 4.2 Commercial Resources 5 Users 5.1 User Support Groups 5.2 User Created Utility Programs 5.3 User Created Resources 5.3.1 Locating Resources 6 Reviews and Awards 6.1 Reviews of e-Sword 6.2 Reviews of Pocket e-Sword 6.3 Awards for Pocket e-Sword 6.4 Surveys 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Purpose

Rick Meyers aspired to make Bible study freely available to anyone, while also providing power and depth to research. His theme verse is Matthew 10:8 "Freely you receive. Freely give". Rick Meyers states on the e-Sword homepage:

As a Bible student and teacher I have experienced the necessary work involved in searching the Scriptures for the competent preparation of a Bible study, Sunday school lesson, or a sermon. There are volumes of books available as study tools (and the Christian community is indebted to the various authors' perseverance and scholarship), but there is not enough time, money, or shelf space to properly take advantage of these resources. Computer software has changed the way we can study the Word of GOD. With a simple search or click of the mouse button, we now have access to these same volumes of scholarship within seconds!^[3]

[edit] Different versions

Pocket e-Sword 1.0 was released in December 2003. By May 2007 there had been 1,000,000 downloads of Pocket e-Sword.^[2] This is the version that runs on the Pocket PC. Pocket e-Sword 3.0.1, released 17 May 2007, was the last version to be released for Pocket PC 2002, Pocket PC 2003, and Windows Mobile 5.0. Released in June 2009, Pocket e-Sword 3.1.0 runs only Windows Mobile 6.0 and higher.

Development for e-Sword Live started in November 2007. It went public in May 2008. This is the web based version.

[edit] e-Sword Live Features

The web version can display Bibles, Commentaries, Dictionaries, Lexicons, and Topical Bibles

[edit] Pocket e-Sword Features

In addition to displaying Bibles, Commentaries, and Dictionaries, Version 3.1.0 offers the following components:

Bible Markup Overlay Bible Reading Plan Bookmarks Devotional

Prayer List Scripture Memory Verse List Study Notes Topical Notes

These components offer similar functionality to the e-Sword equivalents. Study Notes and Topical Notes are RTF text files, rather than a database.

[edit] e-Sword Features

In addition to Bibles, Commentaries and Dictionaries, Version 9.0.3 offers the following components and functionality:

Bible Markup Overlay Bible Reading Plan Bookmarks Devotional Gospel Harmony Map/Graphic Viewer Localization

Prayer List Scripture Memory Verse List Sermon Illustrations STEP viewer Study Notes Topical Notes Verse Analysis Tool

The program allows the user to view the text of the Bible, Bible commentaries, study notes and dictionaries. Through its customizable layout the user can chose which of these resources to view at once, or how they are arranged in an optional split screen view.^[4]

[edit] Platforms

This program was written for the Windows operating system. Official support is provided for Windows NT 4.0, Windows 95/98/ME, Windows2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. Whilst not officially supported, the program will run on Windows 2003, and Windows 2008.

It can run on ReactOS as a native application.

Users of alternate platforms must provide their own support. Unofficial support for those users can be found at the e-Sword users site.^[5]

Using WINE as an emulator, it can be used on a Linux System.^[6]. The Ubuntu Christian Edition web forum^[7] provides the most consistent support for Linux users of e-Sword.

Mac e-Sword ^[8] is a package that includes both DarWine, and e-Sword, for installation on Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger), or higher.

Scattered reports of e-Sword on OpenSolaris, BSD, and OS/2 Warp 5.0 can be found.

[edit] The e-Sword License

The inspiration for the license used by e-Sword comes from Matthew 10:8. "Freely you receive. Freely give". The major intent of the license is:

• e-Sword is to be distributed gratis;^[9]
• e-Sword resources are not to be sold at a profit;
• e-Sword content is not to be distributed on a for-profit website;^[10]

All documentation and modules fall under this license, unless the documentation or module creator has specified a different license. Most user created documentation uses the Creative Commons Attribution - Non Commercial - Share alike 2.0 License.

Starting with version 7.8.1, a PDF copy of the e-Sword license has been installed in the e-Sword directory, as part of the program installation. The license is also displayed from the Help Menu.

[edit] Resources

[edit] Official Resources

Official resources can be found at the e-Sword download page. Resources in roughly 34 languages are available from this site.

[edit] Commercial Resources

While eStudySource is the primary outlet of resources that must be purchased.^[11], other publishers, such as The Lockman Foundation and Bible.org, also sell e-Sword resources.

[edit] Users

The projects of a small group of e-Sword activists are not officially sanctioned. The results of those projects have spurred the popularity of the program.

[edit] User Support Groups

e-Sword-users.org is the dominant web forum, providing support in six languages (English, Afrikaans, Dutch, German, Polish, Spanish, Czech, Slovak). Parallel support in those languages is provided by mailing lists hosted by YahooGroups. Support in Korean is provided by an independent web forum.

Blind e-Sword provides support for accessibility features related to E-Sword.

[edit] User Created Utility Programs

Users have created a number of tools to ease the process of creating new resources.

The most popular utility programs are:

• Ben's e-Sword Tool 2.0, used to import text files into different types of resources;
• e-Sword User Module Conversion Utility v9.5.0, used to convert resources from e-Sword Resource Specification Format 1 to e-Sword Resource Specification Format 2;

[edit] User Created Resources

The utility programs have made it easier for users to create, and distribute resources. STEP modules are the only resource type that users have not created, and subsequently distributed.

Users have created resources in sixty different languages ranging from Lugandan to Klingon. English and Spanish are the most popular modern languages. Hebrew and Greek are the most popular original Biblical languages.

[edit] Locating Resources

Due to the absence of a centralized listing of user created e-Sword resources, there has been some duplication of effort in creating resources. For example, there are five different versions of the Didache.

• Original Languages Library contains a current list of all publicly distributed Biblical language resources, along with where they can be obtained from;
• Premium e-Sword Modules restricts itself to resources that are commercially distributed.
• e-Sword en español maintains a list of Spanish language resources.
• e-Sword Users has taken on the role of the centralized listing place for user made Pocket e-Sword and e-Sword resources
• Pastor David Cox huge site for e-Sword modules

[edit] Reviews and Awards

[edit] Reviews of e-Sword

• Bible Software Review (20 October 2005)
• Christian Computing Magazine
• Christian Computing Magazine
• Michael Hansen Studying the Bible for Free Stimulus Volume 12 Number 3 August 2004 page 33 - 38

[edit] Reviews of Pocket e-Sword

• Bible Software Review

[edit] Awards for Pocket e-Sword

• 2004 Pocket PC Magazine Text and Reference Bible Software
• 2005 Pocket PC Magazine Finalist
• 2006 Pocket PC Magazine
• 2007 Pocket PC Best Software Awards (Religious) : Finalist

[edit] Surveys

For most of 2005, Bible software blog ran a survey on what Bible study Software was used. e-Sword garnered the most votes in the free/shareware category. It also had more votes than any of the Commercial programs.^[12]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official e-Sword Website
• e-Sword Users
• French translation and resources website
• e-Sword Smart Starter tool