February 19, 2008
iPocketBible is easy to use. But if you need some hints you've come to the right place.
First things first:
In its default configuration, iPocketBible requires two fingers to scroll the text. This is a little-known "feature" (some call it a bug) in the Safari browser on the iPhone when displaying text in a scrollable area between fixed tool bars, such as iPocketBible uses. This configuration can be changed, however, to support the one-finger scrolling you're more used to on the iPhone. See "How do I scroll the text in iPocketBible" for help changing the scroll mode.
Regardless of the above, this help file is just a Web page so one-finger scrolling is the rule here.
This document is divided into two sections. The first deals with tasks you may want to do, and gives you an idea how to do each one. Each task is introduced with a question; the questions are listed below.
The second section is detailed help on specific features. Most of these are connected to the buttons on the bottom of the screen.
...scroll the text in iPocketBible?
...search for a word or a phrase?
...look up a word in a dictionary?
...use Strong's numbers and dictionaries?
...set a bookmark, or go to a bookmarked passage?
...find commentary for the verse I'm looking at?
...go back to a verse I was looking at before?
...choose which Bible opens when I select a Bible verse link?
...open a dictionary, commentary, or devotional book?
...keep track of my daily devotional reading or Bible reading plan?
...synchronize my notes, highlights and bookmarks with PocketBible for Windows?
...add more books and Bibles to my library?
...access iPocketBible from any computer with a Web browser?
...find out about new features?
...contact Laridian when I have questions that aren't answered here?
Devotionals and Bible Reading Plans
About HTML Tags in the Note Editor
Accessing iPocketBible From Your Desktop or Laptop Computer
By default, iPocketBible displays a fixed row of buttons across the bottom of the screen and a fixed title bar across the top. The area between these fixed bars is where Bible and reference book text is displayed. To scroll the text in this area use two fingers. Some people find it natural to scroll with their middle and ring fingers.
This gesture at first seems unnatural to iPhone users, but it is in fact a standard gesture for scrolling text boxes and you'll run into it in other places as you browse the Web with your iPhone. We frankly treat it as a bug and have encouraged Apple to "fix" it.
An alternative user interface for iPocketBible is available in which only one finger is required to scroll, and the tool bar on the bottom of the screen is removed and replaced with a tool bar that pops up when you need it. In this mode you tap in the left or right margin — all the way at the edge of the screen — to display the tool bar. All tool bar functionality is the same.
In this mode you can turn pages by double-tapping in the margins. You need to complete your second tap within about a second of the first. It's easier than it sounds. If you double tap in the left margin you'll go to the previous page. If you double tap in the right margin you'll go to the next page.
There are two ways to change between two-finger and one-finger scrolling. In the default two-finger mode you can tap in the right or left margin and you'll be asked if you want to change the scrolling mode. Answer "OK" and you'll be in one-finger mode. Alternately, you can go to the Options page and choose the mode from there.
In one-finger mode you can change back to two-finger mode by tapping the margin to bring up the tool bar, then select the "Change Scroll Mode" button. Of course you can also go to the Options page and change it there as well.
If you're not already looking at a Bible, you need to select the Open Book tool bar button to select a Bible.
There are two ways to get to a particular Bible verse. The first is to select the Go To button on the tool bar. You'll be presented with a list of books of the Bible, then a list of chapters, then a list of verses. Complete details are provided in the discussion of the Go To tool bar button.
The second way to go to a verse is to select the Find button in the top right corner of the screen. Type the full reference (such as John 3:16) in the Find box, then select Go!. You must include the chapter and the verse. For books like Obadiah that have only one chapter, you must include the "1" (as in Obadiah 1:3 to go to verse 3). You can use either a period or a colon to separate the chapter and verse.
The program recognizes a wide range of names and abbreviations for the names of books. For example, "1 Timothy", "1Timothy", "I Timothy", and "First Timothy" are all allowed, as are abbreviations such as "1 Tim", "1Ti", "1Tim", "I Tim", etc.
If you don't include the full book, chapter, and verse, iPocketBible will assume you're looking for a verse that contains the words and numbers you enter. So if you try to go to John chapter 3 by typing "John 3", the program will look for a verse containing the word John and/or the number 3.
Use the Open Book button on the tool bar to select a different Bible.
Use the Find button in the upper right corner of the screen to search for words, phrases, and combinations of words. You can choose to find words that all start with or end with a certain few letters, such as "bapt" to find "baptism", "baptist", and "baptists". Complete details are at the discussion of the Find button.
Use the Lookup button on the tool bar to look up a word. Enter the word you want to look up and select Go!. Complete details are at the discussion of the Lookup button.
If you own one of our Bibles that includes Strong's numbers, you'll find them displayed to the right of the English word that is translated from the Hebrew or Greek word represented by the number. Because of the high density of links in Bibles that contain Strong's numbers, extra space is used between each line. This makes it easier to select the right link.
Each number represents a Hebrew or Greek word from which the preceding English word was translated. When you select the link on the number, the Strong's dictionary is displayed, showing you the Hebrew or Greek word and its definition. Note that the iPhone does not support accented Greek characters nor any Hebrew characters. As a result there will be boxes in place of some characters that would otherwise display in Hebrew or Greek. We have chosen to leave the display as-is so that as soon as Apple fixes this problem with their fonts you'll see the correct characters. (If you view iPocketBible on most desktop browsers you'll see the correct original-language characters.)
After viewing a definition, use the application's "back" button in the upper left corner of the screen to return to the Bible passage you were viewing.
You can add your personal comments and notes to any verse in the Bible. Select the link on the verse number in the text. This brings up the context menu for that verse. Select Add Note from the menu to get to the note editor. Enter your note. When you're done, the word "Note" will appear to the right of any verse number on which you've entered a note. To view the note simply select the link on the verse number again. Your note is displayed at the top of the context menu for the verse. For more information see Note Editor.
To set a bookmark, go to the verse you want to bookmark and select the link on the the verse number in the text. This brings up the context menu for that verse. Under the Bookmarks section, select a category for this bookmark (or "No Category" if you don't care about categories) then select Set Bookmark.
To go to a bookmark, select the Bookmarks button from the tool bar. This will display a list of all your bookmarks, or you can choose a category from the list at the top of the screen to view only the bookmarks in that category. To go to a bookmarked verse, just choose it from the list.
To clear a bookmark, first go to a bookmarked verse, then select its verse number to display the context menu. Select the category (if any) from which you want to clear the bookmark, then select Clear Bookmark and the bookmark is removed from that category. You can choose "All Categories" to remove the bookmark from any categories it happens to be in. After you remove the bookmark from the last category it is in, the Clear Bookmark button and category list is removed from the context menu.
Bookmarks apply to all your Bibles. If you set a bookmark on John 3:16 in the KJV, then John 3:16 in the NIV is also bookmarked.
To highlight a verse, go to the verse you want to highlight and select the link on the verse number in the text. This brings up the context menu for that verse. Select the color from the list of available highlight colors, then select the Highlight button.
Read more about highlights here.
To find commentary on a verse, select the link on the verse number in the text. This brings up the context menu for that verse. If your preferred commentary has an article on that verse, there will be a link to the commentary on the context menu. Otherwise there will be a message saying there is no commentary on this verse.
iPocketBible maintains a history of pages you have viewed. Tap the "Back" button in the upper left corner of the screen. The text on that button will tell you where it's going to take you.
The browser's back and forward buttons (along the bottom of the screen) can also be used to move back or forward in the list of pages you've previously viewed.
You can select the Options button on the tool bar to select the Bible you want used to handle Bible reference links.
Select the Open Book button on the tool bar to select a different reference book to look at.
The first time you open a devotional book, use the Go To screen to establish a starting date. Once you've set up the starting date for a devotional book, then every daily reading in the book will have a checkbox at the top of the page. Tap the checkbox to mark the article as completed.
The next time you want to read your daily devotional, use the Go To button and select either "Today's Reading" or "First Unread Reading". Once you complete that reading, you can mark it as complete and repeat the process the next day.
See Devotionals and Bible Reading Plans for more information.
When you're finished, both iPocketBible and PocketBible for Windows should have the same notes, highlights, bookmarks, devotional start dates and devotional reading progress. You can make changes on either in PocketBible for Windows or iPocketBible and the next time you sync the changes will show up on the other system.
There are two ways to add books to your library, and they're both actually the same. You can go to www.laridian.com/iphone and purchase additional books. Also, any books you purchase for other platforms, such as PocketBible for Windows or MyBible for Palm OS, will automatically be available to you in your iPocketBible library. After purchasing new books you must refresh your book list so iPocketBible can see your new books. See Buying Books for more information.
iPocketBible is just a Web application running at www.ipocketbible.com. You can access it from any computer with a Web connection. See Accessing iPocketBible for more information.
Go to the Options page using the tool bar. You can log out from there. There's no reason you should ever need to log out, but if you do, this is where you do it.
Since iPocketBible is a Web-based application, it's very easy for us to add new features by updating the site. When we post an update to the site, we also record the changes we made in the revision history. The revision history can be viewed by going to the About page and selecting the "What's New" link.
Complete contact information is at our Web site: www.laridian.com.
There is a lot of help available through the Help Desk page on the Web site. If you need to reach us you can submit a Trouble Ticket at the Help Desk. Or you can email us at support@laridian.com. You can also reach us by phone at (319) 378-4940 most business days. Phone hours are more limited than email hours, and are posted at our Web site.
The tool bar is a collection of buttons that give you access to iPocketBible features and functions. The location of the tool bar depends on which scroll mode you're in. In the default two-finger scroll mode, the tool bar appears along the bottom of the screen. In one-finger scrolling mode, the tool bar pops up when you request it by tapping in the margin. See "How do I scroll..." for a description of scrolling modes.
In either scrolling mode there are two tool bars: The "main" tool bar and the "VCR buttons" tool bar.
The buttons on the main tool bar may be displayed in one long bar if you're in landscape mode. If you're in portrait mode or if there isn't room to display all the buttons in either mode, the tool bar will be broken up into smaller pieces, with one button on the right used to select the next batch of buttons. In one-finger scrolling mode, all the buttons are displayed in a block on a floating menu. The main tool bar, and a brief description of its buttons, is as follows. Select a button for more details.
| Go to the previous page. |
| Go to the next page. |
| Go to a verse (Bible), go to the table of contents (reference book), or go to a reading (devotional) |
| Open a different Bible or reference book. |
| Display the second batch of tool bar buttons. |
| Go to the previous "find" result. |
| Go to the next "find" result. |
| Look up a word in a dictionary. |
| Go to a bookmarked verse. |
| Display the third batch of tool bar buttons. |
| Change program options. |
| See information about iPocketBible. |
| Display the first batch of tool bar buttons. |
This tool bar is used to help navigate long lists of items, such as search results or bookmarks. The list is broken into pages, and these buttons allow you to navigate between pages.
 | Go to the first page of items in the list. |
 | Go to the previous page of items in the list. |
 | Go to the next page of items in the list. |
 | Go to the last page of items in the list. |
 | Cancel this operation. |
Use the Find button, located at the upper right of the iPocketBible screen, to search for words, phrases, combinations of words or to go to a verse by its reference. Enter the word(s) or phrase you want to search for in the box labelled "Find". Then select from the following options:
When searching for words or phrases, punctuation is ignored. It's best not to enter any punctuation in the phrase you're looking for except apostrophes and hyphens as needed for correct spelling of the words. Capitalization is ignored, so both "God" and "god" will match "God", "GOD", and "god".
When you select Go! iPocketBible will perform the search and the results will be listed below. Select one of the items
in the list of results to see that item in its context. Once you've returned to the book and are looking at one of the
searched-for items, you can use the Prev Find and Next Find buttons on the tool bar to navigate to the previous or
next occurrence of your word(s) or phrase.
Using Find to Go To a Verse
While the Find feature is normally used to find words and phrases, you can also use it as a way to go to a particular Bible passage. Just enter a Bible reference like "John 3:16" and select Go!. You must specify both the chapter and verse or else the program will think you're looking for a verse that contains "John" or "John 3".
Bibles and books in iPocketBible are divided into "pages" of text. Pages in Bibles usually correspond to chapters. In
reference books, a page is the text between two entries in the table of contents. To go to the previous or next page,
use the Back and Forward buttons in the tool bar.
In one-finger scrolling mode, you can double-tap in the margins to duplicate the function of these buttons. Two taps in the left margin within about one second will cause the previous page to be displayed. Double tapping in the right margin will display the next page.
The browser's forward and back buttons can be used to return to pages you've previously viewed. In addition, iPocketBible maintains a list of the last few pages you've viewed and allows you to go back (but not forward) by selecting the button in the upper left corner of the page.
The function of the Go To button varies depending on the type
of book you're in. If you're in a Bible. selecting Go To will take you to a list of books in that Bible. Select the name
of the book of the Bible to go to the first page (usually chapter 1 verse 1) of that book. If you select the button marked
with a plus-sign (+) to the left of the name of a book of the Bible, you will see a list of chapters. Select the chapter
number if you want to go to the beginning of that chapter. Select the plus button to the left of the chapter number to
see a list of verses in that chapter. Select a verse number to go to that verse.
Remember to use two fingers to scroll the lists of books, chapters, and verses.
If you select the wrong book or chapter, select the gray bar at the top corresponding to the wrong selection you made. This will take you back to that list so you can try again. If, for example, you intend to go to John 3:16 and select Luke instead, just select the gray bar labelled "Luke" at the top of the screen and you'll be able to choose John instead. If you accidentally select John 2, select the bar labelled "2" and you'll be taken back to the list of chapters.
If you're in a dictionary, commentary or "other" type of book when you select the Go To button you'll see a representation of the table of contents of the book. iPocketBible books are organized like an outline, with top-level topics that contain subtopics beneath them, each of which can also contain subtopics. When you first select the Go To button you'll see a list of the highest level topics. You can select a topic to go directly to that page in the book, or you can select the plus button to the left of the topic to see the subtopics beneath it. You can keep selecting the plus buttons and seeing subtopics, or at any point along the way you can select the subtopic itself and be taken to that page in the book.
If you make a mistake along the way, just select the gray bar at the top of the screen that contains the mistaken entry and you'll be taken back to that subtopic list to try again.
Remember to use two fingers to scroll the topic lists.
There may be more topics than fit on one screen. Use the "VCR buttons" at the bottom of the screen to select the first, previous, next, or last page of topics. You can use the red X ("cancel") button on the lower right to cancel this Go To operation and return to where you were in your book.
If you're in a devotional book when you select the Go To button you'll not only have a way to go to the reading for a particular day, but you'll be able to manage other options related to this type of book. Devotional books are organized by date, as they are intended to be read once a day, usually for a year. Once you've selected the day on which you want the readings in this book to start, you can select the date you want to read and be taken there. There are more details below under Devotionals and Bible Reading Plans.
Devotional books are organized by date. Usually there's one article for each day of the year, though some books and reading plans cover a shorter period of time (such as our reading plan to read through the New Testament in three months). The idea is that you have one article you're supposed to read each day. iPocketBible helps you keep track of what you've read by giving you a way to mark a reading as "complete" after you've read it, and by giving you a way to easily go to the next unread article.
Most of the functionality of devotional books is accessed from the Go To page for the book. When you initially open a devotional book you've never read before you'll have to select a start date. This is the day of the year that iPocketBible will treat as corresponding to the first day's article in the book. Once you select a start date, you can navigate a devotional book by date.
When you finish reading today's passage in the book, select check box at the top of the page to mark this reading as complete. Next time you open this book, just use the Go To page to select "First Unread Reading" or "Today's Reading" and you'll be taken to the article you should read for today.
When you have read completely through the entire book, you can erase your reading progress and start over. Just select the Start Over button on the Go To page. Note that when you change the starting date you do not erase your reading progress. This allows you to move the starting date to "catch up" with your reading plan if you've fallen behind, without losing track of what you've already read. There is a Catch Up button on the bottom of the Go To page that automates this process for you.
iPocketBible allows you to view only one Bible or reference
book at a time. Your entire library is available, though, by selecting the Open Book button. This button will cause
a list of book categories to be displayed: Bibles, Commentaries, Devotionals, Dictionaries, and "Other". (There is
seldom anything in the "Other" category but it is there for books that don't fall into the other categories.)
Selecting a category causes iPocketBible to search your library for books in that category. Once you see a list of books you can select the name of the book to go to the beginning (title page) of that book, or select the button with the plus-sign (+) to open the table of contents for that book. Once you've opened a table of contents, the program behaves like the Go To button for that book.
Use this button to look up the definition of a word
in one of your dictionaries. Enter a word and select Go!. The program will look up the first entry that starts
with the word or letters you type. So if you type "John" it might find an article called "John the Apostle".
If you are currently viewing a dictionary, the program will use the dictionary you're viewing. If you're not currently viewing a dictionary, the program will use your preferred dictionary, which you can select on the Options page.
If no entry is found for the word you enter, nothing will happen. You'll just be taken back to what you were looking at when you selected the Lookup button.
The Note Editor is accessed from the context menu for the verse to which you want to attach a note. Simply type the comments you want to make about the verse into the note editor and select OK.
Any Bible references you enter in your notes will be automatically linked to the Bible. You can use most recognized abbreviations for the name of the book, and it must be followed by the chapter number, a period or colon, and the verse number. So "Jn 3.16", "John 3:16" and "Joh 3:16" all link to the Gospel of John, chapter three, verse sixteen.
The iPhone doesn't offer much in the way of rich text editing. iPocketBible supports basic HTML markup to permit you to do things as simple as bold, italics, and underlining but you can also use it to create tables, bulleted lists and even include images in your notes. If you don't want to bother with learning HTML tags, you can just enter your notes in plain text and that will be fine. The program treats carriage returns as an "end of paragraph" unless you enter HTML paragraph (or paragraph-like) tags.
For more information on HTML markup, see About HTML in the next section.
It's worth starting this section by saying if you don't know HTML and don't want to learn it, you can still enter notes in iPocketBible and take advantage of the automatic verse reference linking. If you already know a little HTML or you don't mind learning, then there are a few things you can do to spice up your notes a little bit.
HTML uses tags to indicate changes in fonts, colors, paragraphs, and other features of the text. A tag starts with a less-than (<) symbol and ends with a greater-than (>) symbol. Tags are used to indicate where you want certain changes in the text. For example, the <b> tag marks the beginning of bold text, and the </b> tag marks the end. So to make a word appear in bold type, you enter <b>a word</b>.
There are three basic tags that may be all you need for your notes. They are:
If you use only these tags, the program will use your carriage returns to mark the end of paragraphs. You can mark your own paragraphs using the <p> and </p> tags. The former marks the beginning of a paragraph and the latter, the end. Technically only the opening <p> tag is required, but we recommend you use both for clarity.
When you use paragraph tags in your note, the program assumes you know where you want your paragraph breaks and it will ignore your carriage returns.
If you want to use tables, numbered lists, or other more advanced HTML tags, you should find a good HTML book and learn from there. There is too much to cover in this little help file.
N.B.: It's important not to go too nuts with your HTML coding for a couple reasons. First, your HTML text has to live happily on the context menu. If you add tags to create an extremely wide note or do something that affects other parts of the page on which your note is displayed, you could disrupt normal operation of the iPocketBible program. Don't worry too much about that; it would be hard (but not impossible) to mess things up too bad. Second, remember that your notes might someday be sync'ed to the desktop version of PocketBible and displayed there. From there you could sync them to another PDA or mobile device. Anything you do that is very iPhone-specific could look odd on those other devices. In general, keep your notes simple and to the point.
Non-Paragraph Tags
If only the following tags are used, iPocketBible will honor carriage returns to mark the end of paragraphs. If you use any tags from the second list below then iPocketBible will expect you to mark all your paragraphs and will treat your carriage returns as whitespace just as in any HTML application.
Paragraph and Other Recognized Tags
The following is a list of additional tags that are recognized by most Laridian Bible software. It's best to stick to the tags in these lists for maximum compatibility with our other software in case you would sync your notes to one of those platforms in the future.
This button will cause a list of your bookmarks to be
displayed. Use two fingers to scroll the list of bookmarks unless you've chosen one-finger scrolling. If you have more
bookmarks than will fit on the page, use the "VCR buttons" at the bottom of the screen (or in the
pop-up menu) to choose the first, previous, next, or last page of bookmarks.
By default, all bookmarks are shown. If you use categories to organize your bookmarks, you can select a category from the list at the top of the screen and only those bookmarks will be shown.
To go to a bookmark, just select it from the list.
To set a bookmark, use the context menu for the verse you want to bookmark. You can also use the context menu to clear an existing bookmark. First use the bookmark list to find the bookmark you want to clear, then use the context menu for that verse to clear it.
To use bookmark categories, you must first create them. Go to the context menu for any verse and select Add/Edit Categories from the bookmark section. From here you can add categories (enter a new category name and select Add Category), rename categories (select a category from the list at the top of the screen, then enter a new name beside the Rename Category button, then select the Rename Category button), or delete a category (select a category from the list at the top of the screen, then select the Delete Category button).
When you delete a category, the bookmarks in that category are not deleted. They are moved to "No Category" so you don't lose them. To delete a category and all its bookmarks, you must first go to each bookmark in the category and remove the bookmark, then delete the category.
Several features of iPocketBible are user-configurable.
These options are set on the Options page, which can be accessed by selecting the Options button on the tool bar on the
bottom of the screen.
The program uses these selections when it's not sure which Bible or reference book should be the target of a link, or used for a particular task.
After changing these options, select the Update User Options button near the bottom of the page to save your preferences. To exit without saving the options, choose Close User Options.
The program provides two user interfaces depending on your preferences.
See "How do I scroll..." for more information on scrolling modes.
The program uses these settings to determine how many items to display on each page in a list.
After changing these options, select the Update User Options button near the bottom of the page to save your preferences. To exit without saving the options, choose Close User Options.
You can choose the size of the font used to display Bible and book text. This affects only the display of books, not dialogs and other parts of the program.
You won't often have to manually log out of iPocketBible, but if you do, this is how you do it. If you log out, the next time you try to access iPocketBible it will ask for your customer ID and password. If you never log out, the program will periodically ask you for your customer ID and password just to verify that you are still subscribed to the service.
The About page is where you'll find the program version, a link to the Laridian Web site for sales and support,
and copyright information on the current Bible or reference book.
One of the useful links on this page is the "What's New" link. This takes you to the revision history, where you'll find all the new and improved features (and bug fixes) we've made, and the date on which the change was uploaded to the server. Since iPocketBible is a Web-based application, there's nothing to download to your phone, but in order to take advantage of the new features you may need to reload the Web site into your browser. To make that easy, there's a button at the top of the revision history that loads the latest version of the site. You can do this as frequently as you'd like to make sure you have the latest version of the program.
If you notice something isn't working, it's worth checking the "What's New" page to see if we've fixed it before you contact tech support.
Select the Help button to display this help document. Help is opened in another browser window so as not to disturb your iPocketBible session.
The context menu is displayed when you select the hyperlinked verse number at the start of a verse of the Bible. This menu is used to set/clear bookmarks, add notes, add highlights, and access commentary for the passage.
If you've entered a note for a verse, it is displayed under the Notes tab. If you want to edit or delete the note, choose Edit/Delete Note. If there is no note on the verse you can choose Add Note to create a new one. See How do I add my own notes? and the help for the Note Editor for more information
Select a category then select Set Bookmark to set a bookmark on this verse. If you don't want to use categories to organize your bookmarks, select "No Category" for the category.
To clear a bookmark, first go to a bookmarked verse using the Bookmarks button, then select the verse number to bring up the context menu. Select the category from which you want to clear this bookmark (or All Categories to clear it from every category it's in) then select Clear Bookmark.
Bookmarks are not specific to one version of the Bible. If you bookmark John 3:16 in one Bible, it will be bookmarked in every Bible in your library.
iPocketBible understands different versification schemes used by various Bibles. It will "move" your bookmarks to the appropriate verse as you switch Bibles. See comments on versification for a discussion of how iPocketBible handles the situation where different Bibles use different verse numbers to refer to the same verse.
You can see your list of bookmarks by selecting the Bookmarks button on the toolbar.
Select a highlight color to highlight this verse. To clear the highlights on a verse, select "None" from the list of highlight colors.
See Highlights for a discussion of highlights.
If there is an article in your preferred commentary (see Options) about this verse, there will be a link to the commentary in the context menu (you'll see the name of your preferred commentary). If there is no information about this verse in your preferred commentary, you'll see a note to that effect in the context menu.
You can change your preferred commentary on the Options page.
To highlight a verse, select the verse number to display the Context Menu.
The current highlight color of the verse is displayed in a drop-down list of colors. Select the list to choose a color. In addition to several colors there are three text styles to choose from: underline, strike-through, and a combination of underline and strike-through. It is not our intention to encourage you to strike out verses from the Bible (!) but rather to give some choices to people who have difficult distinguishing color.
Once you've selected a color, select the Highlight button. The program will return to the original verse, and it should now be highlighted.
See comments on versification for a discussion of how iPocketBible handles the situation where different Bibles use different verse numbers to refer to the same verse.
iPocketBible attaches bookmarks, highlights, and notes to verses in the Bible. While it's the case that most Bibles use very similar chapter and verse numbers, they do not all use the same numbering scheme. One of the most common examples is 3 John, which has 14 verse in Bibles like the King James Version, but has 15 verses in the New Living Translation and many other Bibles. These Bibles split verse 14 into two verses.
This presents a problem for iPocketBible. If you attach a bookmark to 3 John 15, what do you expect to happen when you select that bookmark in a Bible that has only 14 verses in 3 John? Since the content of verse 15 is contained in verse 14, we think you intend your bookmark to go to verse 14 in this case.
This is all fine and good, but it can get confusing in certain cases. Consider the situation where you have highlighted 3 John 14 in yellow and 3 John 15 in pink. Now you're looking at verse 14 in a Bible that has only 14 verses in 3 John. The contents of verse 15 are contained in this verse. What color do you expect it to be? iPocketBible handles this by using an algorithm that first looks for a highlight on the same verse (3 John 14) then chooses a highlight on one of the "aliases" for this verse. So in this case you'll see 3 John 14 in yellow.
If you delete the highlight on 3 John 14, the program uses the same algorithm to locate the verse that caused this verse to be highlighted, and it deletes that highlight. In the example above, though, we have an interesting situation. You've deleted the yellow highlight on verse 14 but there is a pink highlight on verse 15. iPocketBible will highlight verse 14 in pink after you delete the yellow highlight because verse 15 is contained in verse 14 in the Bible you're looking at.
Finally, if you delete the pink highlight you see on verse 14 then go look at a Bible with 15 verses in 3 John, the highlight will be gone from verse 15. Again, this is because the program finds the verse that caused verse 14 to be highlighted in the original Bible and deletes that highlight. That highlight is the one on verse 15.
Bookmarks are treated slightly differently when being deleted. If you have a bookmark on both 3 John 14 and 3 John 15, then you go to a Bible that contains only 3 John 14, when you delete the bookmark on 3 John 14, the bookmark on verse 15 is also removed. This is because we found it to be unsettling to do it like we do notes and highlights. The problem is the first time you delete the bookmark, we remove it from verse 14. Since verse 15 is bookmarked, too, when you go back to the context menu for verse 14 in a Bible that has only 14 verses, it will appear that there is still a bookmark on verse 14 even though you just deleted it. Only after you delete it again does it disappear. Because bookmarks are either there or not, we choose to always delete all bookmarks that can be mapped to a verse when you choose to delete the bookmark on that verse.
Of course this isn't nearly as confusing in real life as it is here in writing. We just want you to understand that there are cases where your bookmarks, highlights, and notes may appear to "move" when you look at them in another translation of the Bible.
You can add books to your iPocketBible library by purchasing them at www.laridian.com/iphone. When you purchase a book, it will be available to you immediately in iPocketBible. There's nothing to download. (Ignore any instructions or email you see telling you to download your new book or Bible. This is not necessary since you access all your iPocketBible books over the Internet.)
You must tell iPocketBible to refresh its book list after buying new books. To do this, select the Open Book button on the tool bar and select Refresh Book List. This causes iPocketBible to query our customer transaction database to find out what books you own.
Note that books you purchase for other platforms, such as PocketBible for Windows, or MyBible for Palm OS, will also be available to you through iPocketBible.
Subscriptions to iPocketBible are sold either as month-to-month, automatically renewing basis, or as an annual subscription that must be manually renewed. If you purchase a month-to-month subscription, it will be charged to your credit card each month until you tell us to stop. Please contact us when you want to terminate your subscription. If you instead go to your credit card company and ask them to stop the recurring charge, they will charge us a fee that is completely unnecessary. We will never give you any hassles about cancelling your subscription.
If you purchase an annual subscription you will have access to iPocketBible for one year from your date of purchase. We will notify you by email when your subscription is about to expire. If you don't renew, your access will simply be terminated when your subscription expires.
iPocketBible is simply a Web site. You can access it from most desktop or laptop computers. It may try to lay out the screen as if it is running on a mobile device, but in other respects it should work.
iPocketBible is designed to work with the Safari Web browser but is tested with other popular browsers. You can download the Safari browser for your Mac or Windows computer at no charge from Apple. iPocketBible also works well in the Firefox browser.
Note that you only have one "status" record in iPocketBible. So if you access from your iPhone and your laptop at the same time, you may see confusing results as you move back and forth between the two. The server will think you're on the page you last accessed, so when you go to the next page on a different device, it will take you to the page after the one you last accessed, not the one you're currently on.
Copyright © 2007-2008 by Laridian, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Laridian, PocketBible, and MyBible are registered trademarks and iPocketBible is a trademark of Laridian, Inc.
Other marks are the property of their respective owners.
iPocketBible is an ongoing development project and features are being added and updated constantly. The features described in this document are subject to change.