One of the challenges faced by Christians today is having a copy of the Bible readily available for times of spiritual need, counseling or sharing.  Until now, this meant carrying a paper copy of the Scriptures which admittedly can be a challenge for some to remember.  Today, thanks to Laridian^® Bible Software, anyone can have a copy of the Bible with them at all times on their Pocket PCs. 

Laridian’s Bible application, PocketBible^® is without question the most comprehensive Bible application available for Pocket PCs.  It offers multiple views that can be customized to individual needs or preferences, has over 15 different Bible translations – so of which are free – available, and nearly ten Bible reference and study tools.  All of this, along with outstanding technical support and a five year track history, makes PocketBible^® a must have application for any Christian, no matter where they are in their spiritual journey. 

The installation of PocketBible^® is done via a desktop installer and can be installed on your Pocket PC device’s main storage memory or on a storage card.  Laridian recommends and supports installing the application into main memory and the Bible translations themselves on a storage card.    

The application itself has a rather small footprint of approximately 640KB with each of the Bible translations and Bible tools ranging in size from 1.5 to 7.5MB each.  One important note is where the Bible versions are installed.  By default, these will be installed under My Documents in the Laridian Books folder.  If you want to store the Bible files on a storage card, they must be put in the same folder on the storage card, make sure you have the storage card inserted at the time of installation.  The installer will recognize that you have a storage card and ask if you wish to install them there.   

Once PocketBible^® is installed; the default interface or layout is easy to understand but highly advanced. 

By default, PocketBible^® will open the first file alphabetically that it sees in My Documents.  To open another translation that you have loaded on your Pocket PC, tap the View > Change Books… menu and select from the list of Bibles.  Tapping OK will present the translation in the default view. 

Once the Bible version you want to use is open, the majority of the layout toolbar becomes active.  By using the toolbar, users can move around easily in the text as well as find particular words or phrases, add notes and bookmark.  These will be covered in more detail later in this review.

One of the best features of PocketBible^® is the ability for users to view multiple versions of the Bible on the same screen.  This is particularly helpful when using one of the dictionaries or other tools that Laridian has available on their website.  To view two books, simply tap the view > Two Books… menu then select the second Bible you wish to open.  Tap OK and both translations will now appear on the display.    

If you are studying a particular section of Scripture, you can synchronize the views of both translations using the Synchronize feature off of the View menu. 

With a translation open, moving around the Scriptures is easily done via the Go To icon, located at the lower left-hand side of the display.  Uses can also access this function by tapping the Find > Go To… menu.  The Go To function is intuitive with a scrollbox with the books of the Bible and a number pad for the books and chapters.  Note too that the different translations that you have installed on your P/PC are tabulated at the bottom.  This is a good place for you to change translations should you choose to do so during your studies.  Once you have the verse you want to view selected, tap OK and it will be presented on the display.  Once the Scripture is displayed, users can move back and forth between chapters via the back and forward page icons as well as the back and forward arrows. 

Note also in the screenshot above that there is hyperlinked text within the Scripture.  These hyperlinks lead to notes or other information about that verse or phrase.  To access the notes, simply tap the hyperlink.  To go back to your previous point in Scripture, simply tap the back arrow. 

Another important feature of PocketBible^® is the ability to find words or phrases within the biblical text easily.  Doing this is easy with either the Find icon (the magnifying glass icon) or from the Find > Find… menu.  From the dialog box presented, type in the word or phrase to search for and select where in the Bible you want to search – Old Testament, New Testament or the whole Bible.  Further, word searches can be narrowed down to just a book and a range of verses in a single book.  Once the criteria are determined, tap OK and the notes related to the word searched will be presented in the lower part of the display. 

By tapping the reference verse, the top of the screen will be changed to that text with your keyword highlighted.  You will note also that the forward and back magnifying glasses are now operational on the taskbar.  This makes it easy for you to go to the next reference or back to a previous one.  Lastly, you can turn off the notes and have the full biblical text only if you choose. 

One of the central concepts of PocketBible^® is that it is not just an electronic Bible but a complete research tool.  Laridian offers many tools to help ones study including dictionaries and commentaries.  Many of these tools are free or at a low price and completely integrated with PocketBible^®.  Like translations themselves, these tools can also be installed onto Storage Cards or into your Pocket PCs main memory. 

With this in mind, the lookup feature is available when a dictionary installed and configured in PocketBible^®.  Configuring a dictionary is done via the View > Options… > Prefs menu.  Here, users are able to select not only their preferred dictionary but also their preferred Bible translation. 

After preferences are made, tap the Look Up icon or tap the Find > Look Up… menu.  A search display is presented where users type in the word to look up and then tap OK.  The definition of the word is presented in true dictionary fashion with pronunciation notes, lingual roots and references.    

In addition, PocketBible also makes studying different translations of the Bible easy by allowing for two translations to be displayed at once.  Using the View > Two Books… menu, select a second translation that you wish to display.  Tap OK and both translations are show with a horizontal split.  Further, the translations can be synchronized to display the same verse in the different translations, making side-by-side comparisons easy. 

Without question one of PocketBible^®’s strongest features is the ability to add personal notes to the biblical text.   This can be done in plain text or can be formatted using HTML tags within the note field itself.  This feature is excellent for taking sermon notes or for teachers.  Entering a note is done via the Edit > New Note… menu on the taskbar.  Users are presented the familiar verse selection screen where the verse to add the note too is selected. 

Next, the note page itself is presented.  From here, users can simply type in the text of their note without any formatting or can use the pull-down menu to select HTML tags to format the text.  The formatting allows users to change the font, insert images, list and table and format the paragraph.  While these can be used on-the-fly, most users will likely find it best to enter the plain text during their class or sermon then edit them using these tags later.  When using the tags, simply type in the text between the open and close tag ends just as you would any HTML document. 

Once the text of the note is entered, tap OK and now a note hyperlink appears at the beginning of the verse.  To see the note, tap the hyperlink just as you would any other note or reference in the text and you will be taken to the bottom of the chapter where all of the notes are displayed.  From here, notes can be edited and deleted, making management of them easy.  To return to the text, simply tap the back arrow. 

Before concluding this discussion on notes, it is important to remember that all of the notes users enter are stored in a common file.  This file, “Laridian Data” is stored in the /My Documents/Laridian Books directory of your Pocket PCs main memory.  In that same directory is another file, “PocketBible” that stores the configuration of PocketBible^® on your Pocket PC.  It is important that you make this directory a regular part of your backup procedure should anything ever happen to your Pocket PC and you need to hard reset the device. 

As with paper-based Bibles, it is often necessary to create bookmarks to bring together a topic or idea during study, teaching or preaching.  PocketBible^® is no different in that bookmarks can be added and deleted easily.  One advantage that it has over paper-based bookmarks is that in PocketBible^®, these bookmarks can be categorized to make finding them easier. 

To add a bookmark, tap the bookmark icon at the lower right-hand side of the taskbar. The bookmark display shows all of your current bookmarks with a pull down menu at the top showing the category that they are in.  Note that each translation and an Add tab are located at the bottom of the display.  To add a bookmark, tap the Add tab.  From here, you can change categories and the verse you want to bookmark (note that it assumes you want to bookmark the verse you are currently viewing).  If you need to create a category, simply tap the Change Categories… button and enter the name of the category you wish to add.   

As with the features of PocketBible^®, the preferences and options of the application are easily customizable as well.  In order to access these options, tap the View > Options… menu on the main display.  Here users are presented with a tabulated list of categories that can be customized such as the display, the find and copy functions, Preferences, bookmark categories and more advanced functions.  This complete control allows users to setup the application that works best for them, allowing the learning curve of the application to be significantly decreased. 

As expected with a Christian company, Laridian’s customer support and service are impeccable.  In sending test support questions to them, answers were always accurate and well within 24 hours.  In addition to email support, Laridian has an excellent FAQ’s section on their site which, as they advertise, will answer nearly any question one would have about PocketBible.

The price for PocketBible^® is a modest $10 (US) for the reader itself.  Translations of the Bible range from free to $24.99 with commentaries and dictionaries available as well.  Laridian also has several bundle prices for translations and reference materials allowing users to have a complete biblical library on their Pocket PC.  Laridian does offer a demonstration version of PocketBible^® which can be downloaded from their website.  This demo version is fully function and not time limited.  However, it comes with the King James version of the Bible and no other translations or add-ons can be used with it. 

For anyone who is a serious student of the Bible, a teacher or committed to keeping a copy of Scripture with them, PocketBible^® is the answer.  It is without question the best, most completely thought out Bible application available for Pocket PC and one no Christian should be without. 

Clinton Fitch
Editor
Clinton Fitch (Dot) Com! (http://www.clintonfitch.com)
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