Interface Concepts

Accordance Bible Software is arguably the most powerful Bible Software available--for any computer platform. But the thing that really sets Accordance apart is its user interface, which is designed to place a wealth of information at your fingertips, while keeping it all clearly organized and easy to access.

Here are some of the interface design concepts which set Accordance apart:

The Bible is Central

We believe the primary purpose of Bible Study software should be to study the Bible, and we've designed the Accordance interface accordingly. When you launch Accordance, the first thing you see is a window displaying the entire text of the Bible (whichever one you choose as your default). Consequently, the Bible itself serves as the central hub around which your study revolves. We believe programs which make you begin with a listing of electronic books or some web-style search interface actually lead you away from the Bible to focus too much on secondary resources.

Searching is Central

Accordance is built around the idea that Bible software should center around the act of searching the Bible. After all, isn't that the main thing you're going to use it to do? So rather than simply displaying the text of the Bible in some generic Bible window, and then requiring you to do something extra to perform a search, Accordance gives you everything you need to perform a search right from the very beginning.

The Accordance Search window is designed to make defining a search as quick and painless as possible. You can find a passage by entering its reference, or you can search the text of the Bible for a particular word or phrase. You can specify the Bible translation or original language text you wish to search, limit your search to a specific range of verses, use a variety of sophisticated search criteria, and even specify whether you want the elements of your search to appear in the same verse, chapter, clause, sentence, paragraph, or book. All of these options can be accessed directly from within the Search window, so there's no digging through dialog boxes or preference panels just to define a search.

What You See Is What You Get

The Mac pioneered the concept of WYSIWYG: that what you see on screen should faithfully represent what you get on the printed page.

Accordance is built around this same simple concept that what you see should be what you get. That's why the Search window is not only the place where you define a search; it is also the place where the results of that search are displayed.

Consider the following example:

In the top part of this window (above the grey divider bar), a search has been constructed to find every verse of the King James (KJVS = King James Version with Strong's numbers) in which "Adam" is followed within five words by "Eve." In the bottom part of the window, the results of this search are clearly displayed. If you were to leave this window open and come back three hours later, you would be able to see immediately what you had been searching for before you left, because what you see is always what you get.

This WYSIWYG concept has been carried over to every other window in Accordance. Consider the Map window below:

Notice how the settings in the pop-up menus at the top of the window determine the geographical features which are displayed on the map. Once again, what you see in the top part of the window is what you get in that window's display pane.

Once you grasp the WYSIWYG concept, you can easily figure out how to use each different kind of Accordance window, whether it be a Search window, a Tools window, a Parallel window, a User Notes window, a Map window, a Timeline window, or whatever. Each kind of window looks remarkably similar to the others, and any differences between them are merely a function of the particular kind of information they enable you to access.

You Can Get There From Here

We believe Bible software should be unobtrusive, placing a wealth of information at your fingertips without itself getting in the way. It should encourage you to ask questions of the biblical text by making it easy to find the answers to those questions. It should enable you to follow a path of study, consulting other resources as needed, without leading you away from the text of the Bible itself.

Accordance accomplishes this by making every Accordance feature and module readily available from the Resource palette. No matter where you are in the program or what you're looking at, you can select any Bible text, commentary, dictionary, map, timeline, or other resource to open or to search.

Whenever you select a word or verse reference before choosing a resource from the Resource palette, Accordance will automatically search that resource for the word or verse you selected. This enables you to get the information you need almost instantaneously, making it easy to follow a train of thought through multiple resources.

Economy of Effort

Following a train of thought means not having to jump through unnecessary hoops to get the information you need. We've just seen how the Resource palette makes it easy to open and search any module in your Accordance library, but Accordance offers an even easier way to consult those resources which you use most often: triple-clicking.

Triple-click a word in a text with Strong's Numbers, and you'll immediately be taken to the entry for that word in the appropriate Greek or Hebrew dictionary. Triple-click an English word to look it up in your favorite English dictionary. Triple-click a verse reference to look it up in your favorite commentary. By triple-clicking the words or verses you're interested in, you can find out more about them without even having to make that short trip to the Amplify palette.

That's economy of effort.

Why triple-click instead of double-clicking? Because we believe in adhering to Mac interface standards. Accordingly, you double-click to select a word, and triple-click to look that word up in another resource.

Triple-clicking a word to get more information about it can be a real timesaver, but there are a number of situations where you don't need to click at all; simply passing your cursor over a word or item is enough to get more information about it. The information appears in the Instant Details Box located at the bottom of the screen. Here are a few examples of ways you can get information without a single click:

1. Pass your cursor over a word in a text with Strong's numbers to see the Greek or Hebrew word which it translates.
2. Pass your cursor over a word in a grammatically-tagged Greek or Hebrew text to view its lexical form, its full parsing information, and a basic English definition.
3. Pass your cursor over any hypertexted abbreviation in a Tool window to see what it stands for.
4. In certain tools with multiple authors, you can pass your cursor over an author's name to get his biographical information and/or his academic credentials.
5. Pass your cursor over any point in a Map window to get its elevation in meters and feet, as well as its Longitude and Latitude.
6. Pass your cursor over any point in a Timeline window to see the exact year.

Instant Information with a swipe of the cursor. That's an even better example of economy of effort.

Window Panes and Workspace Tabs

For Bible software to be unobtrusive and avoid getting in your way, it should let you view a multiplicity of resources with a minimum of window clutter. Every second you spend shuffling through lots of open windows is time taken away from your study of the Bible.

Accordance keeps window clutter to a minimum in two ways: through Window Panes and Workspace Tabs.

Window panes enable you to compare multiple Bible texts or translations, view a commentary in parallel with the text of the Bible, or keep your user notes for a passage clearly visible, all within the same window.

In the window above, the King James Version, the Message, and the original Hebrew are all displayed in parallel panes, along with Matthew Henry's Commentary and a set of user notes entitled "Sample Notes." Imagine the window clutter that would result if you had to open a separate window for each of these resources! By viewing them all in the same window, everything is kept neat and tidy, and the panes automatically stay synchronized with each other. Window panes are added to a window via the three icon buttons circled in red.

Window panes can be used to keep Bible texts, commentaries, and user notes neatly organized, but what about all the other resources available, such as lexicons, dictionaries, general books, maps, timelines, and parallels? The Accordance Workspace window will keep all of these separate resources together in one place, all neatly organized and displayed as tabs. You never have to worry about losing one window behind another or having to rearrange them … unless, of course, you want to!

An Interface You Don't Expect

When we say that Accordance offers the "Interface You Expect," we mean that Accordance offers the ease of use and elegance of design which Mac users expect from the software they choose. Yet with its unique approach to Bible study, Accordance features an interface you may not expect. If you're familiar with Bible software that draws your attention away from the Bible to focus on secondary resources, breaks your train of thought by forcing you to jump through unnecessary hoops, or functions as little more than a glorified e-book reader, the Accordance interface is probably not what you expected. Give it a try, and you'll soon find that it exceeds your expectations, making Bible study easier and more engaging than ever.