Over on the Accordance User Forums, someone posted a screenshot of how he has Accordance set to start up, and asked others to do the same. The series of screenshots supplied has been fascinating, and I've been amazed at the variety of looks and arrangements. After following the thread for a while now, here are a few of my own observations:
First, it's remarkable how many people are already making extensive use of the new background color and leading options. Some even have alternating panes with lighter and darker background shades of the same color. It's a cool look, though I imagine it would force you to keep displaying your texts in a certain order.
It's also interesting to see the various ways people choose to display the Resource palette. A lot of people prefer the horizontal orientation, and while most put the horizontal Resource palette at the top of the screen, a few place it at the bottom. Most people who have posted screenshots seem to prefer the icon buttons, but some have chosen the text button option. If you haven't discovered these options yet, you can set them in the Appearance settings of the Preferences dialog.
The position and orientation of other palettes, like the Instant Details Box, the Highlight palette, and the Text Palette, were also interesting to see. Since the Highlight palette can be oriented vertically or horizontally, people used it in a variety of shapes, sizes, and locations. Likewise the Instant Details box was sometimes placed at the top of the screen, stretched across the full width of the bottom, or even hidden using the Auto-fade option.
Most people seemed to use a single workspace, but a few people chose to have a main workspace and separate windows side-by-side or tiled on screen. I don't think I saw anyone using more than one workspace window, but it can certainly be done.
A wide variety of fonts was used, and it made for some very attractive looks. I am sometimes amazed that something as simple as changing the font is still difficult or even impossible in other Bible programs. It's a simple change that can make a huge visual impact.
As an Accordance developer, I sometimes wonder if our users are actually discovering and using all of the various options available to them. It's gratifying to see that many of our users are going beyond the default settings and window arrangements to tailor Accordance to their specific needs. If you're still looking at black text on a white background with underlined verse references, be sure to check out this thread and draw inspiration from the many faces of Accordance.
# posted by David Lang @ 11:02 AM
