Searching all versions

[Alistair]

I have used the "Search All" facility to create a group I have called "English Bibles" that contains all my English Bible texts, and search for the phrase "flock of sheep".

The results have varied according to the different translations, which is to be expected, but I can only then see the results one book at a time in one version at a time.

 

What I would like to be able to do is to search all my English Bibles in the standard search field and have all the results in the standard search results pane below, listed in two possible ways:

 

1) by version in order, then by standard Bible reference

e.g. ASV reference 1, ASV reference 2, BBE reference 1, etc

 

2) by Bible reference in order, then by version

e.g. Reference 1 ASV, reference 1 BBE, reference 2 ASV, etc

 

Can this be implemented, or is there another way to get this same result?

 

Thanks!

[Robb B]

I'm not sure of the practicality of implementing this, but there is a way to approximate the result. What you can do is create a session with all of your English Bibles (or your favorite ones) open as separate windows. Then link (using the LINK command) all the windows to one window where you will type the search terms. When you search for any words, all the versions will be searched simultaneously with all the results showing at the same time. I have attached a screenshot of a possible setup. To save time, go to the File menu and choose "Save Session" so you can re-open it whenever you want to run this kind of search, without having to recreate all the links, tie all the texts, and so on.

 

Hope this helps!

[Alistair]

That obviously works, thank you for the very helpful answer, but I'm still hoping for a more streamlined solution in a future update of Accordance.

 

The implementation should be quite straightforward:

 

Define list of texts

Search text 1

Store results

Search text 2

Store results

(repeat until list complete)

Sort results according to Version or according to reference and display.

 

There may even be a way to do this with Applescript/Automator and export the results to a text file, which would also work but wouldn't be ideal because it takes the user out of Accordance to work with the results.

 

Ideally I'd want to see all the results in one pane under one tab in one window, with a KB shortcut or single click to toggle between list-by-version and list-by-reference.

 

Please?

[Justin Burt]

Robb,

 

Is there a way to link tabs as opposed to windows?

[Robb B]

Sure, you just do the same thing, but in separate tabs. The only difference there is that you can only see one tab in a workspace at a time. But it works exactly the same. You just tell Accordance to link to another tab instead of a window. I attached a screenshot. I searched for "discipline" in the NAS95S, and linked the ESV to it.

[Justin Burt]

Thanks, I have been doing separate searches in each tab to get it done, this helps a ton!

[Alistair]

I'm still hoping someone will say "This is a great new feature and we will definitely add it in the future."

 

It would be a great help for those times when you half remember a Bible passage but cannot pin it down to a particular version.

[Helen Brown]

We discussed options of organizing the results in the Search All window but this requires major programming. I cannot promise whether or when it might be implemented. It does do the searching for you, you are just asking for the results to be presented more helpfully. This is a very tall order considering that it would need to apply to tools and non-Biblical texts and anything else included in Search All.

 

You may want to try the new FUZZY search with a longer phrase so you get fewer false positives. This is ideal for finding a verse you don't exactly remember.

[Alistair]

Thanks, that's great!