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Word Count in Instant Details Box?


John F. Hart

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Sometime ago I suggested that the Instant Details information include the number of uses of a word, especially of the original language texts. Helen commented that this was not feasible. So maybe my further suggestion below is also not possible.

 

What seems to make great software like Accordance is the "instant" idea. Any process that can minimize time and effort will be a hit with the user. So let me propose this idea again. Bible students of all levels like to see how many times a word is used in the Bible. Right now, we place the cursor on a word, choose a search of this word (I use Command + 4), and the new search window says something like "13 hits" (or whatever number of hits are found).

 

Perhaps there is a better way to do this, but here is my suggestion. Suppose if we hold down the option key and place a cursor over a word, Accordance was programmed to do a "behind the scenes search" of the word. In the Instant Details Box the number of uses showed up, "13 hits" (or whatever number of hits are found). In the Greek, this would be very convenient to know if this particular word was used one time or ten times, etc. without doing a full search. Currently holding down the option key in the Atlas changes the information in the Instant Details Box. So perhaps this could be done in biblical texts.

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Suppose if we hold down the option key and place a cursor over a word, Accordance was programmed to do a "behind the scenes search" of the word. In the Instant Details Box the number of uses showed up

 

The information that appears in the Instant Details box appears instantly because it is tagged. No "behind the scenes" searching is done. To implement it would mean running an engine search as you wiggle the pointer over different words... representing something clunkier than what the Instant Details box is for.

Also, as a Bible professor, you know what words are in the 1-10 range, the 11-25 range, and the common ones. I'd suggest that this is all that matters. The specific number in isolation can be misleading without glancing at the full results that you get with a simple one-click amplify. We have so many words that occur lots of times but only in one book or by one author... that's important info.

Well, just offering my opinion is all.

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Also, as a Bible professor, you know what words are in the 1-10 range, the 11-25 range, and the common ones. I'd suggest that this is all that matters.
Thanks for thinking the best of my memory and skills "as a Bible professor." But when it comes to the lesser used words, I forget.

 

The specific number in isolation can be misleading without glancing at the full results that you get with a simple one-click amplify. We have so many words that occur lots of times but only in one book or by one author... that's important info.

 

I would go so far as to say that even the parsing in the Instant Details window "can be misleading" without further research. But this is valuable info. So is a simple word count without going through a complete search. For example, it would be interesting to know immediately without a full search if a word is a hapax legomena in a particular LXX passage. This word count feature might even be interesting for English texts as well, not just the biblical languages.

 

The real drawback could be the fact that this behind the scenes search (which, by the way, it what is done with every search for a word--it searches for the number of uses "behind the scenes") would be its complexity or "quirkiness" for a "cursor over" kind-of-display.

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  • 4 years later...

I would go so far as to say that even the parsing in the Instant Details window "can be misleading" without further research. But this is valuable info. So is a simple word count without going through a complete search. For example, it would be interesting to know immediately without a full search if a word is a hapax legomena in a particular LXX passage. This word count feature might even be interesting for English texts as well, not just the biblical languages.

 

This is an old post, so maybe everyone has found a way to do what they want to do. But here is something I have tried that works well. Using the COUNT command, search for all the hapax in a given search text. Then, define a highlight style for hapax and highlight the hits. This can be especially useful if expanded, e.g., to highlight all of the words which only occur in a given book (using the HITS command and two search windows). You can do the work one time, and then see it at any time just by viewing the highlight styles used.

 

I got the basic idea from a blog post several months ago about using Accordance to make your own "reader's Bible", but I don't have the link to the original article.

 

Hope that helps!

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This is an old post, so maybe everyone has found a way to do what they want to do. But here is something I have tried that works well. Using the COUNT command, search for all the hapax in a given search text. Then, define a highlight style for hapax and highlight the hits. This can be especially useful if expanded, e.g., to highlight all of the words which only occur in a given book (using the HITS command and two search windows). You can do the work one time, and then see it at any time just by viewing the highlight styles used.

 

I got the basic idea from a blog post several months ago about using Accordance to make your own "reader's Bible", but I don't have the link to the original article.

 

Hope that helps!

 

 

Yes, that is a help. It is "instant" as I was thinking. But, generally only those words with the least frequency would be done this way. Thanks.

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