Do you use the Edit Window or an alternative?

[William Cross]

Does anyone here use the Edit Window to take notes, write sermons, write prayers or thoughts in?

 

If so, do you find it sufficient?

 

If not, what DO you do? Where do you do your Word Processing and how do you get your words from there into Accordance?

 

I keep getting frustrated trying to decide what to use to write in and I keep wanting Accordance's Edit Window to behave like a normal OSX Word Processor especially with formating and spell check as you type. If I type up a sermon in Pages and then I cut and paste it into the Accordance Edit Window I loose all of my formatting. That tempts me to type in Accordance, but then I have limited formatting and no spell check as I type.

[Lorinda H. M. Hoover]

For User Tools or User Notes? Or Both?

 

I do use User Tools to keep notes for the readings for each Sunday in the Church year (I usually follow a lectionary). I also have User Tools to store exegetical notes and liturgy elements for special sermon series.

 

I have a User Notes file for my own translations of passages I preach from. This one gets only occasional use, as I don't always have time to translate the passage each week.

 

I do struggle sometimes between using User Notes or User Tools for some of my sermon notes. User Notes are great for notes on a given verse. But User Tools are better for notes that about theme/narrative/background/etc. I have vacillated between primarily using a User Tool or a User Notes file for sermon prep. Three years ago, I evidently used User Notes for much of the year, where as more recently I've used a specially structure User Tool.

 

One thing that would help me tremendously would be the ability to link to User Notes from within a User Tool. Similarly, the ability to link to other modules within User Notes would be wonderful.

 

Helen has indicated that they envision a new kind of User Reference Tool, and I'm hoping it will include the "best of both worlds."

 

Lorinda

[William Cross]

Sorry, what I meant was, do you actually do Word Processing in the Edit Window or do you use another program to do your Word Processing in and then copy and paste into the Edit Window. I keep wanting the Edit Window to be a more full featured Word Processor. I have also used Pages, TextEdit and WriteRoom, but it is frustrating to take notes in these programs and continually be shifting between them and Accordance especially if I am trying to track with a specific passage. If I use Accordances Edit Window to type in for my Word Processor then the lack of check spelling as you type and the normal formatting options that the other programs have become a point of contention.

[Levi Durfey]

I have gone both ways.

 

I used Pages to type all my sermon notes, and then selectively pasted them into the User Notes at the appropriate verses. The disadvantage of doing it this way was 1) marking all the scripture links after pasting them in and 2) fussing with having the word processor and accordance on the screen at the same time. But at least I had spell check as I type. Yet overall, my study didn't seem as "integrated" as when I used the edit window to type notes.

 

I have also tried typing my entire sermon in the edit window. But now I mainly just type the "commentary" portion of the sermon in the edit window, saving the illustrations, introduction, and conclusion for Pages. This way I can be submersed in my sermon study in Accordance for a couple days and then spend a couple days in Pages working on the polishing.

 

Note: the "commentary" that I write is fairly able to be preached as is; it's not overly technical or disjointed. More like a expositional commentary versus a technical commentary. That way I can paste it into Pages and not have to rework it too much.

[William Cross]

That is exactly the type of response I was looking for. Anyone else?

[Gary Pauley]

That is exactly the type of response I was looking for. Anyone else?

 

I mostly use User Notes. I have "expositional notes" and "Outline notes" (outlines of previous sermons). Anything I want to store that is longer I put into a User Notes file.

[Lorinda H. M. Hoover]

Ah, I see what you are asking. I do initial exegesis and reflection in either a User Tool or User Note, as above. But my actual sermon I write in NeoOffice. At one point, I was including a link to the sermon in my User Tool, but I've fallen out of that habit of late.

 

Lorinda

[William Cross]

I too have found that linking to documents on my computer tends to be problematic for two reasons.

1. I need to move them sometimes or change the name of the file both of which breaks the link and

2. Just falling out of the habit since it does not fit into the work flow so well.

 

Anyone else doing Word Processing directly in the Edit Window or do you use Pages and then cut and paste and reformat everything?