Quickly see which References addresses my text?

[kboard6]

Is there a way to see what Reference works have something on my text without having to open each one of them up individually? For example, I am studying verses in Philemon and there are about 50 works listed under the Reference Tool. Do I have to open each one individually to know if they have anything on this verse in Philemon? Some are obvious enough to know, but it seems I am spending a lot of time going through each one and seeing if it does or does not. As I recall, Online Bible had a feature that included a right-click where it only showed works that had entries for the particular verse. Is there something similar (or superior) in Accordance? I have just started using the program and am liking it more all the time. I am just fighting the learning curve battle a little in between 3 sermons each week.

 

I have gone through the tutorials, but might have missed this. Forgive me if it is so obvious!

 

Thank you!

KBoard6

[Helen Brown]

You can select a Scripture reference in the text and then amplify to All Reference at the bottom of the pop-up menu. A better solution would be to use the Search All window (in the Search menu of the Resource palette) and define a group of the Reference tools you are interested in searching. Then you can either amplify to that group to search it for your selection, or enter a search argument directly in the window.

[DanG]

You can select a Scripture reference in the text and then amplify to All Reference at the bottom of the pop-up menu. A better solution would be to use the Search All window (in the Search menu of the Resource palette) and define a group of the Reference tools you are interested in searching. Then you can either amplify to that group to search it for your selection, or enter a search argument directly in the window.

 

So, I just did as suggested with Phil 4:13. Here's the problem. EVERY commentary opens up that I search, even ones that have no reference to Phil 4:13. One commentary opened with a reference to Phil 4:12 highlighted because didn't contain Phil 4:13. Beyond that, even the OT commentaries open up and find every single reference to Phil 4:13, even if it's just mentioned in passing along with the commentary on James, etc. Granted, sometimes you WANT that to happen, but not in this case. If I just want to see the commentaries that address a certain verse, how do I drill down and eliminate commentaries the ones that don't specifically have a treatment of the text in question.

 

Logos does this by giving you a list of commentaries by name that you then have to open one by one. But at least it eliminates the commentaries without any reference to the text you're considering.

The Online Bible, mentioned by the original poster, does this by putting an asterisk next to the title of each commentary in the pull down menu so that I can open only those which reference the verse in question. Even better, there is a command key to jump to the next commentary in the menu which references the text you have chosen, skipping the commentaries which don't address the text. This was an extremely efficient way to check several commentaries quickly.

 

I really like Accordance, but I do find myself having to often look through commentaries to see IF it address the text I'm preaching on. Seldom do I check every commentary, because I'm forced to do it manual and it just gets too tedious. It would be great if Accordance would do this for me so I was able to just focus on the commentaries that actually address the text at hand.

 

I hope this makes sense, because I, too, identify with the original poster.

[David Lang]

Dan, you tried the first part of Helen's suggestion and missed the better method she mentioned. Instead of choosing the All Reference option at the bottom of the Reference Tool menu, click and hold on the Search button at the bottom left corner of the Resource palette. You can choose to search all your modules, all your Bibles, all your Tools, or a special Search All Group that you define. Helen suggested defining a group of the Reference Tools you want to search. You'll find that when the Reference Tools are searched, Accordance will tell you how many times the verse you selected is found in the Reference field (which means it is an actual comment on that verse) and where it is found in the Scripture field (which means it is found in the Scripture citations in the body of the article). You can drill down through the commentaries and then click the ones you want to view.

[DanG]

Thanks, Dave. That's helpful.

 

Except...

 

I did "search all" as you suggested for Phil 4:13...

 

1. I get a list of modules containing (Scripture), (Reference) or (Entry). I just want to see the ones that are (Scripture). Is there a way to do that?

 

1b. Oops, just noticed that JFB has (Entry) and (Scripture) and there is no (Reference) found. HOWEVER, the (Entry) list takes you to the two References. Why it's labeled (Entry) instead of (Reference) I'm not sure??? So maybe I want to narrow to all the (Entry) and (Reference)???

 

2. I still get some false positives, i.e. Dake (Reference) shows one hit, but when you click the little triangle it shows Phil 4:11, and when you check it out there is NO reference to Phil 4:13. I don't know if there are other false positives. I didn't look through them all.

 

3. I still have to click the little triangle and then open each module one by one. I don't know about anyone else, but I think it's tedious. Is there a way to show only the (Reference) hits and then open all of these modules at once in a separate workspace? That would be great!

 

Your suggestion doesn't really accomplish what I want, but at least this method does narrow down the found commentaries quite a bit, and that's a step in the right direction.

[DanG]

Just also noticing that in the same search as above Henry has (Entry) and (Scripture), like JFB. But unlike JFB the (Entry) reveals two scripture which are NOT Phil 4:13.

 

Maybe I don't understand the distinction between (Entry) and (Reference)

[David Lang]

Entry starts with an "E" and Reference starts with an "R".

 

Seriously, the ones with Entry are generally older tools in which we used the term "Entry" before we standardized on "Reference."

 

The false positives are the result of Accordance finding the closest reference in the Reference field if the exact reference does not appear. We do this so that when you search a commentary you'll at least get to the relevant section of the commentary. But that does muddy things when doing a Search All. You can, of course, see that a false positive exists by drilling down to see the Entry in the tool, but I agree that it can get tedious.