Jump to content

Report/Simple Search


Matt

Recommended Posts

I've been poking around the forums and love the lively chatter about things that "could be". Accordance is my application of choice for Bible Study for so many reasons. I'm going to risk a suggestion that may show my green-ness.

 

As someone who works with Bible software developers of many stripes, I want to throw my hat in on one feature request that would be a big help to someone like me who is both techie and who is in ministry.

 

It would be great to see something similar to the "Report" feature that another unnamed Bible company uses. Not necessarily as a "knock-off" feature, but as what would seem a natural progression.

 

Accordance is HANDS DOWN the most powerful Bible study tool on planet earth. But, it does seem to lack a way to organize a simple/generic search that will help be a starting point/diving-in spot for Pastor/Teachers who want the broad work done in an automatic way. That is why we buy the software, right? Now, we could have endless discussions about what things should or shouldn't be on such a report, but it would be nice to have the basics of things that must be done manually (analysis, parsing, & amplification) and then gathered in separate windows brought to the user as a "googlish" sort of starting spot.

 

I am not advocating here a move away from the primacy of the text as a standard, just thinking that a simple search report would be a great place for users to find things they didn't even know they had that might speak to the passage or topic that they are looking at - - ALONG with relevant grammatical, linguistic starting spots.

 

Now, having said all that, if it is already possible to do this, someone shout my way -- as I've just blown my cover as a complete noob with Accordance.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I concur. I think this kind of reporting would be very valuable. Of course there are all sorts of ways to do these same searches individually, but I do think having some sort of report like this would be great, especially for pastors and some students who might not know exactly what routes to go down in their further study so that time could be saved in not pursuing dead end leads.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It would help us luddite Accordance-Onlyists if you were to explain the functionality that this unnamed program provides.

 

Does it include the ability to sort results by relevance?

Does it include the ability to find related topics/subjects/area?

 

I'm thinking more of searching tools than texts.

 

For example, if I did a search for Erasmus, I would want it to flag "Greek NT", "Robert Estienne", "A & B Elzevir", "textual criticism", "biblical manuscripts", etc as associated topics.

 

Kind of like a fuzzy logic auto-brainstorming tool.

 

That's something I would be interested in, getting the context, the big picture beyond the microcosm of simple text searches

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The original request for a simple search and report is surely met to some degree by the Search All feature (now hidden in the pop-up menu under the Search button). This searches all (or a group that you define) or your modules for a word, phrase, Scripture reference or even a simple argument with commands and wildcards. The results are listed by module and then by book and chapter so you can see where the hits were found. Admittedly you cannot see the hits themselves until you click to open the module and repeat the search within the module.

 

Have you explored this feature at all?

 

Here is an example:searchall.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The search-all feature is great, but it can be overwhelming to sort through. It would be nice if there was some way to organize the output better and give the user some idea of the most relevant articles. In-line summaries might also be helpful, so we could see the context at a glance. Just ask: how can the software best help a busy pastor get the information he needs quickly and accurately?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes I have used & love the Search All feature. And, I guess as a user, this is the feature that I would enjoy seeing added to. As I've thought more about my own first post, I think that I've begun to narrow my thoughts.

 

I would love to see the results of the Search All feature bring back more visible results that are arranged in a way (maybe topically or by module set) that aides in the sorting of the results. The alphabetic arrangement does show me all of the relevant hits. I'm not sure that more can be done in the number of hits, but, it's my thought that arranging the hits in a different way, topically, with even a few cursory analyses presented visually (how often the word appears in the Bible, basic original language info--strongs or something) would make it better.

 

Having this information arranged and presented inside the Search All window would, I think, be a helpful place to start our studies. For me, sorting through the Search All results can be labor intensive because frequently I have to check every result to make "relevance" decisions. When I do a Search All, and again--maybe it's just me, there are some things (results related to original language and actual Bibles) that ALWAYS have more relevance for me than other resources.

 

So, to summarize, I think that what I'm suggesting is that the results of the Search All feature might be improved by having the ability to arrange the results in other ways than alphabetical--and by including things more than just word hits, but also allowing some of the graphical elements to be included in the results.

 

There. I think I've said it more clearly that time ;)

 

Thanks for your patience as I think out loud...

 

a loving user.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Search All feature is a great tool. The ability to confine the search to a user defined group of resources is helpful. I would appreciate, as others have indicated, the ability to show some context of the results returned and some options with regards to sorting the results.

 

Another note on the Search All feature: when the search group includes a voluminous amount of material, the search can take quite some time (and understandably so) and prevents the user from using Accordance until the search is complete.

 

I'd like to see the ability to conduct such searches in the background, allowing the user to continue using other features of Accordance while the search is in progress. I imagine this would to some degree slow the responsiveness of Accordance while a search is being conducted in the background, but I would prefer using a sluggish Accordance rather than having to wait until the search is complete.

 

Has this idea been considered before?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...