8 replies to this topic

[Alex H.]

I'm really happy with recent updates to Accordance for iOS, but there's always something more we want! Ability to create user notes in the various Tools (as you can in e-readers) would be great. I only say this because with the last update I can now really use Accordance as an e-reader and have started to notice things like this. 

 

Thanks for all your work. I've pretty much stopped using other Bible software in iOS after the last update.

[Julie Falling]

Alex - This is one of the frequent requests, not just with iOS, but on the Mac, too.  We'd have to be able to create tool-specific notes files, so we'd end up with a lot of them.  I would love to be able to add notes (and references).

 

In the past, we were all frustrated with insufficient margins in our Bibles and books.  With Accordance and User Notes, we can add and edit notes to our Bibles to our hearts' content.  Now if we could only do that with the tools . . .

[SimonS]

+1 for this

[Bob Deacon]

Count me in as well!

[William Cross]

This is an important feature that is needed. Currently trying to study through Grudem's Systematic Theology. Using my Accordance iOS version is very difficult. I can't make margin notes. Underlining and bookmarking are also both a bit slow and clunky when compared to iBooks.

[Michael J. Bolesta]

This has been brought up as a request many times for both Mac OS and iOS. Surely the good folks at OakTree are "listening." Perhaps we might see it in Accordance for Mac 10.2.x or iOS 1.7.x? One can hope and pray. 

[Timothy Jenney]

I have also requested this feature be added, ASAP, and as a high priority.

 

The text, whether Bible or other ancient text, has always been the focus of Accordance. Thus, the historical text is central, everything else is [just] a "tool" to use to research it. Our most developed features, therefore, have always been those that relate to the text. This includes User Notes.

 

However, Accordance is growing beyond being a research tool in biblical studies to becoming an instructional platform for biblical studies. As an instructional platform, particularly at the lower levels, the textbook ([e.g. NT/OT Introduction, Hebrew/Greek Grammar, etc.] is central, not the text. This change means we need a radical change in our thinking (and therefore our programming). Students will want to take notes on their textbooks and classroom lectures. Teachers and scholars will want to make corrections and comments in the margins of their tools. In essence, we now need to have "tools for tools."

 

The simplest and most obvious of these is to allow User Notes on a tool. There are, however, even more possibilities. For example, what about practice quizzes, so students can test their retention of key concepts? There is currently no way for someone to include an actual test with a tool: matching questions, multiple choice questions, even essays, where a student could mark the answer in the module itself. [One would assume then that the grading of such a test would happen automatically, with links to the material in the tool that provides information to correct any errors.]

 

This change can be described simply as moving from eTexts, to eResearch, to eLearning. While the description itself is simple, I assure everyone that the programming would not be. We would need to dedicate massive resources to it, which can only happen as Accordance is adopted by churches, synagogues, colleges, universities, and seminaries as their standard platform. That would provide the large user base we would need to achieve such a goal.

 

OK, I know, I have taken a[n apparently] simple request and blown it out of proportion—but a man can dream, can't he?

 

This is mine.

Edited by Timothy Jenney, 12 April 2013 - 09:54 AM.

[Mark Nigro]

That's a great dream I would gladly share!

[Michael J. Bolesta]

OK, I know, I have taken a[n apparently] simple request and blown it out of proportion—but a man can dream, can't he?

 

This is mine.

 

Great dream Dr. J! On board, but perhaps we can start with the ability to take notes on tools, both on the Mac and on iOS devices (and keep them in synch of course). Improvements always invoke the hunger for more, but let's start with the most basic request.