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Organizing commentaries in Accordance


EricC

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Greetings, all,

 

I've been using Accordance some for several years, but only recently did I buy any significant commentaries to use within it. Until now, I've mostly used non-commentary resources and original language resources. And I haven't even used it for those purposes as much as I thought I would.

 

I'm one who has often preferred paper books for commentaries. I'm slowing changing. I did read this forum about electronic books vs. paper ones and smiled more than once: http://www.accordancebible.com/forums/topic/5344-using-commentaries-electronically/page-2?hl=%2Bsort+%2Bcommentaries&do=findComment&comment=22799

 

Now I have NAC and a couple other individual book commentaries. What are best practices for organizing the commentary library? Since I got NAC-42, I thought that it would add 42 items to the library. It only added one. I would have thought that if I typed "Genesis" into the search field for Library, that all Genesis commentaries would have appeared. Not so. Only WBC appears (because it was bought separately).

 

post-3736-0-53407500-1447135742_thumb.png

 

What I would like is to be able to have all the commentaries on a given book show up when I enter the name of that book in the search field. And I would like to be able to have them listed in an order I've assigned to them. I think this must be possible in Accordance, but I've not figured out how.

 

BTW, I'm running Accordance 11.1.0 on Mac OS 10.10.5 (Yosemite).

 

Thank you!

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Unfortunately, not posible in the Library since Accordance instals sets as single files. If you open the Info Panel however, it will list the individual commentary volumes you have related to whatever passage you are looking at. Not exactly what you're looking for but might be helpful. 

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Thank you, Jeremy, for your response. I guess the Info Pane is what we have to work with in this case. The more I look at the way this organization of commentaries is handled in Accordance, the less I like it. I hope that's an overreaction, and I'll be proved wrong. 

 

Seems to me that there is no way to order your commentaries within a set, i.e., treat each author's work individually for prioritizing. We all have commentaries within a set that we respect and use more than others, and in some sets there are commentaries in a set we don't even want to bother with. I think Accordance should allow us to prioritize our commentaries by book of the Bible even if we bought them in a set. This would require having the individual titles (or even sections, when one section deals with one book of the Bible) in the Library list. Probably not likely to happen, but for me it just seems like elementary functionality that should be there. That's where digital realities conflict with what we're used to in the paper-book world. I guess it'd be hard to program what I would like.

 

Another thing that I think would be excellent would be the ability to "attach" a brief note to the actual titles in the Library list. I like to write down some notes on the commentary (who recommended it, my thoughts on the author's theology, etc.). If I could right-click on the title in the Library list to see my annotations on that title, it would be excellent. But I guess that even when one has commentaries in Bible software like Accordance, one still might want to have a separate spreadsheet listing "go-to" commentaries for each book of the Bible. Here's an example: recently a friend recommended a commentary on Genesis. He said this, and it's the kind of thing I'd like to include in such annotations so that when I have a chance to read the commentary, I can decide if I agree. He said, "[Author] is weak through chapter 11, but is great for the patriarchs." Would anyone else like this ability? Should we start a thread in the "Feature or Module Request" forum?

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Hey Eric, I do think the Info Pane is the solution to your problem. I too have the NAC as well as other random one volume commentaries, and I've found it helpful to arrange my Library like this

 

NAC

New Testament

--All my individual NT Commentaries nested under this arranged canonically 

Old Testament

 --All my individual NT Commentaries nested under this arranged canonically 

Tyndale 

 

You may be able to see it here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/f9rrp9a6v1z12nn/Accordance%20Workspace.png?dl=0

 

If you're able to see in the picture, I have access to the NAC, NICNT, WBC, etc. from the info pane, which makes it easier if I want to get a quick look at a lot of commentaries.

 

If you prefer not to use the info pane or looking to stay in one text for longer, you can still just make a parallel pane that will always follow you wherever you are in Scripture. This still seems far easier than pulling books off the shelf (plus, they can follow you anywhere on iOS). 

Edited by dsking6
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Thank you, dsking6, for the input. I downloaded your screenshot and can see how you have them arranged. Thank you. I also watched Dr. J's video on the Info Pane (

). That is also helpful. I appreciate your chiming in.
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Eric, Once you build a large collection of commentaries as I have, having all the bundled commentaries in one set actually actually makes life a bit easier. If I had every individual book listed in my library I would simply have too many to manage or utilise and would end up overlooking some important works.  As has been mentioned above the info pane is an excellent filter that brings up only the commentaries that are relevant to that passage. 

 
I order them in in my library accordance to preference.  I have, four main categories. My regular favourites, then primary, secondary and individual books (This helps me keep them in relevant sets of importance).  See screenshot.
 
I always view my commentaries in a different zone. (cmd-click) This prevents my main scriptural text from shrinking and allows me to have access to the Table of Contents in the commentary at hand. It also means each new click is a new tab instead of an extra pane.  

post-5536-0-95727700-1447231188_thumb.png

Edited by Paul Meiklejohn
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Paul, thank you for your comments. I too did some rearranging this morning and started using the info pane. I was surprised how many commentaries I actually had in Accordance since I had hardly use them. Some one-book ones I had bought on recommendation and used briefly then forgot I had them. The info pane indeed is indispensable for finding and using them.

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"Another thing that I think would be excellent would be the ability to "attach" a brief note to the actual titles in the Library list. I like to write down some notes on the commentary (who recommended it, my thoughts on the author's theology, etc.). If I could right-click on the title in the Library list to see my annotations on that title, it would be excellent. EricC'

 

This would actually be a great feature.  It would allow us to give modules our own comments and ratings; even simple tagging would be a step forward.

Edited by Paul Meiklejohn
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