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Widget reactions?


Joel Brown

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I know theres been lots of (well, seems like lots of to me) requests for this Accordance widget and talk about what it might or might not do. Well, it just got released today, so I urge everyone to go check it out! I was doing a lot of the work on it, so I'm curious as to your comments, be it about look, functionality, anything. This is the initial release, so I'm open to listen to other ideas (if they are feasible, of course).

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Joel,

 

First, I think this is just awesome! Thanks for the great work on it, really!

 

So, because you asked - there are a few things that I would love to see:

 

1. The ability to remove poetry

2. Ability to bold scripture ref - in notes and hand outs it makes it stand out

3. Is it possible to have

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Hi

 

Am I just been thick. I have down loaded 6.7 and it installed fine. But I could not find the widget!

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It *should* be on your desktop.

IF you have 10.4 (Helen)

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I really like the widget. I think it could become quite helpful.

 

One suggestion and one lament...

 

- Could it be designed so that the particular Bible version/translation could be changed from the front instead of having to spin it to the back? Just a couple of extra clicks, granted, but it would be handy.

 

- I am disappointed that Greek and Hebrew don't work with MS Word at all. I understand that it's a Word issue due to lack of unicode support. But I still do most of my work in Word. Only being able to use the widget for English texts with Word will severely limits its use for me. I registered a copy of Mellel a few weeks ago, but it's just not quite there for me yet.

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By the way, the new widget looks really SHARP, too. The scroll effect is perfect.

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It *should* be on your desktop.

IF you have 10.4 (Helen)

 

I have exactly no impression of the Widget because I haven't seen it yet. I, like the majority of Mac users aren't using 10.4. However, we can use many Widgets via third party solutions. Why not make the Widget available as standalone somewhere so that we can have a look at it?

 

And I really don't understand why pasting Greek text into Word is encountering problems. R2L Hebrew I understand, but not Greek. Something's not right here.

 

Please pardon the latent response to the release, as I've been in the process of moving.

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Does anybody LIKE the widget? Apart from Rino, that is.

Sorry to repeat my input from another topic, but I love the widget! While I greatly value the scholarly work that Accordance is doing, I don't know how to use all of it, but in the mean time the widget is a cool gadget that may get a response from the "younger" crowd. Thanks again, it's very useful.

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I have exactly no impression of the Widget because I haven't seen it yet. I, like the majority of Mac users aren't using 10.4. However, we can use many Widgets via third party solutions. Why not make the Widget available as standalone somewhere so that we can have a look at it?

OK, I have posted a separate download for the widget, for those who want to try it with third party software. I had already sent it to two such users, neither of whom has reported back on whether it works at all, which we doubt. You can download it here.

 

And I really don't understand why pasting Greek text into Word is encountering problems. R2L Hebrew I understand, but not Greek. Something's not right here.

We encountered a problem in Word 2004 in that we are pasting unstyled Unicode text and Word apparently requires styled text. We were unable to get around it, and since the Hebrew in any case is not supported, we are using plain text for the English, and not supporting the Unicode paste at all in Word. We can update this in the future if we find a workaround.

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I actually like the widget, looks nice. The Auto Insert and Auto Search features work quite well.

 

Now, if we could only change the default format of "Copy to Citation" within Accordance so that the widget pulls the format we want this would be golden.

 

Awaiting Version 7!

 

Pastor Ed Cross

 

PS. It can be used in Amnesty, but not the Auto Insert or Auto Search features.

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Does anybody LIKE the widget? Apart from Rino, that is.

I like the interface and usability of the widget. As somebody had posted earlier, it has a very clean look and nice art. :D

 

My only complaint is that it requires Accordance to be open in order to use the biblical texts. :blink: Each widget already is a memory hog and having to launch Accordance to support it is overhead I would prefer not to have.

 

For example, the widget R2ToDo always launches iCal to aquire its data where as the widget iCal Events can parse and handle the data independent of the application. It requires less memory, gets the information it needs faster, and doesn't leave all these programs open.

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You have a very valid complaint, one I greatly wanted to avoid. However, the way the texts are stored within the Modules is *extremely* complicated. Not only would it have to interact with the preferences to find out which modules are unlocked, but figure out how to read and turn the raw binary into a usable feature. Then convert to unicode. Then make a similar reference reading algorithm to what Accordance uses. Then add in the citation code. Though it would have been a great possibility, it was too much work, and a significant security risk. As far as I know, there is no way to hide the code that makes a widget work (save making it not even readable in permissions, but I'm not sure how that would affect the functionality), so anyone would be able to look inside and essentially 'crack' the module code. I'm not an expert in this, but this seems like a huge security risk.

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My only complaint is that it requires Accordance to be open in order to use the biblical texts
You have a very valid complaint, one I greatly wanted to avoid. However, the way the texts are stored within the Modules is *extremely* complicated... and a significant security risk.

I'd listen to Joel here; he knows of what he speaks. The iCal data can be parsed by a simple Widget easily because the data is in a public open access XML text format. Just open a calendar in TextEdit and you'll see what I mean.

However, we need to appreciate how much complexity is involved in the Accordance module format (the very complexity that allows for the stunning searches and flexibility we know and love).

The graphic on the Widget is really good, and I think Joel and his colleagues made a sound decision in keeping the Widget simple. And besides, why on God's green earth do you ever have Accordance closed!?!

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I'd listen to Joel here; he knows of what he speaks. The iCal data can be parsed by a simple Widget easily because the data is in a public open access XML text format. Just open a calendar in TextEdit and you'll see what I mean.
Yeah, I figured it was more complicated than the iCal data. I've looked into the iCalendar format that Apple uses in the past but I wasn't quite sure how complicated the Accordance module format is... which, I guess the answer is: very. :D

 

And besides, why on God's green earth do you ever have Accordance closed!?!
Um... sorry pastor.... um... i don't know. :unsure:
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  • 4 weeks later...

Hello All.

 

I like the widget, but it kind of annoys me that every time I go into Expose the widget opens up Accordance. Is it possible to make the widget access the Accordance modules without having to open up the entire program? Or could it at least be made so that it only opens up the program when you actually use the widget?

 

---------------------------------

 

Ooops, sorry! I see that this question has already been addressed to some degree. I understand that there are problems with trying to do what I want, but it would still be nice... ;-)

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  • 3 weeks later...

Forgive me if this question has been addressed -- since the widget opens Accordance, I don't see the point in using the widget to find verses -- why not skip the widget step and just plug the verse reference into Accordance directly?

 

If you have used the Widget and found it to save time, please let me know how you used it!

 

DK

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I don't mean to speak for others, but this is why the widget was made. It is much easier to, no matter where you are, hit F12 or whatever you want for the dashboard, type in your reference, and have it right there. If you have to command tab or find the Accordance icon in the dock, thats more time, and you then have to find what you were working on. Add to that automatic verse insert, which requires an extra copy and paste in Accordance, and automatic verse lookup, if you have a verse reference selected, again normally requires extra copying and pasting. This doesn't necessarily do anything radically new, just provides a convenience and speeds things up.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Alistair,

 

I'm a little surprised by your statement that the widget requires "too many steps." Have you checked the "Auto Insert" option? Doing so essentially duplicates the functionality of the old OLB F-Key. You can also use control-plus and minus to change the Bible text used without flipping the widget over.

 

For more on how the widget compares with other verse-insertion utilities, see my article on the web-site of the Christian Macintosh Users Group: OS X Verse Insertion Utilities Compared.

 

Hope this helps.

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Hi David,

 

For me, too many steps means:

 

Launching Dashboard

Waiting for Dashboard (sloooow - not enough RAM)

Opening the Accordance widget (all widgets are closed - not enough RAM)

Waiting for the Accordance widget

Typing in the reference (sloooow - not a good typist)

Waiting for Accordance to launch (sloooow - not enough RAM)

Etc

Quitting Accordance afterwards

 

You get the idea. My problem is a slow system, not with the widget per se.

 

~Alistair

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

I find the widget extremely useful for two main reasons:

 

- quick verse insertions, no question about this (no RAM problems)

- when inserting Hebrew text, it asumes my Mellel paragraph (and character) formatting, which Accordance doesn't (at least, I couldn't do it).

 

I would like to put to your consideration the following suggestion:

 

Since I mostly use it to insert Hebrew text, I would find it useful to have the same possibilities the main program has regarding vowels and/or cantillation stripping.

To make it simple, the widget could use the same Accordance preferences. It would of course eliminate the current situation where you can have stripping when you export from Accordance and full text via the widget.

 

What do you people think about this?

 

Thank you

Eleuterio

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I've been using the widget now for a few months. I like it very much. I use it especially when taking notes during a lecture when I want to insert a Hebrew text (or Greek or English). Very useful and quick.

 

Thanks for posting (above) the shortcut to change Bibles without "flipping" the widget.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Does anybody LIKE the widget? Apart from Rino, that is.

 

This is pretty outdated, but for what it's worth, I really like the widget. I second Rino's requests regarding the citations and formatting.

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