My wish list for Accordance 10

[Ken Han]

I'm sure the Accordance team is already planning / working on v.10. But since I know from experience the Accordance team is fairly responsive to user requests, I am going to make 10 here:

 

1. No more Classic OS 9, 8, or 7! or PC with Emulator support. I am rather impressed that Accordance is not leaving behind their customers, but enough is enough, right? It's been more than 10 years since OS X became the main OS, and now 10.8 is on the horizon. OS 9 (and before) user base must be shrinking by the day, and probably likewise for 10.4. Development and QA costs money, and I'm not sure why most users who have absolutely no need for this should be paying for OS 9 development. Not to mention the diverted attention of the Accordance developers.

 

2. Unicode throughout. This, too, is long overdue. And by going unicode throughout you can get rid of at least one checkbox in Preferences on Unicode export. This addresses two of my top desires - modern font / typography as well as reduced UI complexities.

 

3. User notes / user tools improvement. Things like automatic hyphenation, spell check, spell suggestions, and other things that will bring it closer to standard Cocoa text features. It also annoys me there's a quite a lag when moving the cursor around inside the edit boxes. User notes and tools don't seem to follow the OS X system preferences keyboard settings.

 

4. Options in user tools to open a sub panel that syncs and flows with main panel to display footnotes / endnotes the way that biblical texts can open extra panels for cross-references and notes. I know I can do instant details or click on footnotes, but it's tiring to do that for every single one. And, yes, I actually read the footnotes!

 

5. Ability to add arbitrary notes to any Tools.

 

6. iCloud support for user files to sync across devices.

 

7. Simplify / rethink the UI and make better use of small laptop screens. The Assistance window was added in effort to ease the new users, but, overall, it's adding *another* UI / preference option / settings on top of already complex UI / settings. Accordance UI hasn't changed dramatically for a long time. I guess one way to look at it is Accordance got it right the first time. Or Accordance can benefit now from incorporating the changed patterns and expectations of modern UI. Accordance always strikes me as being designed by engineers, not UI designers.

 

8. When installing fresh, present option to login using my Accordance ID rather than making me hunt down the unlock code for the installer.

 

9. Versions!

 

10. Don't tie device sync to particular desktop computers, but to any computer tied to Accordance ID. Looking at the desktop Mac as a hub is no longer the way Apple see it. The Mac was "demoted" as another device. I would like to sync effortlessly across all my devices desktop and mobile.

 

Thanks for listening!

 

Ken

[Lorinda H. M. Hoover]

I would definitely support #3, 5, and 10.

 

I'm syncing via Dropbox, so iCloud support isn't a big priority for me, but I can certainly see how helpful it would be for folks who aren't using something like Dropbox or SugarSync. (and iCloud support might deal better with those times when I forget to quit Accordance on one Mac before firing it up on another)

[R. Mansfield]

Regarding #1 and classic Mac support, I believe this is still maintained for those who need to run Accordance in Windows. The emulator for Windows uses a Classic Mac environment.

 

There may be a few, but I would assume that there are not that many Mac users still running Accordance in native classic Mac environments on old PowerPCs, having simply not upgraded ever to OS X.

 

Of course, I'd be interested to know if VMWare for Windows can run Lion since it is supposed to be able to run in virtual machines, unlike its predecessors.

[Rod Decker]

1. No more Classic OS 9, 8, or 7!

 

Perhaps... probably depends on just how large a community of emulator users that the Accord folks thinks is out there. If it's not large, OK--they'd just have to realize that they can run up to v. 9 under emulation in Woindows. But if this is a larger market than I think it is, then perhaps not. But the general point is perhaps well taken. Accordance has taken great pains to maintain backward compatibility, but there does come a point at which it's no longer justifiable. V. 9 is sufficiently capable that I don't think anyone ought to feel too bad about v. 9 being the last version that can be run on old hardware or via emulation. Is it really necessary to support machines that are 10+ years old?

 

 

2. Unicode throughout. This, too, is long overdue. And by going unicode throughout you can get rid of at least one checkbox in Preferences on Unicode export. This addresses two of my top desires - modern font / typography as well as reduced UI complexities.

 

Yes! But is saying that, I realize that such a conversion would entail a very large task of converting all the existing original language modules from legacy fonts to unicode. The base texts themselves, of course, are easy, but all the tagging and display conventions, etc. are not likely going to be doable via some fancy scrip work in perl (or whatever language is used). Modern typography is, however, a desideratum.

 

In the meanwhile, it would help greatly if the "Export Unicode" box could be uncoupled so that Greek could be output as Unicode, but Hebrew remain legacy. That would be an enormous help to those of us who (have to) run MS Word which is braindead re. right-to-left text (a deliberate move by MS, I think, to stifle competition in certain R-to-L countries).

 

7. Simplify / rethink the UI and make better use of small laptop screens.

 

Worth thinking about. Yes, Accordance doesn't look "fancy" by modern standards. But it's relatively efficient. And a sight better than some much more arcane interfaces in at least one other major Windows program--one with an inteface that only a nerd could love (despite how powerful that program is!).

 

The "zone" metaphor really only makes sense if one has a fairly large monitor. So for an iMac user, it's OK, but for laptop users--the largest segment of the current computing population I think--it just doesn't work very well. I'd rather have multiple, independent windows *accompanied by* a good windowing system (perhaps a built-in, app-specific version of something like Expose? with a very flexible arrange command) *and* the ability to tie selected windows to scroll together.

 

8. When installing fresh, present option to login using my Accordance ID rather than making me hunt down the unlock code for the installer.

 

10. Don't tie device sync to particular desktop computers, but to any computer tied to Accordance ID. Looking at the desktop Mac as a hub is no longer the way Apple see it. The Mac was "demoted" as another device. I would like to sync effortlessly across all my devices desktop and mobile.

 

Both good suggestions.

 

(As for #9, why?! I suppose it might benefit some, but I see nothing that would be of help to me in the way I use Accordance.)

[R. Mansfield]

What advantage would internal use of Unicode fonts bring to Accordance? I don't understand why this matters as long as Unicode can be exported.

[Ken Han]

What advantage would internal use of Unicode fonts bring to Accordance? I don't understand why this matters as long as Unicode can be exported.

 

Wouldn't that change things not just for export, but import as well? It seems to me importing anything created outside Accordance that contains either Hebrew or Greek causes problems because of encoding issues.

[R. Mansfield]

Wouldn't that change things not just for export, but import as well? It seems to me importing anything created outside Accordance that contains either Hebrew or Greek causes problems because of encoding issues.

 

I guess it's according to how it's imported because I know I've pasted Unicode Greek or Hebrew into Accordance before.

[Jonathan C. Borland]

What advantage would internal use of Unicode fonts bring to Accordance? I don't understand why this matters as long as Unicode can be exported.

 

 

I wonder if Accordance's speed is due to the fact that it doesn't use Unicode. I think ASCII characters take up far less space than Unicode, is that right?

[Anon]

I wonder if Accordance's speed is due to the fact that it doesn't use Unicode. I think ASCII characters take up far less space than Unicode, is that right?

 

Not necessarily. It also depends on the programmer. For example, a programmer who writes search algorithms that do not incorporate Binary Search methods will not be as efficient as a programmer who does.

[Bret Hicks]

If I could wish for one major improvement in Accordance 10 it would be to really beef up the export options and features. I had posted this a while back, and think it is a MAJOR need. I have to believe that most of us using Accordance want to get information out of Accordance and into a word processor and a presentation program. As it stands, the export feature is a major weak link. It lets you get basic information out, but the formatting options (or really lack thereof) are a major shortcoming - especially in light of how often I export text. Here are the options I had requested earlier:

 

 

1. The ability to save multiple different citation formats for different types of copying. For example, I copy from Accordance into Keynote for Sunday sermon presentations. In these, I am typically using a large font (42 point or greater) and want the reference citation below the text. However, I am also preparing notes for various handouts, and in these I typically use a 12 point font and place the reference before the text. It would be nice to have the ability to have several of these citation formats saved. Then I could just choose the one that I want for my present purposes.

 

2. The ability to have the verse numbers superscripted in the export. As it stands now, I have to manually superscript them if I want it to look like virtually every print Bible I have ever seen, and this is a waste of time.

 

3. The ability to designate a font to be used in export. I should be able to have it export in Times New Roman if that is the font in the document in which I am inserting text from Accordance, yet not have to change my font in Accordance to Times New Roman. (And I know I can use Command-Alt-Shift-V to get the font desired, but then I would lose superscripted verse numbers, which I want even more....)

 

4. The ability to select a color for the font (again different from the one in Accordance) would be nice. All of my fonts in Accordance tend to be dark (usually black), but in Keynote a dark background with a white font works better. It would be nice if Accordance could do that step for me.

 

5. If I do not have the book reference copied, Accordance inserts a couple of blank spaces before the verse begins. When I am pasting into Keynote, these have to be removed. It would be nice to tell Accordance to not insert these spaces.

 

The lack of these features do not prevent me from using the export. However, they do mean that I have to repeatedly do simple steps that could be done for me by Accordance.

 

 

I would really LOVE to see this incorporated into Accordance 10.

 

 

In Christ,

 

 

Bret

[mikes]

For me, the wish list is very short in once sense, and huge in another:

 

Accordance 10 - Not just for reading, all about annotating and creating... turn Accordance into a full fledged research and study tool.

• User Notes
  
  • Links, etc. all able
    
  • Links that hide the ugly detail, but still function
    
  • In place editing
    
  • Insert images and tag them for search
    
  • RTF level formatting like Indentation, footnotes, simple tables
    

  [*]User Tools

  • The features mentioned for User Notes
    
  • Fully fledged Tools with the appropriate types
    
    • Yes, that means I should be able to create my own dictionary, lexicon and tag them appropriately
      

• User Bibles
  
  • Verse schemes modeled after any existing text, and even the ability to create your own versification schemes
    
  • Tag your own - morph and syntax!
    
  • Create your own "foot"-notes
    

  [*]Highlighting

  • Vastly improved customization, including images
    
  • Connect "highlights" via dynamic lines (e.g. circle around 1John 1:8 and 2:4)
    

 

Don't laugh! A boy can dream!

[RobM]

For me, the wish list is very short in once sense, and huge in another:

 

Accordance 10 - Not just for reading, all about annotating and creating... turn Accordance into a full fledged research and study tool.

• User Notes
  
  • Links, etc. all able
    
  • Links that hide the ugly detail, but still function
    
  • In place editing
    
  • Insert images and tag them for search
    
  • RTF level formatting like Indentation, footnotes, simple tables
    

  [*]User Tools

  • The features mentioned for User Notes
    
  • Fully fledged Tools with the appropriate types
    
    • Yes, that means I should be able to create my own dictionary, lexicon and tag them appropriately
      

 

While your suggestions about User Bibles and Highlighting are cool, I personally would benefit most from your suggestions on Notes and Tools. These added capability would be fantastic! If only half of these could be implemented, it would make a big difference in my workflow.

 

That said, I have really enjoyed the Notes and Tools as they are. Both, particularly User Tools, are the hub for all my research. I record all my notes, quotes, and much of my bibliography (a la pdf links) in them. My primary angst with the Notes has been with being unable to do links to files and Accordance tools.

[Greg Terry]

User Tools and User Notes improvements. It would be nice to see something happen here. It seems a very popular request.

[Paul Meiklejohn]

I tend to find the goto box for bible verse reference rather fiddly and time consumeing. I'd love to see a bigger input box or even a pop up box that you can click the book and ref, something similar to the iOS version.

 

Paul M.

[accordance4me]

My list is long and some what short too.

1. I would like it to list verses highlighted by a right click rather than a full search

2. Images by quick view

3. More right and left click function rather than extensive keyboard function.

4. editable reading list, Some program in my past you could actually configure the reading list according to your desire. IE time frame desired and book order

5. Export control so that as above one cold set up a method by which you have a multi preconfigured settings for an export IE keynote and pages....

6. Verse Lists as a pop up cross platform

7. Cross platform Bookmarks(somewhat the same as verse list, but I usually read from the OT, Gospels, Prophecy, Letters and Poetry and It would be great if those could be bookmarked and moveable.

8.Buy individual commentaries/ other tools and be able to upgrade set at a discount i.e. iTunes

9. PDF importer for user tools

99. coffee and scone. Delivered

Edited February 29, 2012 by accordance4me

[Anthony Pyles]

I would really like to see direct unicode input via an OSX keyboard. It is an incredible time saver for me to be working in Mellel or another word processor, typing in English, switch keyboard and type Hebrew (or Greek), switch back and I'm in English. I find it so frustrating to try and copy/paste styles when typing out a user note that I will open a new Mellel document, type it there, and then paste it into the edit window.

[Rick Conklin]

I am a very basic user. My wish list

 

> Current user notes are difficult to use and see.

 

> Tags. I would love to add my own search tags much like I have used in "Things" or "Simple note"

 

> I would like to import PDF files so they are searchable. Our pastors publish their sermons as pdf files. These would be great to include in my Accordance library.

 

thanks

 

Rick Conklin

Wichita, KS

 

I am a very basic user. My wish list

 

> Current user notes are difficult to use and see.

 

> Tags. I would love to add my own search tags much like I have used in "Things" or "Simple note"

 

> I would like to import PDF files so they are searchable. Our pastors publish their sermons as pdf files. These would be great to include in my Accordance library.

 

thanks

 

Rick Conklin

Wichita, KS

[Jonathan C. Borland]

My wish is to learn how to use Accordance 9 before 10 comes out!

[Randy Cue]

My wishes have to do with exporting Scripture to a word processor:

1.) be able to specify a particular font to export the Scripture passage

2.) a better job of formatting Scripture so that poetry passages show up the way they should, and the first line of a paragraph be indented.

 

Soli Deo Gloria,

Randy

[Mikew]

8. When installing fresh, present option to login using my Accordance ID rather than making me hunt down the unlock code for the installer.

 

I noticed that accordance has a package available on the app store. In addition to letting us download our library with our user ID I'd like to see the basic software available on the app store (maybe just the demo package). It would be convenient to be able to install accordance on a new computer while installing our other software from the app store. (Full support of Lion features would be nice too)

[A.D. Riddle]

What advantage would internal use of Unicode fonts bring to Accordance? I don't understand why this matters as long as Unicode can be exported.

 

I do not believe you can export Hebrew transliteration as Unicode. When I uncheck Unicode, only then is Transliteration an option. Is that correct?

 

A.D.

[A.D. Riddle]

9. Versions!

 

In the original message, what is meant by "Versions"?

 

A.D.

[A.D. Riddle]

Somewhat in line with Mike S.’s request for User Bibles, it would be awfully nice to be able to customize (to some extent) texts and tags. For example, I am working on some Aramaic inscriptions right now, and I am using the Northwest Semitic inscriptions module. In a number of places, words are tagged with a nondescript grammatical category, say for example, simply tagged “Verb.” In other cases, no lexical information is given. It would be nice if a user could modify the tags where he/she thinks more details are known. In other cases, the module’s creator has provided certain restorations. It would nice if the user could modify these if they believe a better restoration is possible. Other cases where one might disagree with the module’s creator are readings of certain letters and whether a letter is visible or partially visible.

 

Right now, I am using the “Report a Correction” feature to note true fixes (not disagreements), and I am making my own the changes in my notes in Mellel. But the Accordance module remains unchanged. And any searches can only query the module’s text and tags.

 

The inscriptions (also Hebrew Inscriptions, Ugaritic Data Bank) are a special case, of course, because of the imperfect state of the inscription itself or our knowledge of the language. But these modules are one of the things that makes Accordance such a useful research tool.

 

Or, instead of customizable tags and text, are the User Notes a viable workaround? I do not use User Notes. Can I perform searches across texts and notes and have the results merged?

 

A.D. Riddle

[arcanemuse]

Personally I very much like the fact that the older OS is supported. There are many that can't afford to get a newer computer and/or really like the interface of the old Classic OS. I have a few old machines I like to drag out and use from time to time. They don't go online very well as browsers have abandoned them. Anything that is Tiger and back and pretty much anything that is the PowerPC architecture is being kicked to the curb. If this old beast can run a word processor of some sort and quality Bible software such as Accordance it is still very much a useful tool. You don't need horsepower to read text. The fact that you can't get online very well is one less of a distraction. Yank the ethernet cord and stay offline with it. I applaud the fact that they still support the old machines and I hope that they continue to do so.

I think that signing in with your login credentials for your account instead of dealing with the unlock codes makes a lot of sense. Once the system knows who you are, then you should be able to access anything that is yours and make it available on the computer you are currently using.

Everybody wants to push things forward and make things "better" all the time. Pretty soon you have so many bells and whistles hanging off a program that it loses the elegant simplicity it once had.

My only request is that they continue the tradition of a clean, intuitive interface and backward compatibility that makes it stand out as the best Bible software for Mac.

[g.nicholson]

On a parallel matter, since you do provide church history texts [e.g. Schaff and the Ante and Post Nicene Fathers,]

How about extending the area of the basic Atlas so that it includes:

 

- ALL the Mediterranean coast right round to Spain, [e.g. one cannot display Spain on a map, the Biblical text of Rom 15:24 & 28 notwithstanding, and

- More of the whole region covered by the first 4 or 5 centuries of Church expansion and their key cities.