One of the big features of Accordance 9.3 is the new Assistant window. The Assistant window is designed to give new Accordance users a simple way to get started while also exposing them to the main user interface.
You can open the Assistant window simply by selecting it from the Window menu. You can also specify that you want it to appear every time Accordance starts up. To do that, go to the Assistant/Search All settings of the Preferences and check Show on startup.
The Assistant window presents you with a few basic starting points. The Read section lets you enter a passage to read or open the current day’s reading in whatever devotional or reading plan you select. If you enter a passage, Accordance will open a new Search tab showing that passage in your default Bible. Devotionals are opened in a separate workspace, as I explained last week.
The Find section of the Assistant window lets you search for a word or phrase in your default Bible text, or in any of your Search All groups. Depending on what you choose, a new Search tab or Search All tab will be opened displaying the results of your search.
The Learn section includes links to the Lighting the Lamp podcast, this blog, our User forums, and the newly revamped Accordance Help. We’ve long offered all these great sources of training and help, but the Assistant window should make them more obvious to the new user.
The Assistant window is designed to be a simple, accessible starting point without hiding or obscuring the “normal” Accordance search interface. Our hope is that new users will quickly see how they can construct searches in the Search and Search All windows without always having to depend on the Assistant window. Like everything else in Accordance, we want the Assistant to be a helpful resource when you need it, and something you can easily dismiss when you don’t.