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rcdeacon

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I hate raising on OLD topic but I am concerned about the development of arbitrary highlighting (pin head) in Accordance on the iPad. This post is NOT to be viewed as a complaint but rather as a concern.

 

While I realize that there may be relatively few that use highlighting to the extent I do I make extensive use of this valuable asset! Being a "visual" person highlighting helps me in my study, sermon prep and personal enrichment. While I fully understand that I can highlight a single word and highlight an entire verse, the ability to highlight specific phrases in absolutely invaluable! Often it is these phrase that I highlight (mainly underline on my MBP) that become either sermon/teaching main points or sub-points. As I read the text and mark I am able to go back and quickly and easily pick out those points for my sermon outline. I cannot emphasize enough how important and valuable this is for me and I suspect there may some others as well.

 

Currently I am caught between using a product that affords this ability yet DOES NOT have the speed and stability of Accordance. The ability to very quickly get to the Hebrew and Greek definitions is critically important to me as well and I can get this information with ONE SIMPLE CLICK! (the main ones I am aware of that already have arbitrary highlighting is Olive Tree and Logos) Quite frankly I want to spend virtually all my time in study and preparation with Accordance rather than some other software. I need to ability to do this at home on my laptop but also "on the go" on my iPad mini.

 

Bob Deacon, Pastor

Faith Outreach Community Church

Gatesville, N.C. 27938

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Hopefully this won't get lost in the shuffle. There must be many more out there that would love this feature to be made available on their trusty iPads?

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Hi Bob, thanks for the feedback. You are not the only one that would use this feature regularly (I'm included). There were some factors that affected our iOS development schedule this year that we did not expect, both internal, and external. We've hired two new people and the direction of the Working Group is now being steered by someone new. All that to say, this feature is something we know is crucial and will do our best to support it as soon as possible. It involves a significant amount of work, and affects the User Experience of several related features (highlighting, copying, Instant Details, etc.) that also need to be thought through and probably altered.


We have a major update that is moving into beta testing, and are meeting to discuss our longer term goals this week. We really appreciate everyone's patience in this, and promise our dedication to advancing the iOS app is just as firm as ever, now with some additional team members who will help make that possible.

Edited by Rick Bennett
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This may be over reach for me to ask this but as a "aleph" user is there any way to become a "beta" tester? As a chronic highlighter I did not know if I could be helpful. Just askin

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I am looking forward to this feature. To be honest, this is a deal breaker for me. I have stopped using Accordance in my iPad because of the highlights. I got tired of being reading something that I want to highlight and cannot do it the way I want so I just switch to Logos.

 

Hope this get fix soon.

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I am in the same exact position and I would much rather simply use Accordance exclusively. Hopefully something will be forthcoming.

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  • 5 months later...

I've tried finding other posts related to highlighting but can't seem to find what I'm looking for... so my apologies if I'm repeating someone else's post. Also, I think I'm also going to say what i feel... so my apologies before hand... I know you guys have a lot on your hands but I'd just really love to get these things off my chest!

 

I too am pulling my haircut over highlighting on my iPad and iPod... I think the one member above who has stopped using accordance because of highlighting issues can understand?!

 

1) First off why can't I simply drag my finger across the sentence or passage and highlight it like you can with Logos or Kindle? Having to select word or sentence is frankly awful... sorry.

 

2) Even when I do go to select sentence though, it's not working? I just tried it right now and all it does is simply highlight a word. And before, with poetry, it wouldn't highlight the entire first part (stanza?) but only the first line... so if there were six lines of poetry i have have go click on every single line, selecting the font and sentence... I just can't keep doing that.

 

3). And lastly, the style of the highlighting itself is archaic... is there anyway to update it so that it actually looks like a real highlighter (like Logos and many PDF readers have)... I know this may sound like a trivial thing but for those of us that are very visual it's a big deal... just though I'd throw it in. I've attached a picture of what I mean, its from Preview, the PDF viewer/editor.

Thanks so much though for all you guys do and again, my apologies for focusing on the negatives...

Modern Highlight Style.tiff

Edited by D. C. Foster
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As the originator of this thread I feel compelled to add to the continuing debate (frustration?). As I understand it this will be part of the 1.8 update to the Accordance IOS. I am also very anxious for this however, rather than switch to another product (which I have done in the past), the SUPERIOR customer support and customer interaction that I personally have experienced from the Accordance staff compels me to stay put. I use my laptop for my highlighting needs and sync regularly. I simply cannot say enough for the likes of Helen, Joel and Keith who have been a tremendous help and so I have decided to remain loyal and simply wait it out! The speed and stability of Accordance far surpasses that of Logos and If I were to say anything to the folks at Accordance it would be "thank you" and "keep up the good work".

 

Bob

(waiting anxiously for 1.8)

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I couldn't have said it better, Bob. (Except for the whole "originator of the thread" part).

 

While I wait anxiously for 1.8 (which I hope is the magic number for highlighting), excellent customer service and the new support of retina on the Mac make this a much more bearable wait than it could be.

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I've tried finding other posts related to highlighting but can't seem to find what I'm looking for... so my apologies if I'm repeating someone else's post. Also, I think I'm also going to say what i feel... so my apologies before hand... I know you guys have a lot on your hands but I'd just really love to get these things off my chest!

 

I too am pulling my haircut over highlighting on my iPad and iPod... I think the one member above who has stopped using accordance because of highlighting issues can understand?!

 

1) First off why can't I simply drag my finger across the sentence or passage and highlight it like you can with Logos or Kindle? Having to select word or sentence is frankly awful... sorry.

 

2) Even when I do go to select sentence though, it's not working? I just tried it right now and all it does is simply highlight a word. And before, with poetry, it wouldn't highlight the entire first part (stanza?) but only the first line... so if there were six lines of poetry i have have go click on every single line, selecting the font and sentence... I just can't keep doing that.

 

3). And lastly, the style of the highlighting itself is archaic... is there anyway to update it so that it actually looks like a real highlighter (like Logos and many PDF readers have)... I know this may sound like a trivial thing but for those of us that are very visual it's a big deal... just though I'd throw it in. I've attached a picture of what I mean, its from Preview, the PDF viewer/editor.

Thanks so much though for all you guys do and again, my apologies for focusing on the negatives...

 

As Bob alluded to, arbitrary text selection is a major focus for the next rev of the Accordance app. This will certainly improve the overall user experience for highlighting, but will not address everything you mention. At this point we have not discussed a more active approach to applying highlights (such as the method in Kindle and others). Also, the aesthetics of highlighting will (for now) remain the same since this is ported from the desktop app.

 

We're actively working on this, and actually in alpha testing, but no official ETA at this point.

 

Thanks for your patience and support!

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Alpha is usually internal only. Beta includes users.

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In the case of the iOS App we are limited by Apple as to how many devices can be registered for testing. We cannot just add people at will to either the alpha or the beta testing programs.

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  • 4 months later...

I agree with everything Bob said in his April 29 post. My sentiments exactly -- I would LOVE a more seamless way to highlight on Accordance for iPad (cf. Goodreader; iAnnotate; kindle). I also understand that developing a simple-to-use app is not simple-to-do!

 

It is clear to me that Accordance is committed to software development, customore care, etc. And it is also clear to me that it was built by scholars and for scholars (and pastors). I love it and have zero plans to switch.

 

One suggestion I have (that may or may not fly) is that Accordance not mess up an already amazing app in iOS too much by trying to add a ground-up highlighting redo. If adding this would compromise any of the app's current (very superior) effectiveness, I would vote it down. One other idea would be to create a second, 'Accordance reader' app. While the current one is awesome in so many ways (e.g. searches, etc) a reader app could be for one sole purpose -- reading and highlighting. It could work like the current kindle app -- simple finger touch, drag, let go, and voila, highlighting is done. That would allow one to read quickly through lots of text, and to read commentaries and other books with a similar experience as that of an e-reader.

 

I'm not sure if any of this would fly, but I thought I'd at least suggest it as fodder. Again, I love Accordance for my Mac, I love the Accordance iPad app, but I'd love to have more of an e-reader annotating experience when I read books on my iPad. Too many choices (e.g. select colour, select how much to highlight, etc) means too much reading interruption. Kindle has it right to set a colour as automatic and then to allow the user to switch between colours by touching a second time (i.e. to only have to touch the screen a second time when one is doing something different). What do you Accordance people think?

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I agree with everything Bob said in his April 29 post. My sentiments exactly -- I would LOVE a more seamless way to highlight on Accordance for iPad (cf. Goodreader; iAnnotate; kindle). I also understand that developing a simple-to-use app is not simple-to-do!

 

It is clear to me that Accordance is committed to software development, customore care, etc. And it is also clear to me that it was built by scholars and for scholars (and pastors). I love it and have zero plans to switch.

 

One suggestion I have (that may or may not fly) is that Accordance not mess up an already amazing app in iOS too much by trying to add a ground-up highlighting redo. If adding this would compromise any of the app's current (very superior) effectiveness, I would vote it down. One other idea would be to create a second, 'Accordance reader' app. While the current one is awesome in so many ways (e.g. searches, etc) a reader app could be for one sole purpose -- reading and highlighting. It could work like the current kindle app -- simple finger touch, drag, let go, and voila, highlighting is done. That would allow one to read quickly through lots of text, and to read commentaries and other books with a similar experience as that of an e-reader.

 

I'm not sure if any of this would fly, but I thought I'd at least suggest it as fodder. Again, I love Accordance for my Mac, I love the Accordance iPad app, but I'd love to have more of an e-reader annotating experience when I read books on my iPad. Too many choices (e.g. select colour, select how much to highlight, etc) means too much reading interruption. Kindle has it right to set a colour as automatic and then to allow the user to switch between colours by touching a second time (i.e. to only have to touch the screen a second time when one is doing something different). What do you Accordance people think?

 

Thanks for the feedback, Ian!

 

We've been thinking through all these things, and more, and I think we've come to a solid point with the implementation of text selection (and highlighting) that doesn't compromise other aspects of the app that already worked well. We're making great progress, and hope to be able to share it with everyone in the not-too-distant future.

 

We're also in beta testing of an intermediate update to address iOS 8 compatibility issues that will come first. I mention that now so that when it comes, you all won't be expecting the big changes discussed here.

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I too want to echo what Bob and Ian said. For me the arbitrary highlight and selection (as well as a type of search all) is a must feature that has kept me from using Accordance on my ipad on a regular basis. So many time that I have been using Accordance on my iPad and had to switch to Logos because I cannot select or highlight the specific text I want. Except for quick look up of something I have stopped using Accordance on my iPad until this new feature is finally unveil. It is almost a year since Bob raised an "on OLD topic". I am waiting in pins and needles on the hope that one morning I will pick up my iPad to find out that Accordance has finally have added this feature.

Edited by davidmedina
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I would like to reiterate something David said. I too switch to Logos for the arbitrary highlight feature. While Accordance is my Bible study program of choice, and while I recommend it highly (doing so just today in fact), I must say that the lack of arbitrary highlighting is a serious downfall of Accordance iOS and long overdue. I am not complaining but stating facts. I am beyond excited about the arrival of arbitrary highlighting.

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Hopefully soon... but i am suspecting it won;t be till after OS 8 is released. Stability under a new iOS is more important than new features, not matter how important. :(^_^

 

-Dan

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