Commentary: Accordance or Kindle/EPUB?

[loyukfai]

If a commentary is available in both Accordance and Kindle (or EPUB), assuming they're of the same price, which one would you prefer? And why?

 

Am leaning towards the latter because Accordance doesn't currently have an Android version. OTOH, having it within Accordance would be more convenient in referencing, right?

 

Cheers.

[R. Mansfield]

You might want to check out a post I wrote a while back: "Accordance vs. Print Books & Ebooks." The second part of that post deals specifically with your question. 

 

And the Android version really is coming, so you will continue to be investing in Accordance with the enhanced functionality described in the link above rather than formats that are very limited.

[Daniel Francis]

Accordance with out doubt. When reading say the following:

 

18 In the other biblical occurrences of “to give rain” (1 Sam. 12:17; 1 K. 18:1; Acts 14:17) the pronoun that is the subject stands for God. The use of “sky” or “heaven” here does not imply any deification of “heaven”; we may compare our Lord’s reference to the occasion “when the heaven was shut up three years and six months” (Luke 4:25). If, however, James is thinking of God as the giver of rain, his language provides us with a further example of the well-known reverential replacement of “God” by “heaven” in later Judaism (cf. “Heaven rules” in Dan. 4:26 alongside “the Most High rules” in vv. 17, 25, 32, and Matthew’s preference for “the kingdom of heaven” as against “the kingdom of God” in the other Gospels).

 

In an Ebook each reference has to be manually liked up in another app o physical bible. Often times some books in Accordance have internal links that will take you from one volume to another in your library. And while you can look up an unfamiliar word in kindles dictionary you can amplify them in Accordance and get meaningful articles and more from references in your library.

 

I gladly pay even a little more for the benefits I get in Accordance for the same price I wouldn't hesitate to buy it in Accordance.

 

-dan

[Rick Bennett]

In addition to what Dan said (which is reason enough), we often get these same eBook files to work with from major publishers and spend a ridiculous amount of time cleaning up formatting issues to the point that we would never release them in the state the publisher sells them. We have found in numerous instances that tables aren't formatted correctly (or are inserted as images), Greek/Hebrew is rendered as images instead of actual text (or worse completely unreadable), and the list goes on. I know one prominent author who pulled his book from Kindle because the publisher did such a horrible job on the ePub/eBook conversion. There are exceptions to this of course, but I would have a hard time trusting the quality of an eBook, especially for a (potentially complex) reference work like a commentary.

[Tim Hall]

Sometime ago (3ish years) Zondervan put the NIVAC on sale at $5 a commentary through Amazon Kindle. Liking the series I bought 4 or 5 of them. Then I purchased the set through Accordance and the difference is unimaginable.

 

Aside from what else has been mentioned the searching in Accodance is unreal. I search through the whole set to see where a verse is mentioned quicker than I can even open and start scanning the Kindle version.

 

There is no doubt in my mind, Accordance is the better option even if it was available on one platform.

[Alistair]

If it is a commentary then definitely the Accordance advantage is preferred, as Dan has stated above. 

Other reference works (e.g. dictionaries and other works) I have as PDFs, which is great for me, as they don't need parallel versification

 

But I cannot use epubs and mobis. I don't need an iOS or Android version of anything, Desktop and Laptop Mac is how I work

 

And having a Bible on my phone is useful for dipping into, not for real work.

[Daniel Francis]

And having a Bible on my phone is useful for dipping into, not for real work.

 

These days i do minimal reading on my phone... but a lot on my iPad...and find you can do a significant amount of study on it. Now we are not sure if he was thinking phone or a tablet but if a tablet he will get a fair amount of flexibility with it. Unfortunately the mobile platform doesn't have nearly the features you will find in the desktop app but it does provide a nice platform for more portable use. I ironically one way i used my phone the most Bible wise was when reading on the kindle app but not wanting to switch all the time it was just easier to turn m phone on to look up scripture references. Now with split screen app whatever the feature is called it is so easy to open up the bible I no longer do it on my phone but still maintain the Bible apps on my phone.

 

-dan

[Andrew G]

for commentaries, accordance for sure, especially if the price is the same, although usually it will be priced higher in accordance due to all the extensive work they do formatting the ebooks, as mentioned above.

 

formatting on kindle varies, but usually is terrible.  b/f i had accordance, i bought ALL the nivac volumes on kindle when they are on sale.  in most of the volumes, there's no way to navigate to a specific passage b/c there are no hyperlinks and no table of contents.  i literally had to jump around the book to find the passage i wanted to read about.  so i re-bought the nivac on accordance when it went on sale (even though I had to suck it up and eat the cost).

 

a commentary in accordance is good b/c you can easily look up the reference b/c it is hyperlinked.  it makes studying a passage that much more efficient.  on a kindle, there usually aren't hyperlinks or it will take you to another page or you have to manually search a biblical reference outside of the kindle.

 

that said (and this might be off-topic), the NISB in accordance the hyperlinking is simply consistently off.  every time i use it, i'm finding improper hyperlinks (which i report) which is frustrating, since the point of buying it on accordance is the hyperlinking.  that's why i'm paying for it in accordance and i dont feel like I'm getting that.

 

anyways for me, kindle is good for casual leisurely reading, where you're not always trying to check references etc.

 

perhaps the only thing that would consider me to choose the kindle version is PRICE, as there's always great kindle deals on books going on.

[loyukfai]

Sincere thanks for all your input. Am leaning towards the Accordance way now.

 

Cheers.

[Andrew G]

oh also, another benefit of accordance vs. kindle is the support and constant improvements

 

accordance is continually updating their modules to fix errors etc.  they are always trying to improve accordance so it's a seamless experience and so all the modules work together.

 

with kindle, what you get is usually what you get and that's it.  amazon doesn't really seem to be interested in updating their kindle apps and improving book quality.  yes they add new features etc but when it comes to actual book formatting etc., revisions to kindle books in my experience have been rare.  their focus isn't just on kindle books, accordance's sole focus is on God's word and helping us study it.

Edited September 23, 2017 by gugu009

[flips]

Sometime ago (3ish years) Zondervan put the NIVAC on sale at $5 a commentary through Amazon Kindle. Liking the series I bought 4 or 5 of them. Then I purchased the set through Accordance and the difference is unimaginable.

 

Aside from what else has been mentioned the searching in Accodance is unreal. I search through the whole set to see where a verse is mentioned quicker than I can even open and start scanning the Kindle version.

 

There is no doubt in my mind, Accordance is the better option even if it was available on one platform.

 

I agree that I would prefer the Accordance version by far. But sometimes it would be so nice if I could bring commentary with me on my eInk reading device, and then epub/mobi export would have been awesome. (I have fiddled with exporting chapters to PDF, getting small page size that's readable on 6" eInk devices, and it works, sort of, but it's a bit of a hazzle, and not optimal.) 

[Daniel Francis]

Support is very important. I am not saying everything is fixed instantly but I know that at least a few issues i have had with the NISB have been reported and fixed... yes it is sad that there was some poor internal linking in the NISB... but these things occasionally slip through... and I do not believe accordance is ignoring corrections to the NISB or any product they sell... Now a correction doesn't automatically generate a new release and I do not know how many corrections are incorporated before they offer an update. But in general I have found corrections to texts seem to happen more regularly here that at some other software companies. 

 

-dan

[ukfraser]

Im a bit late to this thread but bought a number of nivac in kindle. Several didnt have indexes so i couldnt jump to john 15 but had to scroll through. I entered book marks in all the missing sections but each time the app was updated, my book marks were removed. A new version was published with indexes but kindle told me i had purchased them and wouldnt update. Eventually support finally updated my copies.

T

Reading is by pages rather than scrolling so i often cant reread last or first line easily.

 

I bought nivac nt set in accordance as soon as on sale. Better search, better index plus you can run it in line with a bible.

 

Only buy kindle if you dont think it will come in accordance. Having all my resources in one app means i use them more. With last sale, now nivac is available as separate volumes i have replaced my ot kindle versions with accordance.

Edited September 28, 2017 by ukfraser

[SimpleTheist]

This is a tough one. I like kindle to read becasue it easily saves my place (without any additional work on my part) and because I also have android tablets/phones. For that reason if it is something I would be reading I would go with kindle. For reference and studying, Accordance wins hands down. The major problem would be, if you need it on your tablet or phone, accordance is currently out of the running until the android version hits the market. The good news is that there is an android app in the works, the bad news is that doesn't help you right now. However, if you don't need it on your tablet/phone right this second, you can go with accordance and remain hopefully that the android app will appear sooner rather than later. 

 

[SimpleTheist]

I agree that I would prefer the Accordance version by far. But sometimes it would be so nice if I could bring commentary with me on my eInk reading device, and then epub/mobi export would have been awesome. (I have fiddled with exporting chapters to PDF, getting small page size that's readable on 6" eInk devices, and it works, sort of, but it's a bit of a hazzle, and not optimal.) 

 

It should be easy to export works to a format kindle can read without the need to do so as a pdf. If you have another device you might be stuck doing the pdf thing, but you should be able to convert the file to an e-reading format to make your life easier.

[ukfraser]

Here is a screenshot from accordance of nivac, note all the links that the accordance team have put in. None of these links to other texts, resources or other useful information would be there in kindle and from memory, going back from a footnote in nivac on kindle didnt work.

 

If there is an error, notify accordance and it gets updated. You will be exceptionally luck with kindle.

 

Often you will have a commentary open with the textso it scrolls with the text. Easy in accordance. Only one pane in kindle.

 

For me the only advantage of kindle is that you may get something that is not in accordance but for day to day reading, give me a turbo charged accordance resource on my ipad any day!

 

;o)

 

Accordance and forScore are the two main reasons i stick with an iPad.

Edited October 15, 2017 by ukfraser

[Douglas Fyfe]

I think E-ink might be one of the reasons people choose kindle for some resources - easier on the eyes for longer reading sessions. But I don’t know how many just use kindle app on other devices which makes the e-ink irrelevant, and Accordance highly preferable.