Category: News

SwordSearcher 9.1 Released

Screen shot of the newly enhanced Topic and Verse Guide in SwordSearcher 9.1

SwordSearcher version 9.1 is now available!

Current users of SwordSearcher can upgrade at a discount here. Read below for the details or visit the Upgrade FAQ for more information.

New modules:

  • James Hastings’ Great Texts of the Bible (commentary) [jhTexts], 1910-1914. A 20 volume work of extensive topical and expository content.
  • Lange’s Commentary on the Holy Scriptures [Lange], 1871-1899. A 63 volume commentary translated into English under the supervision of Philip Schaff. This commentary is presented in a “chapter-based” format to preserve the flow and intent of the author.

Enhanced Topic and Verse Guide:

  • Added new preview pane to the Topic and Verse Guide. This is a big time-saver and study-flow efficiency enhancement!
  • The preview pane shows the content of items as you click on them in the results, without having to change your positions and navigation history in the main Commentary and Book panels.
  • The preview pane can be toggled on or off and this setting is remembered between sessions.
  • If the preview pane is visible, double-clicking an item will cause it to load in the main viewer, or you can click the heading in the preview pane. (Ctrl+Click will open the entry in a clone panel.)

Other enhancements:

  • Added “Line Height” setting to Preferences, Fonts and Colors. This allows for fine-tuning the text density in the Bible, Book, and Commentary panels. This setting replaces the old “Optimize line height for touch” setting.
  • Added keyboard shortcuts for rotating tabs. Ctrl+Alt+Left and Ctrl+Alt+Right. Using this when a Bible, Book, or Commentary panel is focused will rotate through relevant open tabs in the panel.
  • Added “Open in Topic Guide” button to Verse Guide Panel.
  • Improved initial start-up time.
  • Reduced memory and resource consumption.

Fixes:

  • Fixed a potential crash in the Topic Guide after deleting a user module.
  • fixed a rare condition where a crash could occur when closing a panel or the application before the text was finished loading.
  • fixed: clicking a link in a clone panel that was not active/focused would sometimes ignore the link click until it was clicked a second time.
  • fixed Clear Bookmark function not updating bookmark menu captions immediately.
  • fixed right-click menu of Image Viewer tree (left panel) not appearing
  • fixed: disabling all toolbars and then restarting causes the empty space for the toolbar to show.
  • Other stability improvements and minor bug fixes.

Included from previous hotfix releases:

  • Added audio Bible timing support for the latest 128kb and 192kb voice-only Scourby.com mp3 files (2021).
  • Added audio Bible timing support for an Max McLean Listener’s Bible from christianaudio
  • Fixed a potential crash when importing invalid reading plan templates.
  • Fixed a crash that could happen when changing color modes from the main View menu.
  • Fixed possible error condition when trying to clone a user book panel from an empty user book
  • Fixed possible error when setting active verse or currently narrated verse visual style (background color)
  • Fixed possible error when saving user module
  • Fixed bookmarks and clone panels not always properly restoring scroll position on systems using a comma as a decimal separator
  • Fixed an issue with verse autopaste (Ctrl+Alt+V)
  • Fixed: if a bookmark was set from the main Bookmarks menu (invoking dialog), the bookmark menu item caption wouldn’t update until the next time SwordSearcher was started.
  • Fixed mouse wheel not scrolling tree view in Images viewer
  • Fixed clone panel content links sometimes not resolving to the correct module.
  • Fixed: in the editor, a manually created href link could cause the program to freeze when switching to the code editor if it was missing a closing quotation mark.
  • Fixed: Minor UI issues
  • Other minor enhancements.

SwordSearcher 9.0 Hotfix 2 update available

SwordSearcher 9 has a free update, version 9.0.3.23108. This update includes:

  • Added support for additional digital editions of Scourby and McLean audio Bibles.
  • Fixed an issue with the preferences configuration window.
  • Improved visibility of the Quick Concordance “new” tab.
  • Fixed possible error condition when trying to clone a user book panel from an empty user book.
  • Fixed possible error when setting active verse or currently narrated verse visual style (background color).
  • Fixed possible error when saving user module.
  • Fixed bookmarks and clone panels not always properly restoring scroll position on systems using a comma as a decimal separator.
  • Fixed an issue with verse auto-paste (Ctrl+Alt+V).
  • Fixed: Changing the color mode from dark to light and then closing could cause harmless but unwanted Windows crash dumps.
  • Fixed a potential crash when importing invalid reading plan templates.
  • Other minor fixes.
  • Some speed optimizations.
  • Minor help file corrections.

What’s a “hotfix?”

A hotfix is a minor update to fix bugs that were discovered after the official release. It is strongly recommended that you install the hotfix to keep your SwordSearcher experience as good as it can be.

How can I get it?

Just open SwordSearcher and go to the Help menu, and choose Check for Updates. This will show you any updates available to you and give you a download link, if applicable.

Check for Updates in SwordSearcher

That’s the preferred way to check for updates. You can also directly download the hotfix here:

Download: SwordSearcher-9.0.3.23108-Hotfix.exe (26.1 MB)

If you’re using a version of SwordSearcher prior to 9.0, be sure to read about what’s new in 9.0 and get your upgrade here.

SwordSearcher 9.0 Hotfix 1 update available

SwordSearcher 9.0 has a free small update (version 9.0.2.21104), which has the following fixes since 9.0 was released:

  • Fixed: if a bookmark was set from the main Bookmarks menu (invoking dialog), the bookmark menu item caption wouldn’t update until the next time SwordSearcher was started.
  • Light mode menu text color fix on Windows 11.
  • Fixed some UI painting issues.
  • Fixed mouse wheel not scrolling tree view in Images Viewer.
  • Fixed clone panel content links sometimes not resolving to the correct module.
  • Fixed search result panel captions changing to long format when layout was reset or changed.
  • Fixed: in the editor, a manually created href link could cause the program to freeze when switching to the code editor if it was missing a closing quotation mark.

What’s a “hotfix?”

A hotfix is a minor update to fix bugs that were discovered after the official release. It just fixes some issues; it doesn’t add any new features. It is strongly recommended that you install the hotfix to keep your SwordSearcher experience as good as it can be.

How can I get it?

Just open SwordSearcher and go to the Help menu, and choose Check for Updates. This will show you any updates available to you and give you a download link, if applicable.

Check for Updates in SwordSearcher

That’s the preferred way to check for updates. You can also directly download the hotfix here:

Download: SwordSearcher-9.0.2.21104-Hotfix.exe (15.4 MB) (Note, this hotfix has been superseded by hotfix 2.)

If you’re using a version of SwordSearcher prior to 9.0, be sure to read about what’s new in 9.0 and get your upgrade here.

SwordSearcher 9 Released with Dark Mode and more

SwordSearcher 9’s new Dark Mode interface

After a considerable development period, SwordSearcher 9 is finally available!

There are a couple of new library modules, as usual, but the real improvements are to the program itself. Version 9 adds a dark/light color mode toggle that lets you quickly adjust the color mode of SwordSearcher’s interface for when you’re working late and night in a dim environment or just trying to reduce eye strain. Check out the comparison of color modes here. What’s great about the color mode toggle is that it remembers your text and background color choices for each mode, independently. This means you can set up your favorite colors for each mode and not have to worry about losing them when you switch!

In addition to that, some serious work has been put into improving SwordSearcher’s layout and windowing systems.

Moving your study panels around in the main window is easier now because panel sizes automatically adjust to expected sizes when you move them, and all of the panels will proportionally size, automatically, when the main window is maximized or restored or otherwise resized. Setting up a custom layout should be faster and easier now.

Also, tool windows like the Topic Guide and English-Strong’s-Indexer now appear to the system as “top-level windows,” which means they can all be maximized, minimized, and most importantly, they now participate in Windows Alt+Tab task switching and Windows Snap functionality.

Clone panels have had an upgrade, too. You can now create clone panels that can be maximized, minimized, snapped, and Alt-Tabbed. (If you prefer the prior functionality of dockable clone panels, you can have that, too!)

We’ve also been using Microsoft’s preview builds for Windows 11. Not surprisingly, to really shine on a new version of Windows, we had to accommodate some new and changed features of Windows 11. That work has been done, and SwordSearcher 9 runs and looks great on Windows 11, which is expected to be released to general availability later this year.

There’s a bunch more stuff, including hundreds of little improvements and tweaks too numerous to mention. Rest assured though, SwordSearcher 9 is still SwordSearcher and you will feel right at home when you upgrade.

Speaking of upgrades, if you’re already a SwordSearcher user with a valid license, you can get a huge discount on the new version right here.

More information:

SwordSeacher 8.4 Released with new Quick Concordance Tool and more

We’ve got two new commentaries (34 volumes worth of content) and lots of great enhancements in SwordSearcher 8.4. A new search tool has been developed, called the Quick Concordance. The Quick Concordance is a fast way to do “on the side” searches that don’t interrupt your study flow. It’s updated live as you type and it’s instantaneous, offering an unlimited number of new “concordance tabs” in a floating window. The QC has been integrated into StudyClick and the various pop-up menus for fast access and seamless use.

Also, SwordSearcher has had an analytical concordance tool called the English-Strong’s Indexer for many years. For version 8.4 it’s had a complete overhaul and redesign to make it faster and more flexible.

See the complete list of updates below. If you’re a SwordSearcher user already, go here for your upgrade.

New Library Modules:

  • William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament [Commentary module: Godbey] (7 vols, 1910)
  • Joseph Parker’s People’s Bible Commentary [Commentary module: Parker] (27 vols, 1886-1898)

New Quick Concordance Tool:

  • A convenient new way to perform quick, “on-the-side” Bible searches without opening new verse list panels.
  • Floating tool window supporting an unlimited number of search tabs.
  • Instantaneous results display in the classic concordance layout as you type your searches, making it super-easy to get word and verse counts, without disrupting your current study flow.

Enhanced English-Strong’s Indexer:

  • SwordSearcher’s analytical concordance tool, known as the English-Strong’s Indexer (aka ESI), has been redesigned and expanded.
  • The ESI can now work on small phrases and Advanced Search Expressions; it is no longer limited to using a single word only.
  • By default, the ESI now includes multiple word forms in its matching.
  • To make the ESI more powerful as an analytical concordance, it now accepts Strong’s numbers as well as English text.

Other improvements:

  • The Bible panel book and chapter menus have been enhanced.
  • StudyClick improvements.
  • Verse List bar graph now allows clicks on books that have no matches. Doing this will bring the closest match position into view, so the bar graph can more easily be used to quickly navigate the results, without having to precisely click on a bar with results.

Many more enhancements and several bug fixes. All of the details can be seen here.

SwordSearcher 8.3 Released with Enhanced Audio Bible Support

SwordSearcher 8.3 is now available!

In addition to some great new library content, the big update in this release is enhanced Audio Bible support. There are now several narrations supported by SwordSearcher’s audio Bible integration and you may link in as many audio Bibles as you have on your hard drive.

If you’re a SwordSearcher user already, go here for your upgrade.

What’s New in SwordSearcher 8.3
Q2 2019

New Library Modules:

  • James Nisbet’s Church Pulpit Commentary [Nisbet] (12 Vols, 1908)
  • Handfuls on Purpose [Handfuls] (James Smith and Robert Lee, 13 volumes, 1943)
  • The Essential Works of A. W. Tozer [AWTozer]
    (Nine books from the life and ministry of A. W. Tozer, 1897-1963)
    One combined SwordSearcher book module:

    • Christ, The Eternal Son
    • Jesus is Victor
    • Jesus, Author of Our Faith
    • Jesus, Our Man in Glory
    • Knowledge of the Holy
    • Man, The Dwelling Place of God
    • That Incredible Christian
    • The Pursuit of God
    • The Root of the Righteous

New and enhanced Audio Bible Support:

  • SwordSearcher has supported the integration of an audio Bible for several years, but this functionality has been significantly enhanced for SwordSearcher 8.3.
  • The following Audio Bibles are now supported with verse-level synchronization and playback and can be directly played from the Bible panel and Verse List panels:
    • Alexander Scourby, KJV, AMG Publishers.
    • Alexander Scourby, KJV, Hendrickson Publishers.
    • Alexander Scourby, KJV, Scourby.com (non-dramatized mp3 edition only)
    • Max McLean’s Listener’s Bible, KJV, Fellowship for Performing Arts.
    • David Cochran Heath, KJV, ChristianAudio.
    • Paul Mims, KJV, AudioBible.com.
    • Dan Wagner, KJV, Talking Bibles International.
    • Faith Comes By Hearing Dramatized KJV.
    • Stephen Johnson, KJV, Firefighters.org.
    • Note that SwordSearcher does not come with an audio Bible. You may integrate any of the above audio Bibles into SwordSearcher once you have obtained them from their publishers or retailers. Please see the audio Bible page on the website for a complete list of supported audio Bibles and where you can obtain them.
  • You may now configure an unlimited number of audio Bibles at the same time. Switching between integrated audio Bibles is easy and done with a simple selection in a list.
  • Audio playback speed can be adjusted to make it slower or faster based on listening preference.
  • The core audio system has been replaced and updated to work with a wider variety of source audio files.
  • Audio Bible configuration/selection is accessible on the main File menu or with Shift+Ctrl+A keyboard shortcut.

Other improvements and fixes:

  • Added visual feedback for clicking on a verse widget or margin link.
  • Word Trees now remove hyphens from hyphenated words. This allows Word Tree searches and links to work consistently regardless of hyphenation setting in Preferences.
  • Verse Guide panel will automatically rebuild its content after saving changes to a user module entry.
  • Improved parsing of hard-coded verse reference links in user module entries.
  • Fixed issues related to “Remove optional hyphenation” option.
  • Fixed some tab display issues that could occur after renaming or deleting user modules.
  • Fixed a condition where the user editor would not allow saving until more changes were made after switch to Design mode.
  • Fixed incorrect counts and ratios in Bible Search Result Info and Stats for Verse Match Count by Book.
  • Fixed: Renaming a user module could orphan its keyboard shortcut.
  • Fixed a condition where user module editor Insert Table dialog could get hidden behind the editor.
  • Other various minor fixes and optimizations.

SwordSearcher 8.2 Released

SwordSearcher 8.2 is now available.

Be sure to try out the new Word Trees tool — a fun, unique way to see word and phrase connections in the Bible.

If you’re a SwordSearcher user already, go here for your upgrade.

What’s New in SwordSearcher 8.2

Q2 2018

If you are using a version older than 8.0, be sure to watch the video that shows what’s new in SwordSearcher 8.

New Modules:

  • Joseph Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1835) [Commentary module: Sutcliffe]
  • Reviving the Blessed Hope of Thessalonians (by Douglas Stauffer and Andrew Ray, 2016) [Book module: StauRBHT] A book-form commentary on 1st and 2nd Thessalonians. Includes 17 charts.
  • When the End Begins (by Douglas Stauffer and Andrew Ray, 2017) [Book module: StauWTEB] A book-form commentary on Matthew chapters 24 and 25. Includes 60 charts.

Major new features:

  • Bible Word Trees:Bible Word Trees in SwordSearcher
    • Bible Word Trees show fascinating connections between words and phrases in the Bible.
    • The Word Tree is a visualization tool (like the Word Cloud Generator) designed to help you see Bible search results in a very different way.
    • See groupings of the sentences and phrases flowing into and out of a word or phrase across the whole Bible or just chapters or books.
    • Connections between words and phrases can suddenly become obvious where they can be hard to spot in a conventional list of verses.
    • Fully interactive. Fast.
    • Integrated: load conventional verse lists and search results based on the word trees for further study.
    • See dozens of word tree previews for any portion of Scripture, like a chapter or book, to get ideas for additional exploration, or just to get a new birds-eye view of a passage.
  • Live verse tagging in the user module entry editor:
    • It is no longer necessary to save the text you are editing to see what will be automatically linked as a verse reference.
    • As you type, the editor will “live tag” any text that is recognized as a verse reference so you can see immediately what will be linked and it will instantly respond to any changes you make.
    • You can hold your mouse pointer over the live tag to see the text in a pop-up preview to verify it is what you intended.
    • Additional options when right-clicking a live-tagged reference in the editor.
    • Also added a handy keyboard shortcut for power users to insert a “contextual reference” at the caret position (Ctrl+R):
      • This inserts the book and chapter from the most recent verse reference recognized up to the caret position.
      • This is just a convenience keyboard shortcut to avoid the need to re-type book and chapter repeatedly when making a series of references broken up by other text.
  • Full-library Search Results display has been redesigned:
    • The layout of library search result previews has been improved.
    • More previews of matching text inside of entries are visible without taking up much more space.
    • Match previews also indicate how many individual matches there are in each entry, in addition to each module, so it is more obvious when an entry has multiple matches beyond what is visible in the preview.
    • Significant performance improvements.
  • Many additional optimizations and fixes. See the full revision history for detail.

SwordSearcher 8.1 Released

This is always one of my favorite things to do every new year: announce a new SwordSearcher release! Version 8.1 is now available and brings several enhancements and some new library content.

Be sure to read the Upgrade FAQ if you are already a SwordSearcher user.

What’s New in SwordSearcher 8.1

New Modules:

  • J. C. Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels (4 vol. commentary) [RyleETG]
  • Ellicott’s Bible Commentary for English Readers (8 vol. commentary edited by Charles J. Ellicott) [Ellicott]
  • Through the Bible Day by Day (7 vol. devotional commentary by F. B. Meyer) [MeyerTTB]

Improvements:

  • By popular request, library tabs no longer change position to force the active tab to appear on the bottom row of tabs. (This is optional in preferences.)
  • New StudyClick function: Ctrl-Clicking a module link (like from the Bible margin) loads the module entry in a clone panel instead of the main library panels.
  • Added full support for Windows “High Contrast” mode:
    • The optional High Contrast setting in Windows 8 and 10 is an easy system-wide toggle (left Alt + left Shift + PrintScreen) that changes the way applications appear when you need to have less color or a black background. It’s a good option for those late nights when your monitor is shining too brightly in your eyes. SwordSearcher now supports this display mode 100%! Please see Microsoft’s documentation on High Contrast Mode for more details on using this accessibility mode in Windows.
  • Added “+/-” buttons to Commentary and Book panels that appear when there are match highlights in the text, from Verse Guide, Topic Guide, and Library Searches.
  • The following have been updated with corrections:
    • TSK and KJV-TSK
    • Web1913 (Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary 1913)
    • ISBE (International Standard Bible Encyclopedia)
      • Rebuilt from a new source text incorporating thousands of corrections and formatting improvements.
      • Some missing entries have been restored.
      • Greek and Hebrew text from the original work is now included.
      • Significant improvements to verse linking.
    • KJVSL
    • SGreek and SHebrew dictionaries
    • SRV, SRVSL updated to Jan 2017 text.
    • TR
    • WH
  • Added search results Verse List right-click popup menu copy option: Copy selected text including highlighting. Use this when you want to include the bold/background formatting of the matches in the text.
  • Editor font list most-recently-used persists between editor loads in the same SwordSearcher session.
  • Various enhancements to the following SwordSearcher features and tools:
    • Verse reference recognition.
    • Scan Text for Verse References tool.
    • Printer Page Setup (File menu).
    • High-DPI and Multi-DPI support improvements.
    • Bible Search Result Information and Statistics window.
    • Main search bar.
    • Bookmark system.
    • Forward/Back navigation handling.
    • Clone panel scroll position.
  • Many additional optimizations and bug fixes. More details can be read here.

SwordSearcher 8 Released

I am very happy to be able to announce a major new release. SwordSearcher 8 is the result of a significant effort and it’s great to finally be able to present it to you. Please see below for a summary of the new features and be sure to watch the short video demonstrating a few of them.

All of your upgrade questions are answered here.

What’s New in SwordSearcher 8

New Modules:

  • KJV-TSK: The King James Bible with integrated in-line cross-references from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
    • The extremely useful Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (expanded, with over 800,000 cross-references) is now available in an integrated form in this new Bible panel tab.
    • Hundreds of thousands of cross-references are now presented in-line from notation in the Bible text. It is no longer necessary to go to a separate commentary panel to use the cross-references.
  • Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary 1913 [Web1913]
    • A very complete dictionary from the early 20th century. This digital edition organizes identical headwords under a single entry. Not counting plurals or multiple word forms, there are over 120,000 words defined in over 98,000 entries, with over 48,000 cross-linked entries and over 4,300 linked references to Scripture.
    • This does not replace the 1828 Wester’s module — both are included.

New Features:

  • Integrated Bar Graph for Bible search result verse lists.
  • Concordance View mode for Bible search results in Verse List Panels.
  • New KJVSL (and SRVSL) layout: Reverse interlinear.
  • Comprehensive support for high-DPI and 4K+ displays.
  • Assign your own hotkeys to your favorite modules with custom module shortcuts.

And LOTS more.

Current users click here for upgrade info.
Not yet a SwordSearcher user? Order here.

Version 7.2 Hotfix 4 available

A small, free “hotfix” update is available for SwordSearcher 7.2. This update includes the fixes from the previous hotfix updates, so there is no need to install the previous hotfixes if you haven’t already done so.

This update is recommended for all SwordSearcher 7.2 users.

Open SwordSearcher 7, click the Help menu, and select “Check for updates.” Click the link in the page that loads to download the update and install it. That’s all.​

After running the update, your SwordSearcher version will be 7.2.1.6.

If you are running a version older than 7.2, please go to the Upgrade FAQ page instead.


What is a hotfix?

A hotfix is a small update that fixes specific bugs found after the software was released.

What is fixed in this update?

This free bug fix update addresses the following issues that were discovered after 7.2 was released:

  • Fixed a condition where corrupt module file data on the hard drive could prevent SwordSearcher from starting.

Included from the previous hotfix updates:

  • Fixed bug that could cause SwordSearcher to crash when saving a user module entry.
  • Fixed up/down keys not scrolling text on some systems.
  • Fixed rare crash bugs relating to live spell checking in editor.
  • A few subtle corrections to rendering borders in some windows.
  • Fixed condition where program could freeze when deleting user module.
  • Fixed incorrect daily reading time division for custom reading plans based on daily time desired with certain types of reading segments.
  • Fixed some rare potential crash bugs.

How do I get the Hotfix?

2015-05-01_14-17-50

Open SwordSearcher 7, click the Help menu, and select “Check for updates.” Click the link in the page that loads to download the update and install it. That’s all.​

After installing the update, your version number will read 7.2.1.6.

Again, This hotfix update is for users of 7.2 only. Thank you!