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A Closer look at E-Sword

I’ve tried a lot of Bible programs but I’ve never found anything as simple and as easy to navigate as E-Sword. I’ve tried several different programs before I decided on one program so that I can buy an NIV version for that particular program. E-Sword was my choice because it’s easy to navigate and customize depending on how I want it to appear. Here are a few screen shots, click on them to view the full size of the image.

This is how I set up my main window. The first column is the verse selector where you can choose the book and the chapter. The second column is where you can read the text. The third column contains the commentary, study notes, and topic notes. You can download the commentary and topic notes from the E-Sword website, the study notes are the notes you take along the way. You can do a lot with these study notes. We’ll get to that later. The third column used to be split into two parts (an upper and lower part). The lower part contained the dictionary, which I closed because I wanted the entire third column to be dedicated to the notes and the commentary. I still use the dictionary, though. What I do is I click on a word and hover my mouse pointer to the leftmost side of the screen. There’s a Dictionary button there but you don’t have to click it, you just have to put your mouse pointer over it and the dictionary will fly out. You can download and install several free dictionaries from the E-Sword website.

I picked the Easton and Hitchcock dictionary, although I only really use the Easton dictionary. The Hitchcock dictionary contains definition of Bible names. The Easton dictionary already contains that as well as the definition of the terms and the historical context (when applicable). I just click on the text of the verses (or outside the dictionary) and the dictionary flies back to the sides where it’s hidden.

E-Sword allows you access to different Bible translations. It’s interesting how different and similar each translation is. If you want to hide some translations to minimize the clutter in your tabs, all you have to do is click on Options, then click on Resource, then check/uncheck the translations and books as you prefer.

Clicking on the Compare tab will show a verse comparison across all the enabled translations in E-Sword.

Clicking on the Parallel tab enables you to read translations side-by-side. You can choose a minimum of two translations and a maximum of four.

You can also highlight verses and choose different colors to use. You can mark verses using a straight line, a squiggly, or a broken line as well.

Right-click on any term and click on Quick Search to search for how the term was used in the entire Bible, or in the Old Testament or New Testament.

The study notes feature is probably one of my favorites. It’s a feature-packed editor which lets you format texts, use bullets, numbers, indentations, and the likes.

You can also right-click on a verse and click on Paste to Study Notes or, to save space, you can type the verse you want to include in your notes, like Exodus 20:16 (in the example), highlight it, then click on the icon above or use the shortcut ctrl+j to format the verse tooltip. This will show you the content of the verse when you hover your mouse pointer over it.

You can have several study notes for several topics or one study note for the whole Bible because you can insert your study notes into the book, chapter, and verse that you want to insert it to. Because I want all my notes for the chapter to be in one place, I set my study notes in chapter 1 verse 1. For example, all my notes about Exodus will be in Exodus chapter 1 verse 1, although I can set my notes to be in different chapters, that is, separate notes for Exodus chapter 1, chapter 2, and so on and so forth.

There are also other tools like a Bible Reading plan, daily devotionals, maps, photos, and more. I’ve only begun to scratch the surface of this wonderful software and even though I have a paper Bible I keep handy with me, I do enjoy studying the Bible through this useful tool. Try it out if you want, the program is free and so are a lot of the other translations available for download in their website. I only bought the NIV Family Bundle because it’s my favorite translation. The English Standard Version is, by far, the nearest translation to NIV.

About Pao Alfonso

My name is Pao. I am a freelance writer and I work from home. I currently live with my wonderful husband and my equally wonderful (albeit very spoiled) Siamese cat named Blair. I love to take photos and read. I also love cheese.