May 26, 2009

iPhone e-reader: Eucalyptus

There's a new player in town as far as e-book readers for the iPhone. It's called Eucalyptus and after finally getting approved by Apple, it is receiving lots of love on the internets.

It uses the Project Gutenberg etexts, which it reformats beautifully on the fly. Definitely mentioning. However, it's not for me. I'm most interested in readers that can make use of etexts that I create myself. I can dump articles or commentary chunks I have for instance in my bible software, and take them to read on the go.

Side note: Should we settle on etexts, eTexts, or e-texts? ... ebooks, eBooks, or e-books?

May 25, 2009

FlashCord File Converter Video Tutorial

In response to others' requests, here is a video demo of FlashCord File Converter:

May 23, 2009

gFlashPro Flashcards for iPhone

This is a really good idea... gFlashPro Flashcards for iPhone are powered by a Google spreadsheet you create. This makes for a powerfully capable offering.

May 18, 2009

FlashCord File Converter

FlashCord Converter

(Accordance Analysis to Tab Delimited File Converter) 

Available for download on the downloads page.

This droplet allows you to convert text from an Accordance analysis result into a tab delimited file for use in a flashcard program or spreadsheet. The tool is designed to be used by users of Accordance Bible Software. For more information about Accordance itself, please reference Accordance Bible Software (Oak Tree Software, Inc.  www.AccordanceBible.com).

Basic Use

You may launch the application directly and then either choose a data file to convert or use the contents of the clipboard. Also, you may drag and drop a saved Analysis window from Accordance onto the application in order to create the tab delimited file.

Creating a Data File

Creating text files to be converted is completed within Accordance in three steps-- create your search within a tagged text, set up a compatible display in an Analysis window, and save that window as a text file.

I. Create your search within a tagged text

Using the Word search within a tagged text module, run your search.

II. Set up a compatible display in an Analysis window

Use the Details button to open an Analysis window.  Choose "Set Analysis Display..." in the Display menu (Command + t) in order to customize your Analysis window. 

In the section of the "Set Analysis Display..." window titled "Select items for sort and display...", you may request specific information about the words that meet the search criteria. Adding multiple items to a column provides a hierarchical breakdown for each word. Remember, if the search contains only a single term, then only the first column is relevant. 

The converter can read three different formats/sets of information. 

The Analysis results may be set to three different display options: 

1. LEX

This setting will result in a data file that can be used to quiz you on lexical forms and their English gloss. 

2. LEX  |  INFLECT

This setting will result in a data file that can be used to quiz you on inflected forms and their lexical form and English gloss.

3. LEX  |  INFLECT  |  TAG

This setting will result in a data file that can be used to quiz you on inflected forms and their lexical form, English gloss, and parsing information. 

Note: In place of "TAG", any of the sort order options may be used, such as Gender, PrtSpeech or Class.

In addition combination of information for different columns in a multi-word search may be used:

The results of each of these three Analysis results window text display options in Accordance would look like this:

_______________________________________

Total number of verses = 6

  (total number of verses displayed = 6) 

[noun] [verb] *fos (6 total words)

Number of different forms = 6:

      dida¿skaloß  teacher = 1

      e˙leuqeri÷a  freedom = 1

      mimhth/ß  imitator = 1

      shmei√on  sign, miracle = 1

      uJpo/deigma  example, pattern = 1

      cara¿  joy = 1

      ---------------

      gi÷nomai  to become, be, be born, be created = 2

            gi÷nesqe = 1

            e˙genh/qhte = 1

      euJri÷skw  to find = 1

            euJrh/sete = 1

      hJge÷omai  to lead, consider, count, regard = 1

            hJgh/sasqe = 1

      kale÷w  to call, summon, invite = 1

            e˙klh/qhte = 1

      lamba¿nw  to take, receive, choose = 1

            la¿bete = 1

      ---------------

      aÓdelfo/ß  brother = 5

            aÓdelfoi÷ = 5

                  NOUN masculine plural nominative

                  NOUN masculine plural vocative

      bre÷foß  infant = 1

            bre÷foß = 1

                  NOUN neuter singular accusative = 1

_______________________________________

Note: The sort order must be one of the three shown above. For instance, choosing INFLECT  |  LEX  instead of LEX  |  INFLECT will result in strange, if not silly, results.

For more information on how to customize the Analysis display, see the Accordance help file titled "Set Analysis Display Dialog Box for Tagged Texts".

III.a Save the Analysis window as a text file

Under the "File" menu, choose item "Save as Text File". Make certain your settings in the preferences do not convert the Greek font from Helena, or the Hebrew font from Yedudit, but that they do reverse the direction of Hebrew characters. And, make certain you save the file as plain text (not rtf).  You will drop this resulting file onto the converter to use it as a data file.

Note: If you're clever enough, you can create your own custom data files by manually combining two or more text files. You can add new words to an existing tab file.

III.b Copy the contents of the Analysis window

Simply select all and then copy the contents of the window for use in the converter.

IV. Run the converter

If you saved a file, you can simply drag that file onto the droplet app. It will save the new file with a new name by default in the same location. If you have saved the data on the clipboard, simply launch the app and use the data from there, choosing where to save the file.

Purpose and Usage

The purpose of the tool is to be able to use the spreadsheet format data in a spreadsheet for your own research, or also to import them into a flashcard program. 

Versions

Known issues:

Need to fix capabilities for unicode fonts

Review the addition of a blank line between appended data

Current version:

Current version is 0.2, Released 5/19/09

May 04, 2009

Brite Bibliobloggers

I just today learned that there is more than one other biblioblogger who hails from the doctoral program at Brite Divinity School of TCU, where I'm completing my dissertation. I was delighted to peruse these new discoveries and see some quality offering. Here are the Brite Bibliobloggers I am now aware of, and would love to hear of any more to add to the list, current students or graduates: