Review of TheWord
Lately with the e-Sword 9 change in format (which requires a bunch of work to re-download all the modules), I decided to look at some other electronic bible study tools. Being poor, cost was important. I know that Logos is amazing, but I'm just don't have money like that to spend. I found a review of another free bible study tool called “The Word” (www.theword.gr) which rated it very highly. I gave it a spin and found the interface dramatically more intuitive, flexible, and responsive. Searching, navigating books, even just reading the bible is far better. Read on for a full review.
The Bible reading view is probably the best thing about The Word. There are very nice links on the top, bottom and side that allow you jump to any chapter in the book, go to the next chapter, or the next book. In addition it is able to add paragraphs, headings, and cross-references to bibles without those features by taking them from other bibles. In addition it makes it very easy to turn on and off various features (strong's numbers for instance).
A Screenshot of my The Word setup
Another plus is how it handles other types of books and illustrations. They are all handled in a uniform way. No more step modules, separate view for images, etc.
Since the format it uses for bibles and books are well documented and a free importer tool is available, I was able to convert all my paid for e-Sword modules. It took all my regular expression related nerd-powers but I did it. It runs well on Linux under wine (just a couple small bugs). There is not nearly as many resources available natively for The Word, but the better interface makes it worth it.
