BibleWorks on a Mac

[DR Tasker]

Hi
I have taken the plunge and changed to a Mac. After using BW for 10 years I am not in a hurry to drop it - I have too many valuable notes. I have installed BW on my iMac using Crossover Pro and that works OK but I can't paste from BW to the Mac version of Word (2008 version). Any ideas?
Thanks

[Soxfan23]

DR,

Unfortunately, I can't help you b/c I have no experience. I did purchase an imac desktop this summer though, so I am interested in how Bibleworks functions on a mac. I run Bibleworks on my Dell laptop, where it has always been flawless. I would prefer to run Crossover on my imac for Bibleworks so I don't have to purchase a separate windows OS to run Bibleworks on either Bootcamp or VMware Fusion/Parallels (running Crossover would save me about $200, which is nice). However, I have seen some things like the toolbar function not working, the notes & editor tabs not working, and now the paste function not working. Those are three pretty serious drawbacks for me.

Bibleworks is such a good program and is so much cheaper than Accordance, I definitely want to make it work. In all honesty, purchasing Windows 7 & VMware Fusion to solely run Bibleworks would still be much cheaper than purchasing Accordance and all of their expensive modules. But I would like to try and keep things as cheap as possible.

Please keep me updated with your experience. I know that the Crossover website (codeweavers dot com) has some forums for Bibleworks, so it may be better to ask your question there. They probably have customer support also, which may not be a bad idea.

[MBushell]

It is extremely unlikely that BibleWorks will ever be ported to the Mac. It is just too much work and we are a very small organization. We prefer to just try to serve the PC market to the best of our ability. To those of you considering the switch to a Mac I would recommend a little caution. As the Mac market share gets bigger they will begin to have the same virus woes. Witness the iPod security problem last week. I have never been a big defender of Microsoft. They have dropped the ball more times than any of us can count. But we are optimistic about WIndows 7. It looks like it may be all that Vista should have been. We'll know more shortly. MSDN developers can download the retain package beginning tomorrow and we will have our mits on it pronto. I would recommend giving it a chance in the market place before making the big switch.

Mike

[Soxfan23]

I hear ya Mike. I'm certainly not against Microsoft and have never been one to try and get Bibleworks to make an exclusively Mac version & totally understand your reasoning. I'm actually really looking forward to Windows 7 and pre-purchased a copy for my laptop. I just bought the imac desktop because I got a cheap deal (with an educational discount, free printer, and free ipod touch), and I like the multimedia capabilities and their ease of use. As for the OS, I could take it or leave it. Macs are prettier computers, and what I like about them is that you can run windows programs on them too, something you can't do on a windows-based machine. I'm not against switching computers, but I totally don't see the need for the Bible software switch. With so many options of running Bibleworks on a Mac now (VMware, Crossover, & Bootcamp), it should be no problem at all continuing to use Bibleworks. Besides, I don't want to go broke purchasing the Mac version of Bible software, which is so expensive they should be ashamed. I'll be due for a new laptop in a couple of years, which I may get a mac, but if I do rest-assured I will continue to use Bibleworks.

[Soxfan23]

By the way, Mike, one of the things I've always wished Bibleworks would make available is a good, up-to-date Bible dictionary. Having one tagged to the text would be very profitable, and I believe one of the (few) weaknesses of Bibleworks is its lack of a good dictionary. Are the possibly any chances that you guys could make the NIDB (New Interpreters Dictionary of the Bible) available as an add-on module? It's the most up-to-date dictionary available, and it would put BW over the top. I know it's expensive, but maybe making it available as an add-on module would be good. I would purchase it in a heartbeat (as I'm sure many others would).

[Ben Spackman]

I run BW 8 on Windows XP under OSX Leopard, using Parallels 3 on my laptop, with no problems. ( I also have a Dell desktop).

No experience with Crossover, though.

[MBushell]

By the way, Mike, one of the things I've always wished Bibleworks would make available is a good, up-to-date Bible dictionary. Having one tagged to the text would be very profitable, and I believe one of the (few) weaknesses of Bibleworks is its lack of a good dictionary. Are the possibly any chances that you guys could make the NIDB (New Interpreters Dictionary of the Bible) available as an add-on module? It's the most up-to-date dictionary available, and it would put BW over the top. I know it's expensive, but maybe making it available as an add-on module would be good. I would purchase it in a heartbeat (as I'm sure many others would).

We have tried for some time to get a good dictionary. The big ones like IDB are tied up in exclusive contracts with other software companies. But we are looking at some others. I personally would also like McClintock & Strong. It is dated in some areas but there is really nothing else like it for scope. It is on our most wanted list and is a possibility.

KMike

[Adelphos]

...I personally would also like McClintock & Strong. It is dated in some areas but there is really nothing else like it for scope. It is on our most wanted list and is a possibility.

I have used Mc&S extensively and still find it to be of inestimable value. I have both the printed editiona and a PDF version from Ages Software.

This would be a great catch, especially if you link it to the resource tab, which I'm sure you will. As extensively as I use it now, I would use it even more in BW if linked to the resources tab.

[Michael Hanel]

.... The big ones like IDB are tied up in exclusive contracts with other software companies. ....

I hope publishers begin to open this up a bit more with time. Maybe the analogy is wrong, but book publishers would balk at the notion that they would only sell their books in Barnes and Noble and ignore Borders. There's a great danger in one company becoming the clearinghouse for all electronic materials. It's very bad for the consumer and it's ultimately bad for the publisher too.

But then again, BibleWorks has never pulled the wool over anyone's eyes, I know you acknowledge that the future for digital stuff is anybody's guess. It's just frustrating in a culture where we think we should get everything the way we want it NOW. You work in a tough business to have to deal with people like us every day. God bless you!

On an unrelated note, it reminds me of baseball trading. Fans of teams like my (miserable) Twins are always yelling at their general managers, why they can't put better players on the field. The management says they tried but no one would deal with them. The fans then complain when they see others make trades they would kill for, to which the management says, Yes we would have loved that trade too, but the team didn't accept that miracle offer that you're all suggesting. It's so easy to manage from the sidelines!

[ccozier]

I run BW 8 on a MBP using Virtual Box (most of the time) and occasionally using Crossover. I note that even running Virtual Box, if I need to copy Hebrew or Greek, copying directly to the clipboard and pasting in Word (or Pages or Mellel) results in garbage. If I copy the text to the BW editor, then copy and paste from the editor, it comes over fine. I assume that BW converts to unicode when it pastes to the editor (I've turned on the unicode export feature), but does not convert to unicode when something is copied to the clipboard.

I'd love a little more detail on just when the conversion takes place if someone would please share.