The appreciation thread

[HisExcellentWord]

I received BibleWorks 9 last evening. I installed it immediately and have been enjoying it ever since. Not sure what the controversy about the icons was. The new ones are much better. I do however miss my favorite splash screen at 6:00 pm that was on BW8.

If you look closer at the icons, you'll see what all of the fuss was about. The icons are very poor quality, considering the software is very good. You'll see that several of the icons are jagged, have white background instead of transparency, are not sharp looking, etc. Each icon actually has a separate problem/issue. Actually, as far as clarity, the older icons are better. They're just simpler and smaller, but not poor quality.

Having said that, I absolutely love the BibleWorks 9 program icon (the one you click on to start the program). It is very beautiful/attractive and high quality. This is, by the way, one of the reasons I was so shocked by the poor quality of the program's interface icons. The splash images are also very nice. It is yet another reason to be shocked by the high contrast in the (lack of) quality (in the) interface icons.

The program itself is excellent and I am obviously happy that I purchased the software. But, like roshka, it is hard to "show off" the program with such ugly icons.

[Dale A. Brueggemann]

...several of the icons are jagged, have white background instead of transparency, are not sharp looking...

The icons do not have a white background, I checked closely on my high resolution monitor, on which I do lots of photo editing. Same for the supposed jagginess. Just for a lark, I went to several other programs I run, and BW 9 icons were the best looking of the lot, on all counts (including MS Word, for example). For another example, they look nicer than those here in this forum. I think you just have poor aesthetic judgment.

[HisExcellentWord]

The icons do not have a white background, I checked closely on my high resolution monitor, on which I do lots of photo editing. Same for the supposed jagginess. Just for a lark, I went to several other programs I run, and BW 9 icons were the best looking of the lot, on all counts (including MS Word, for example). For another example, they look nicer than those here in this forum. I think you just have poor aesthetic judgment.

I don't know what icons you are looking at. If you open up BibleWorks 9 and go to View > Toolbar and chose Large Toolbar.

#1, the "Buttonbar Setup" icon's wrench has white background
#2, the "Setup Window" icon has specs of white toward the top and bottom of the actual wrench, as well as a faint blue square background
#3, the "Open BibleWorks RTF Editor" icon has bright blue and white specs in the left of the icon and also has a faint blue square background
#4, the "Set Text Compare Options" icon is the worst, with jagged edges, white specs that don't belong, poor quality icon over-all and faint blue square background
#5, the "Open Diagrammer" icon has white specs off to the side of the icon that don't belong, white borders around the alpha and book that don't belong and a faint blue square background
#6, the "Open Parallel Hebrew/LXX" icon is in the same situation as the "Open Diagrammer" icon
#7, the "Open Flashcard Module" has the faint blue square background
#8, the "KWIC/Collocation Tables" icon has the faint blue square background
#9, the "GSE Search" icon has the faint blue square background
#10, the "BibleWorks Map Module" icon has the faint blue square background
#11, the "Lexicons" icon is in the same situation as the "Open Diagrammer" icon
#12, the "Open Resource Summary Window" icon has the faint blue square background
#13, the "Edit External Links" icon has a white background to the chain and a faint blue square background
#14, the "Clone Bibleworks" icon has both white and faint blue square background that don't belong
#15, the "Synopsis Tool" has white around the arrows and spheres, is generally speaking jagged, and appears to have the faint blue square background
#16, the "Parallel Versions" icon is in the same situation as the "Open Diagrammer" icon
#17, the "Popup Verse Copy Window" icon has the faint blue square background
#18, the "Keyboard Layouts" icon has white background
#19, the "New Browse Window" icon has white background
#20, the "Synchronize Windows" icon has white border around the arrows and is slightly jagged
#21, the "BibleWorks Keyboard" icon has the faint blue square background
#22, the "Verse History" icon has white specs on the left side of the arrow and has the faint blue square background
#23, the "Word History" icon is in the same situation as the "Verse History" icon

...The only way BibleWorks 9 interface icons would look better than your MS Word program is if you are running MS Word 95. Other than that, you've got to be kidding. And I have tons of programs on my computer, from Microsoft, Adobe and many open source programs. BibleWorks 9 - by far - looks the worst. Even my open source GIMP 2.6 looks far better in it's interface icons.

Y'all can say that such criticisms are not Christ-like. The Bible is full of constructive criticisms. The Lord even uses Holy sarcastic criticisms of His rebellious or apostate people. It is not un-Christ-like to criticise or to use forms of sarcasm.

BibleWorks is in business. Business people need to have tougher skin than I have seen evidenced here on the forums. Too many of you are just "enabling" them to reject fair criticisms.

[bkMitchell]

Hello HisExcellentWord,

Y'all can say that such criticisms are not Christ-like. The Bible is full of constructive criticisms. The Lord even uses Holy sarcastic criticisms of His rebellious or apostate people. It is not un-Christ-like to criticize or to use forms of sarcasm.

(1) It is true that the various canons of Scripture (Jewish, Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant) do contain sarcasm.
(2) Whether or not it is Christ-like or unChrist-like to do something is beyond the scope of this thread.
(3) If you are interested in discussing theology the off-topic section of the forums is a great place to do that. But, this thread is really not about christian theology or philosophies.

BibleWorks is in business. Business people need to have tougher skin than I have seen evidenced here on the forums. Too many of you are just "enabling" them to reject fair criticisms.

(1) If you write to BibleWorks directly I am sure they would be more than happy to accept some constructive criticism.
(2) You are also welcomed to start your own thread or discussion group on these forums to talk with more like-minded people.
(3) The members of these forums are not necessarily business people.
(4) Dermatology is irrelevant to this thread.

[HisExcellentWord]

...(4) Dermatology is irrelevant to this thread.

[bkMitchell]

I am glad you liked my sarcasm. And, although I know you meant the 'though skin' remark figuratively, I have meet people who literally and most likely figuratively have thick skin.

I went to university in a rural west Texas town and while there I met traditional craftsmen and farmers. When, shaking their hands I was often criticized both for having a weak grip and soft-skin! I am thankful that they were Christ-like and Godly men as some of the 60 year old men there had grips that could probably break every bone in my hand.

Now, I am guilty for going off of topic.

[MBushell]

BibleWorks is in business. Business people need to have tougher skin than I have seen evidenced here on the forums. Too many of you are just "enabling" them to reject fair criticisms.

When we receive criticisms we always ask ourselves two questions: (1) do we personally as a company agree with the criticisms and (2) do most of our users, and especially those whose advice has been helpful in the past, agree with the criticisms. If a criticism fails on both counts. as this one does, we do not devote resources to it, especially when disgruntled users have the option of reverting to previous program behavior.

A strange turn for a thread started by someone to invite people to express appreciation for BibleWorks.

[Sansom48]

I was trying to wait to post in this thread till I had more time to devote to learning about the new features of BW. However, I guess now is as good a time as any. I can honestly say that I do not work on many forums, actually only two others, both of which are non-technical. This is the first forum that I was ever a member of, and I got on here just to ask a question, I have been almost hooked ever since. The help I received not just from the staff but also the other users for me has been absolutely unparalleled by any company I have ever been involved with or had products with. With this I have found that BW 9 for me has been tremendous. For those of us who enjoy textual criticism this latest addition has already become my standard for this. This addition of the textual critical resources has been very vital for me. I am a pastor, I only have my m. div degree and don't always have a lot of time, but to be able to look at the manuscripts and look at the cntts database in the move of a mouse is incredible. The "use" tab has also been an invaluable tool as for me, 50% of my searches were done like this with just simple word searches, to have this already displayed for me has been a big help. For a pastor this software has been a very large help and I look forward to see what the future holds.

[bkMitchell]

Installation was easy and the fact that nine codes were already entered for me made my day

AMEN! and AMEN!
I had, forgotten about that! That, new feature was a pleasant surprise.

[bkMitchell]

I can't live without BibleWorks. Every day I try to encourage people to get it. I make hundreds of videos showing its many features, partly for that purpose. Happily, some who watch those videos are buying the software, too.

brainout, if you are still around these forums would mind posting a link to some of those videos.