Simple
Documentation for BibleFormatter.
Download BibleFormatter with runtime
Download BibleFormatter program only
Download QuickVerse sample input file
Download Online Bible
sample input file
Which file to download?
All first time installations need to download with the runtime. This is a large file around 8.5Mb. If you installed BibleFormatter on your system already all you need to download is the program only. If you downloan the program only unzip the contents of the file to the c:\program files\BibleFormatter folder and you are ready to go.
What is BibleFormatter?
BibleFormatter is a program designed to format plain text version of the bible output from QuickVerse or The Online Bible and generate a file with tags ready for the BibleConverter program that will create a .pdb for Bible Reader+ . Currently only QuickVerse and The Online Bible formats are supported. I would be willing to look at other program output and possibly add additional conversions. If you have additional requests for new formats email me at ron@valmicro.com and put BibleFormatter in the subject line.
BibleFormatter is written in Visual Foxpro 7. It is distributed with all the necessary runtime files. The setup.exe file is quite large 10Mb because of the need to include runtime files. BibleFormatter is freeware and as such makes no claim as to how well it functions. (I can say that it works well with my files on my computer)
Input File – The plain text file that has the bible text in it. I have used another persons suggestion to name this file <version>-in.txt (niv-in.txt).
Output file - is the file where BibleFormatter outputs the text ready for BibleConverter to make into a .pdb for the palm. This file I name <version>.txt (niv.txt). BibleConverter names the .pdb whatever the name of the text file name is.
Translation – This is the abbreviation that will show in Bible Reader+ as the translation. It is also the abbreviation that will show beside the chapter if you check Include version in Chapter
Description – This is the information that will show in the version information screen in Bible Reader+. If you want multiple lines insert a < \n> in the text before the second line. I haven’t used this but should work. Don’t know what the limit of the entry text is I haven’t pushed it. I think 255 chars
Input Type – choose either Quick Verse or Online Bible. This selects which conversion routine to use. Currently I only support these two formats. I put examples of the format on my post that you saw.
Check Boxes
Include book with chapter - Chooses chapter heading format.
checked = Genesis Chapter 1
unchecked = Chapter 1
Use Book Description – determines whether the Book Name or Book Title is use for the book description on the handheld.
Checked = Genesis
Unchecked = The book of Genesis (or whatever title you enter into the books file)
Include Version in chapter – This adds the version abbreviation to the chapter heading. This is helpful with split window to keep track of which version you have on what screen.
Checked = Genesis Chapter 1(NIV) or Chapter 1(NIV)
Unchecked = Genesis Chapter 1 or Chapter 1
Make PDB – if BibleConverter is installed in the folder ‘c:\program
files\BibleFormatter\converter’ this option is
enabled.
Checked starts BibleConverter
and created the PDB as part of the convert process
Unchecked it only outputs the text file for BibleConverter to use.
The FOX button brings up a foxpro command prompt whereby you can do things in foxpro itself. Mainly useful to technical persons. To exit the command prompt window simply press the return key with a blank line.
The BOOK FILE option brings up the screen below. This allows you to maintain the book file which holds information used in the conversion. Let me run through each field and describe what it is used for. You can edit the values by clicking the cell (row,column) and typing in the new value. WARNING all values are written to the file as typed so be careful. Would be a good idea to keep a clean books.dbf and books.cdx backed up somewhere.
Book Name – this is used for the Bookname on the handheld. It is also used in the OLB conversion. If doing OLB conversion make sure that book names match in this field. Capitalization is only important for formatting reasons. The way this is capitalized is the way the Book title will be capitalized.
Number – There is a designated book numbering that Bible Reader+ uses for books so that it can synchronize between different version. I have setup all books with that standard code. If you want to add extra books (catholic versions) you will need to add new records and populate with correct book number. This listing can be found with documentation of BibleConverter. Normally you would leave these numbers alone.
Short Cut – this is the text for each book that will show up on the jump screen in Bible Reader+. The shortcuts will appear as typed. If you want all caps then make the shortcuts all caps. If you like mixed case then make them mixed case. I believe I limited the shortcut to 5 characters. I have use 4 characters for mine. Set these and leave them and you will have the same shortcuts between all versions.
QV name – this is used as a cross reference between the Quick Verse abbreviation at the beginning of the verse and the book name. It could be used for other text files as well if they match the text format. Make sure abbreviations of books in your input text file match these abbreviations.
Book Title – This is the extra line of description that will be displayed below the book name on the palm if Use books description is checked. This is optional and can be left as is or edited. My entries at this point are unimaginative. You can edit to your hearts desire. My descriptions are like “The book of Genesis”. A better entry might be “The first book of Moses” or something more descriptive.
QuickVerse
Conversion Notes
I have an older version I believe 1. If you try to copy a passage to the clipboard you can only do a chapter at a time. With my version I found that you could do it like this.
1) first open up a text editor (word pad would work) with a blank document.
2) Open quick verse and close all windows except the translation you want to export.
3) Take your mouse and highlight a block of text (just like cut and paste in other programs) then press ctrl-c to copy to the clipboard. Switch windows to your text editor (wordpad) and press ctrl-v to paste the text in that document. I found that about 10 chapters is about what can be done at one time without overflowing the clipboard. Go back to quick verse and highlight the next chunck and ctrl-c to copy to clipboard then switch to text editor (wordpad) and ctrl-v to paste next chunck. Watch that you are getting all the verses. If you get a message in quick verse that you have overflowed the clipboard say ok and paste the text into the editor (wordpad) and see how much you got and start from the next verse. Sometimes with this error you get partial verses. Delete the partial verse from the text editor (wordpad) and recopy at start of next block of verses. If you don't copy more than 10 chapters at a time you will not have this problem. Newer versions may have a higher limit in which case you may be able to get more chapters at a time.
4) Save file in text editor with name line <version>-in.txt example niv-in.txt. This works well with my BibleFormatter and BibleConverter program.
It took me about 1/2 - 3/4 of an hour per version. What a pain to be legal. In hind site it may have been worth paying $15 to the online bible folks for thier version and doing a complete export from Online Bible which is pretty much automatic.
Note: save often as you go along so you don't have to start over.
Release Notes
-
Fixed bug in
chapter numbering with online bible conversion
-
Added code
to handle combined verses in online bible conversions
-
Added code
to Launch BibleConverter and create the final PDB
from BibleConverter
O6/15/2003
-
Origional
Installation file missing file for some installations
-
Final
tweaking of QV conversion.