Bibledit: Now translation teams can edit Scripture on ANY device!

Here’s a quick list of capabilities that Bibledit provides for Bible translation teams today:

• Bibledit has much of the same functionality of Paratext, but it works on any smart device— including all types of computers and Android tablets and iPad.
• A translation team can work with Bibledit via the Internet without installing anything. We call this the Cloud version. But for most translation team members, it will be better to install Bibledit locally. This is called the Client version. The Client version saves editing changes made by each team member to his/her device, and when they have an connection, their work will automatically be saved to the Cloud.
• Many excellent and scholarly translation resources available in Bibledit— as I will explain below. And one can view translation resources while editing a translation on the same screen.
• Bibledit can port changes in a Bible text over to a local instance of Paratext. I think many translation team leaders will want to do this. But the opposite is also possible: Bibledit can receive Bible texts from Paratext.
• Bibledit has many powerful export options. These include creating web-ready HTML files, beautifully formatted OpenOffice files (which then can easily be turned into PDF files), and Sword modules for Bible-reading applications on all smart devices.

If your translation team is locally-based and all happily using Paratext, you probably don’t need Bibledit. But if you have a more widely scattered team and want the ability to edit your translation on any web browser or using an inexpensive Android tablet, then keep reading.

If you are realing this while connnected to the Internet, I suggest you go now to http://bibledit.org and click on the Demo button. Then come back to this article. Then you can try out some of the features discussed below.

One great thing about the translation resources for Bibledit is that the program enables the user to set up ‘workbenches’. There is a huge amount of flexibility in how workbenches can be designed. Here is a workbench that I set up for my project in Indonesia:

Workbenches can have one to four columns, and three sections scrolling down the page. The screenshot above is of a simple two-column setup, with the translation editing window is on the right, and translation resources are on the left. I— as a translation team leader, have selected 16 different resources that are saved locally on my Client devices. My picks include the Biblehub.com interlinear. (If I am connected to the Internet, the blue links to Strongs and parsing information work.) I have also selected eight English translations, five Indonesian translations, and one in Malay.* Lastly I have chosen to locally cache all of Thomas Constable’s excellent Expository Notes on the whole Bible.** Bibledit allows me to put my 16 resources in any order and even lets me insert colored bars between them as visual signposts.

*New resources can be made for Bibledit from any USFM Bible text or Sword module. In order to obtain some of the Bibles we are using as resources, I downloaded modules for other Bible-reader programs and converted them to USFM via http://freely-given.org/Software/BibleDropBox/.

**Constable’s Notes are available at lumina.bible.org, or at StudyLight.org. Dr. Constable compiled his Notes over a 25 year period while teaching at Dallas Theological Seminary. StudyLight has 93 commentaries/study tools, and ALL of them are available as Bibledit resources!

Here is another workbench:

In the workbench above, I have placed the one-verse-at-a-time USFM editor across the top of the screen, while the whole chapter in formatted view is below in the right column. The screenshot shows that I scrolled down to Constable’s Notes in the Resources column. Below the two columns, I added a section for translation notes that is just barely visible below the two columns. When using this workbench, team members or a consultant can scroll down to make notations or write questions in the Notes section. Setting up of different workbenches is quite easy— as you can see if you click the Organize link in the demo.

It is useful that any web site can be put into a workbench. Our team shares our text at Door43.org, so I have defined a workbench to help in copying material to or from Door43. Note that for this workbench, I used the USFM chapter editor for the right hand column.

To start using Bibledit, the translation team leader will need to set up a Cloud instance of Bibledit. An example of a Cloud instance is what you see if you go to Bibledit’s demo. For validly-sponsored Bible translation projects, Teus Benschop— the program’s developer, is very generously providing free setup and hosting for your Cloud installation! To apply for this, see the bottom of the Installation page. Having Teus provide the hosting has the wonderful advantage that he updates the Cloud instances with the newest versions of Bibledit as they come out.

The Cloud program has various settings that are not available in the Client installations. For example, the translation team leader will use the Cloud program to define new users and determine which Bible books each team member can see or edit.

If your translation program already has some USFM text or exports from Paratext, those can be imported easily into Bibledit. Or, if you have plain text with verse numbers at the start of each line, Bibledit will convert that into USFM format.

I think that many translation teams will want to make use of inexpensive Android tablets, so I will say a few words about Bibledit on Android: Installation of the Bibledit Client is so simple on Android! Just go to the Play Store, search for ‘bibledit’, and install it. After you install it, you tell it the Internet address of your Cloud Bibledit instance, give it a user name, and fill in the password. Afterwards, leave the tablet connected to a wifi connection for long enough to download your Bible texts and translation resources. (For places with limited connectivity, one can copy files into a new Android Bibledit installation.) One great advantage of having your team use Android tablets (or iPads, for that matter) is that when new editions of the Bibledit software come out, the tablet versions receive the updates automatically.

On the Android tablet, two finger movements work for expanding or contracting the size of the display. This is helpful if you are using your fingers to choose chapters and verses. If you have team members who are not used to typing on regular qwerty keyboards, I recommend the Messageease Keyboard from Exideas.com. This keyboard uses something like a number-pad to enter all the characters— tapping for the most common characters, and sliding for the less common characters. Messageease is easily configured for entering special characters.

Installation of Bibledit on any other computer platform is similarly easy. As I write this, I am setting up several 32GB flash disks for my team.* These will boot up into password-protected Linux, with Bibledit and all our resources installed. I am doing this because I think it might be easier for some of my team members to have their translation work completely portable and usable on almost any computer. Bibledit seems to run just as quickly from a good-model flashdisk as it does from a hard drive.

*I am using the fast SanDisk Ultra 32GB models and installing Chromixium Linux on them. I am not using the normal ‘live’ installation method for installing Linux, but treating the flash disks as if they were hard drives. This means that the installation will be password protected, the flash drives cannot be used for storing extraneous files, and they should be safe from normal flash disk viruses. Chromixium basically makes the computer into a Chromebook, but with the power to also install any Ubuntu program. See chromixium.org.

Unlike tablets, updating Bibledit on computers is done manually by downloading the installation program and running it. I will recommend to my team members that they check for updates about every two weeks— as Teus is still actively developing the program.

Bibledit is very reliable. If lightning would happen to strike the Cloud server in Holland, every Client installation of Bibledit would function as a backup.

And Bibledit is free!