First impressions: OliveTree's NIV

[stevejohnson460]

I downloaded the NIV this morning for OliveTree's Bible Reader. My first impressions:

Wow! The NIV, on my favorite Bible reader! Way cool!

I like the "red letter" implementation. Nice.

The font choices for titles and body text are well chosen.

The program's "footprint" has remaind nice and small. For such a feature-rich version of this translation, I think 1612k for the Bible-NIV.pdb and 1191k for NIV_Notes.pdb is reasonable. It is, of course, about twice the size of my KJV and NASB files, but then, there's a lot of content in those footnotes.

Footnotes! Cool! For me, thought, the markers for footnotes and cross-references are distracting. A more subtle icon would be nice. (I wonder: if I deleted the NIV_Notes.pdb, would the icons in the NIV text go away? If I can only get my courage up . . .)

There are paragraph titiles and parallel passage listings. It's a nice bonus I didn't expect. But with the inherent "small screen" on a pda, it would be nice if there was an option to turn them off for "straight text." Have I missed a check box somewhere?

Scrolling seems a little slow, which is nothing new to OliveTree's BibleReader.

I've not seen much need for the split screen before this, but since I'm a "footnote hound," I HAVE to know what those footnotes say! I went to Options, Preferences, Split Screen, and set "2nd Window always 1/3 size."

My hardware: Tungsten T3; program installed to 512mb Kingston SD card. The intall took about forever, which I'm sure is a function of my extra-slow card.

Overall, this first edition of the NIV is great. Knowing OliveTree's responsiveness and rapid release of updates and betas, I bet some of these concerns will be addressed soon.

[tanker_bob]

Hi Steve,

I'm also happy to see Olive Tree come out with an NIV. Did you install the new reader with it? The new reader (322, I think) loads and scrolls significantly faster than older versions. I have a T3 with a Panasonic SD card and don't notice a significant delay loading/scrolling the NIV.

I like the paragraph and title headings because they help me find specific passages faster. There's no way to turn them off as they are an integral part of the text, just like in print.

I'm a window fiend, using three virtually all the time. I put my English Bible (usually the NKJV) in the top window, a commentary or original language text in the middle, and use the third window as the target for notes from the first two. Works like a charm. The new full-screen shortcut enables me to pop the English Bible to one window mode and back to three again by pressing my center 5-way button.

Olive Tree updated my favorite resource, the Complete Word Study Bible, with red letter as well. It looks like red letter will be the way of the future. Their breadth of content staggers the imagination, as does the underlying complexity of the reader to present the user such a simple windowed interface. The NIV is indeed a welcome addition to their stable.

[strider_mt2k]

I've asked this before but got no response.
Is there a version of the Men's Devotional NIV for Palm OS?

[tanker_bob]

I've asked this before but got no response.
Is there a version of the Men's Devotional NIV for Palm OS?
Not of which I'm aware, and I do follow the Palm OS Bible software market.

[wellsjs]

I agree with Tanker Bob, although I'm nowhere near as omnipresent as he in the Palm OS Bible software market! :D

[strider_mt2k]

Bummer. It's great but portability is an issue. :(

Thanks guys, didn't mean to break up the thread.

[tanker_bob]

I know how you feel. I'd love to have the complete Reformation Study Bible (formerly the New Geneva Study Bible) for the Palm, but nobody does it either.

[Peppy]

How about the NIV Quest Study Bible? I don't think that is around either!

[tanker_bob]

The only "formal" study Bible published in Palm format of which I'm aware is Zondervan's NIV Study Bible from Laridian for MyBible. A larger work (4 volumes in print) geared to word study but also containing section notes in key areas is AMG's Complete Word Study Bible from Olive Tree, which is my primary study tool. Although geared to bringing the original languages to life in detail, key definitions touching on doctrinal issues have extensive discussions related to the word itself as used throughout Scripture and the underlying theology.

I've seen other study Bibles advertised (most notably from Nelson) as coming on the market in the near future, but I don't think that they've been released yet.

Of course, you can use most windowed Bible software to put a Bible in one window with a commentary or notes synced in another window. However, many popular print titles have yet to make it to the handheld market.

[feed_sheep]

One more study Bible that is available for the Palm is the Life Application Bible. You can get it for MyBible and also for Quickverse Palm.

[tanker_bob]

Yep, forgot about that one.

[stevejohnson460]

I have a Tungsten T3. Have you guys noticed that when you "tap and hold" the home icon on the status bar, OliveTree is NOT on the list of recently used apps? It would make cutting and pasting between OliveTree and a document much easier.

[tanker_bob]

It shows up as BibleR+ on my T3 recent list. Not content with just that, I also have it as an icon on ZLauncher's bottom toolbar and as a swipe under SharkSwipe. I keep it close!