Study notebook

A document editor that knows the Bible.

Write a lesson or a sermon outline, type a reference, and it becomes a link to the verse. Keep your prompts for yourself, print a handout for the group, or put the study on a screen and teach from it.

Try the sample desk How it joins the rest

Study: Romans 5, peace with God

Romans 5: peace with God

Opening question: what would it take for us to be at peace with God? Look at Rom 5:1 together.

The problem
1. Everyone has fallen short (Rom 3:23)
2. The wage is death (Rom 6:23)
The remedy
1. Love shown at a cost (Rom 5:8)
2. Received by faith, not earned (Eph 2:8-9)

Ask: where do we try to earn what is already given? Allow five minutes. Do not rush the silence.

Going further

Read John 3:16 aloud, then let each person say it in their own words.

Click a reference for its verse. Put the cursor on a line with a reference and press Ctrl+Enter to write its words under it. Tab sets a point a level deeper.

This desk is a small sample, written to show how the notebook behaves. It reads six verses of the King James Bible. In the app, every reference in the Bible is read, and the notebook has far more than is shown here.

The editor

A study is a document, and the document editor is complete.

A study is a named collection of passages, your comments, headings and notes, in the order you choose. You can keep as many as you like. The notebook is an editor of its own: words can be formatted, items dragged into place, sections folded, and every change undone.

7levels of outline

200steps of undo

9text colours

6text sizes

500verses in one passage

Formatting your words

Notes and comments take formatting. Select some words, or for a whole paragraph put the cursor in it, and use the bar above the study, which stays in sight as you scroll.

Bold, italic and underline, with the usual keys
Six sizes, from Smallest to Largest
Nine colours; on a dark screen they are shown lighter so they can be read
Four highlights: yellow, green, blue and pink
Left, centre or right, and a Clear button
Formatting goes into the handout, the printed page and the Word file

Lists and true outlines

Choose Outline and each level counts as printed outlines of the books of the Bible usually do. Press Enter for the next point and Tab for a level deeper.

I. II. III., then A. B. C., 1. 2. 3., a. b. c., (1), (a), and i. ii. iii.
Also plain 1., A., a., I. and i. lists, and bullets, up to seven levels
Numbers follow by themselves as points are added, moved or removed
A long point wraps under its own words, not under its number
A list can go on after a blank line, or start again at 1

A ruler, indents and footnotes

The ruler is marked in inches as Word measures them, and a step of indent is a third of an inch. Drag a marker to set a line in, a stop at a time.

Under the ruler: the line, the column and the place in the outline, such as II. › A. › 3.
Footnotes number themselves through the study, as in Word
On the handout, in the PDF and in Word, footnotes stand where they should
Pasted outlines keep their depth, whether they came from tabs, spaces or cells

Sections that fold and move

A heading opens a section, which runs to the next heading. A sub-heading opens a smaller one. Fold a section away, and it moves, copies and removes as one piece.

Drag an item by its handle, with mouse or finger, or use Alt+↑ and Alt+↓
The Outline list shows every heading with the number of items under it
Move or copy an item to another study, or to a new one
The handout always prints everything, folded or not

Passages you can reshape

A passage can hold a chapter, several chapters, or a whole book. Change it by a verse at either end, type it afresh, or split it in two.

Join two passages that run on, with their comments
One verse to a line, in the study, the handout and the text
A comparison of two to four passages, side by side, with shared words marked
Maps for a place, a person's places, a journey, or the places in a passage

Find, replace, split and join

Find marks every match, in your words and in the verses. Replace changes only your own words and leaves Scripture as it is.

Replace all is one Undo away
Split a note at the cursor, or join it with the note below
Break one long pasted outline into headings and notes, section by section
The bar counts your words, and the passages and verses in the study

References

Type a reference. It becomes a link.

The notebook reads the references you type, and each becomes a link when you leave the box. Click one for a small window with the words of the verse. The reading is generous:

A verse or range: Rom 5:8, Eph. 2:8-9, II Tim 3:16
A list: Rom 3:23-26; 5:1, 8 and 6:23, each part its own link
Chapters, and books of one chapter: Psalm 23, Isaiah 1-2, Jude 3
And following: John 3:16f, John 3:16ff
No book named: v. 3, vv. 5-6, 9, ch. 4

In an outline of one book you do not need to write the book on every line. A note takes its book from the nearest heading above that names one, then from the name of the study. A comment on a passage takes that passage. Something that is not a verse, such as John 3:99 or 10:30 am, is left as plain words.

The small window offers: read it in its chapter, open it in the reader, open the reader with your chosen commentators beside it, open the Commentaries window at that verse, put the words here, or add it as a passage.

Writing the verses under the line

Put the cursor on a line that names verses and press Ctrl+Enter. The words of each passage are written under it, each beginning with its name in bold, with the translators' added words in italics. Under a point of an outline the words stay inside the point, so the numbering is never disturbed.

Nothing is written twice; a passage already there is marked and passed over
What is written is ordinary text, so you can edit, highlight or delete it
One Undo takes it all back

＋ Verses, for a careful look first

The ＋ Verses button shows how many passages it reads on the line, lists them so you can untick any, and lets you choose the line, the whole note or the lines selected. You can write the words under the line, or add the passages to the study as passages of their own.

A passage of 200 verses or more is listed unticked, so a heading such as Part One (Isaiah 1–12) does not bring twelve chapters with it unasked
Up to 500 verses can be written or added at once

For the leader, and for the group

Keep your prompts to yourself. Give the group the rest.

Anything in a study can be kept for the leader: your questions, the answers, your timings. It stays in your notebook, where you read and edit it as before, and is left out of what the group is given. The sample above has one line marked Leader; switch to Handout and back to see it come and go.

Mark as little or as much as you like

Lines of a note, or the points of a list or an outline
A whole note or passage
A whole section: the heading and everything to the next heading of the same rank
A point kept for the leader takes the points under it with it
In an outline, kept lines are not numbered, so the group's numbers still run on without gaps

What the group never sees

Leader's lines are left out of the handout, the printed page, Copy as text, Save as text, the Word file, the study file and the show. For your own copy, tick With the leader's notes, and each line is marked Leader.

Your backup, your searches and the studies shown beside the Bible in the reader are your own, and have everything.

Present it, full screen.

▶ Present shows the study in large type for a group reading from a television, a projector or a shared screen. Nothing in the study is changed by it. The name comes first, then each heading, each note and each passage has a screen of its own. Try the sample under Present, with its leader's window beside it.

On the group's screen

Go on with the arrows, Space, Enter, Page Down, a touch sweep, or a presenter's clicker
Points: all at once, one at a time with the rest faint, or one at a time with the rest hidden
A passage set one verse to a line is read a verse at a time
Click a reference such as Rom 3:23 and its verses open over the screen
A list jumps to any screen; for a long note it also lists its headings and the first level of its outline
Bigger or smaller words, Dark or Light, Blank, and full screen
Reopened, the show begins where you left it

In the leader's window

A second window for you alone. Nothing in it is ever drawn on the show.

On the screen now: what the group sees, with your leader's lines in place, shaded
For you only: what is kept for the leader between this screen and the next
Next: names the next point, so you can lead into it
The time since the show began, and the time of day
Back and On step the group's screen from this window, and so does a clicker
Blank turns the group's screen black and brings it back

With two screens, drag the leader's window to your own and fill the other with the show.

Import, export and share

Start from the documents you already have.

Import makes a new study from a file or from pasted text. Nothing you already have is changed, and Undo takes the new study away again. The file is read in your browser and is not sent anywhere.

You give it	What comes in
Word (.docx)	The title becomes the study's name. Headings become headings and sub-headings, and what stands between them becomes a note with its bold, italic, underline, highlighting, sizes, colours, centring, indents and lists. Outlines numbered I. A. 1. a. become true outlines, and so do points numbered by hand. Footnotes and endnotes come in as footnotes.
PowerPoint (.pptx)	Each slide's title becomes a heading and its content a note, so a slide is a screen again when you present. Bullets keep their levels. Speaker's notes are kept for the leader, and a hidden slide comes in as a leader's note.
PDF	A PDF saved by the app returns the study exactly. Another PDF made from a document brings its title, headings, paragraphs, bold, italic, accents and bulleted lists, without the repeated page headers.
Web page, text, or pasted text	A web page reads like a Word document. Plain text becomes a note, or several, with an outline made from lines numbered I. A. 1. a.
A study file	The study exactly as it was saved: passages, comments, notes, headings and formatting.

Send it out

Handout: a clean page, with headings printed as headings
Print prints the handout alone
Save as PDF: letter-size pages numbered at the foot; Greek and Hebrew print in fonts carried in the app, with the vowel points in place. The study rides inside the PDF, so it can be imported back
Save for Word, with your formatting, outlines and footnotes
Save as text, or copy it as text
Export all: every study at once, as one study file, one Word file or one PDF

Share it with a group

Save the study file and send it by email or any other way. Each person opens their own copy of the app, chooses Import in the notebook, and has the study as you made it, without what you kept for the leader. They can add their own notes. Nothing is shared after that, so a later change reaches them when you send the file again.

For people who do not use the app, the Word file or the printed handout carries the same study.

Integrations

The notebook is wired into the whole app.

Verses go in from wherever you find them. Your own lines come back out wherever you meet the same verses again. Nothing extra is stored for this: the app reads the references in your studies, so a change in the notebook shows at once.

Goes in

Search resultsExport → Add results to study notebook, up to 300 verses; verses next to each other become one passage
The reader and every verse＋ Study under a verse, or ＋ on the verse toolbar
Saved verses＋ My saved verses adds everything in your list
Tags＋ Study puts a tag's verses under a heading with the tag's name
Passage study sheet＋ Study notebook adds the passage
Compare passages and MapsA comparison or a map becomes part of the study
Your own documentsWord, PowerPoint, PDF, web page, text

Study notebookPassages, headings, notes, comments and leader's lines, kept in this browser

Comes back out

Beside the chapterIn the reader, ◫ Side by side shows My studies first at each verse, above the commentators
On a verseA line under its number, and 📓 for everything your studies say about it, widest heading to narrowest point
In the search boxmy:notebook finds verses in any study; my:work adds notes, highlights, tags
Search my workOne search across notes, highlights, saved verses and studies
Commentaries windowShows My studies in the same way, with a Study notebook button to return
Handout, PDF, Word, text, showOne study, five forms
Your backupStudies are included

Part of the app	What the notebook gives it, and what it gives the notebook
The reader	Every outline point, note or heading that names a verse appears beside it as you read, and the column follows the chapter. A point shows its place in the outline, such as I.A.1.c. Click a study's name to open the notebook at that place, with the reference lit. Closing the notebook returns you to the chapter. A ‹ Study notebook button brings you back to the study as you left it.
Search	The search box takes `my:notebook` and `my:work`, and they mix with anything else you type, so you can look for faith only in the verses you have studied.
Commentaries	Click a reference in a note and open the reader with your chosen commentators beside it, at that verse. Your studies stand first in that column, above them. The Commentaries window can also be searched from there.
Tags and saved verses	A tag becomes a heading with its verses under it in one step. Saved verses come in the same way. The result is an outline you can teach from, instead of a list to remember.
Passage study sheet	The sheet gathers the setting, people and places, key words, cross-references and commentators for a passage on one page. Its + Study notebook button adds it to the open study, and the sheet's My notes part shows what you have already written.
Compare passages and Maps	A comparison with shared words marked, or a map of a place, a person or a journey, sits in the study with room for your comment, and goes to the handout, the show, the PDF, the Word file and the study file.
Data and backup	Studies, notes, highlights and tags are kept in your browser and are all in one backup file. Restoring adds the backup to what is already there.

Benefits

What it changes for the rest of the tool.

Each of these is possible because the notebook is part of the Explorer, and not a separate document that sits beside it.

Study stays tied to the textA reference in your outline is a live link to the verse, so you never copy a verse out by hand and never lose where it came from.

Search turns into preparationTake the results of a search, add them to a study, and the verses are already in order, with a heading to hang your thoughts on.

Your work comes to meet youWhen you read Romans 5 a year later, your outline of it is beside the chapter. Nothing to search for and nothing to remember.

Commentators and your own voice, in one columnYour study stands first at each verse, above the commentators, so you can weigh what you said against what they say.

Prepare and teach in one placeThe same study is the editor, the handout, the PDF, the Word file and the show. Change a line, and each form changes.

Two copies from one studyThe leader's version and the group's version come from the same document, so they cannot drift apart.

Work you already have comes inBring a Word outline or a PowerPoint deck and it becomes a study with live references, and then the rest of the app can use it.

Private, and portableEverything is kept in your browser and nothing is sent anywhere. One backup file holds the lot, and a study file shares one lesson.

Open it

Four steps to your first study.

Open the notebookChoose More ▾, then Study notebook. A study called My study is made for you the first time.
Add some versesType Matthew 5-7 or a book name and choose Add, or press ＋ Study under any verse.
Write around themAdd a heading, a note or an outline, and type references as you go.
Teach from itChoose Handout to print, ▶ Present to show, or Export to share.

Download the app Try the Explorer See the mind maps Back to the overview

Questions

Before you try it

Where are my studies kept?

In your browser, on your device, for your copy of the app. Nothing is sent anywhere. Another browser, another computer or a private window starts empty, and clearing the browser's site data erases them, so use More ▾ → Back up my notes and highlights now and then.

Can I use my own Word outlines?

Yes. Import reads a .docx, with its headings, formatting, lists and numbered outlines. An older .doc or .rtf file is saved as .docx first.

Will the group see my private notes?

No. Lines kept for the leader are left out of the handout, print, text, Word file, study file and the show. A tick, With the leader's notes, includes them in a copy of your own.

Do the people I teach need the app?

No. They can have the handout on paper, or as a Word file or PDF. If they do use the app, they can import your study file and add their own notes.

Does it work on a phone?

Yes. The formatting bar slides sideways, and items can be dragged with a finger. The show takes a sweep of the finger to go on or back.