Type of Software: Free
Disclaimer: I am basing this review off the free version of theWord version 6.
Any links in this review may be affiliate links. This means that when you click on them, anything you purchase may give me a small percentage of money. This will not change the amount of money you pay. Any proceeds I received from affiliate links help to pay for this website and its services.
Introduction
theWord Bible software is another option for studying the Bible in-depth. It includes many free modules and resources you can add on to the program. It operates like e-Sword and has a similar user interface.
The best part about theWord is that it is free! You can add premium resources if you wish, but theWord is an intuitive software that does not require a steep learning curve. You can find the information you are looking for quickly.
Availability
You can download theWord Bible software from theWord’s website. It’s a good idea to download all the free modules you can. This adds valuable resources to your library so you can do deeper study with bore tools at your disposal. There are additional books you can get free if you look around for them.
User Interface
theWord has a clean user interface that uses tabs within panes like e-Sword. In my opinion, this user interface is easier to use than e-Sword because it does not display every book you own all at once. You have a minimal amount of tabbed books to look at at one time. You can always add a book or resource by clicking on a double arrow button at the end of the tabs in each pane.
Four panes present a Bible window, a books window which can contain commentaries and other books, encyclopedias window for Bible dictionaries and other reference resources, and a commentaries window.
Depending on where you are in the Bible, different resources will be highlighted and available for you. If one of your books is open to the right Testament or book, it will follow you along. It’s helpful to have all your information sync with where you are studying in the Bible.
If you do not like the Scripture tree to the left of the Bible for looking up passages there is a quick passage reference on the top line of the user interface. You can use it to abbreviate books or7 with their reference to jump to that part of the Bible.
Tools and Features
The Bible window gives you the option as the last tab compare four Bible translations at one time. You can also make versus lists.
The search feature seems to be fairly easy to use. As with any search engine, you will have to learn exactly how to search for what you’re looking for. Most search engines contain syntax you can learn to make your searches more fruitful. There is training on the web on how to make your searches more concise and impactful. You can also search your books.
There is a Daily Readings module that enables you to make multiple Bible reading plans and reading plans for devotionals. You can choose a pre-made plan or make your own. It creates a new window in your books window to read each day.
Resources (Books)
There are many free resources available to you when you download them all from the website. The free resources tend to be older scholarship, but that does not mean it is bad scholarship. Sometimes updated resources are not the best or easiest to navigate.
You can also gain original language resources not just for your Bible but for lexicons. This will help you study the Greek and Hebrew words and get a deeper meaning of how they are used in the passage.
theWord has many resources for free, and you can find more if you search the web for people willing to offer free books. I included one such link in the above Availability section. You may be surprised what kinds of books and how many are out there.
Accessibility
You can magnify the text of any pain. This will help you to see the text better and read it better. You can also resize any window panes you wish. This will help you to navigate better on the panes you want to focus on.
theWord also has program skins that allow you to find the easiest colors for you to navigate through the program. I find these extremely helpful to see which books are available to me at the time of study.
You can also set the background, foreground text, and some other colors from the menu under Tools > Bible View Options. You can almost create a dark mode to make reading easier on your eyes. I did not see this option for the other panes.
Support
The support page on the website gives you tutorials and other helps. There is a forum page where you can dive into the software and get your questions about it answered. Forums are always helpful for further study and learning power user tricks.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Some of the strongest features of theWord are the ability to resize panes and minimize the amount of book tabs that show at the top of the pane. I also like the skins and some other accessibility features.
You can only customize the Bible view for different colors. I wish that was available for all the panes, or there was a dark mode feature. I’m not a big fan of the Scripture tree, especially when you have the option to just type in the reference. But you can turn off the Scripture tree.
Final Thoughts
This is great Bible study program. I like its functionality and customization. It is a lightweight software that does not bog your system down. Because it is a simpler graphic interface, it does lack some of the sophistication of other Bible software out there. But I think I actually like it better than e-Sword in its functionality. It probably does not have the amount of resources for free e-Sword has because more people use e-Sword. If you’ve never heard of theWord before, you should download it and check it out for yourself.
Check out my review of other Bible software
