Overall, theWord is a little more complicated to use, because its power is much greater. It is like the difference between using a simple single speed bicycle versus a Harvley Davison motorcycle. You do have a little steeper learning curve on the Harley, but the more learning needed is better in the long run. If you want a simple Bible program, use PDFs of the books and your favorite Bible. They can do the simple searches if that is all you want. But if you want something that has power to really do something in Bible study, then use theWord. Yes e-Sword can work in a pinch. Most of the Bible programs out there, “can work”. There are considerations though, and the considerations weigh heavily on using theWord. If you want to make sermons or Sunday School classes, theWord is the sofware to use. Moreover, you can easily us it to make your lesson within theWord. e-Sword is definitely more clumsy when it comes to module creation.

When you make a Bible study, sermon, or Sunday School lesson, archiving it for later use is another consideration. theWord lets you do this all within the program, and e-Sword has a lot of problems.

Hi Josh, I agree that theWord is much more powerful that e-Sword. I can fully agree with you there. Personally I don’t think that theWord is a complicated program to learn. But again, like you said, it depends on your computer skills, and really what you use the program for. For some people, a PDF of the King James Version is sufficient for causal reading. You can use the search function of Adobe Acrobat and it works. The idea is to have the power if you need it, and basically learn as you go along by what needs persent themselves.

Thank you for updating this post. I have not downloaded nor used e-Sword in probably 7-8 years, so I am not up to speed on all the latest from Rick Meyers. Does he have a simple search function across all top files? To me that would be extremely necessary for any Bible Software that has auxiliary files like e-Sword. What about the 16k (or whatever it is) limit on the chapter length in the topx, cmtx, dctx, etc.? The fact that e-Sword cuts off the text without advising the user would seem to be something that would be extremely important for “simple users”.

I also think that comparing ToolTip NT to the theWord is like comparing apples and oranges. They just don’t compare as their purposes are just different. My opinion after making a good many modules myself (in Tooltip NT for e-Sword, and in theWord), I prefer theWord. You can make a module in Tooltip NT, but you cannot develop powerful modules that link in and out of the module with it. With theWord that is easy, and it is within the environment so you see everything real time. With Tooltip NT, you have to work blind, and then make it into an e-Sword file, load it into e-Sword, and see what went wrong, try to fix it, then go back to Tooltip NT, etc. I don’t see that as being easy or intuitive for simple users nor for advanced users. By the way, no official TW modules were created in NT Tooltips. That is an error (I checked). If NT Tooltips is better than theWord, would we stop using theWord and use just NT Tooltips? I don’t think so.

I will agree with you on one other item. In our world today, EVERYTHING is getting more and more complex, and that is disappointing, especially for older people like me. You have be a genius to know how to work a cell phone today, and after studying for a good period of time, you finally figure out how to use the thing, and they force you into a newer version where nothing (or very little) you learned or know going into it is of any use with the new version. That is a sad commentary on our world, that Satan has so arranged stuff that instead of doing real work, we have to be always studying in order to whatever, and our time and energies are taken up by “learning” about software rather than “learning” about the Bible. That is sad, because so many youth today are experts at these toys, and they don’t have a clue when it comes to using their knowledge in a profitable manner for the Lord.

In Christ,
David Cox

1. e-Sword supports graphics in every module except the Bible. (Since 2012 or so)

2. You can search all commentaries at once. All Topics files at once from the Reference Library. All Dictionaries at once. (Since 2012 or so)

3. e-Sword supports boolean and regular expressions. I know–I wrote the manual. :)

Most of the rest of what you said is true. However, e-Sword has ToolTip NT. You might be surprised to know that official theWord modules were actually made with this e-Sword tool. That’s because this tool offers flexibility and power that theWord does not. And that’s ok–theWord was never intended to produce large modules in the way ToolTip NT was.

I would agree theWord’s bult-in module making abilities are more convenient for casual module making.

The reason e-Sword remains the most popular Bible study software in the world is: it’s simple. That simplicity attracts users. And lots of them. 30,000 people a DAY download e-Sword.

The Word, however, caters to a more tech-savvy audience. For example, the users of my theWord website rarely ever need any help. But the users of my e-Sword site need help with the simplest of things. That’s the difference in WHO each program attracts.

I would urge caution in sportsmanship, boasting one program is better than another. The reality is, they target (or attract) very different users. Someone like my father would never be able to use theWord–it’s too complicated for him. But someone better with computers might outgrow e-Sword sooner and move on to theWord.

I certainly do agree theWord is better than many commercial programs. No doubt there.

Josh

There are many advantages to theWord. It is better than e-Sword and a number of other Bible programs out there, including many commercial programs. It is great!

1. Search engine (in romanian language diacritics is a big problem)
2. Portability (you can have TheWord on USB flash card – no installation need)
3. Customization of interface, organization of the module you have or you create

No I just checked (Sat morning) and it is up.