[gui-talk] Fwd: Computerized Christian books program, The Word

[Steve Pattison]

From:	Grant E. Metcalf  thegems at dslextreme.com	
		
		
		

Hi Listers,

If you use computerized Bible study programs, you might find the following of
interest, if not, delete. smile

Recently I became aware of a website called The Word. It is free and the
owner has sent me 2 emails, the relevant portions of which I include below.
It supposedly works well for low vision people, but, I am wondering how
friendly or convenient people using screen reader software find it to be.

David Cox writes:
The reason for my present email is to just inform you of a feature in
theWord Free Bible program that allows you to magnify the text for the
reading impaired.

http://www.thewordmodules.com/visuallyimpaired.html
I think you might find TheWord a good resource for the visually impaired
Bible student. At present I have about 120 books done (in English), and
about 40 in Spanish. My ministry is principally in Spanish, so I am
writing books (about 50 so far) which also are free. As the library
grows, we hope to have probably 3,000 books online (formatted for
TheWord Bible program). I have that many files on my computer in pdf and
e-Sword format, so that is what I am hoping to have converted and
available for TheWord in a year or two. The TheWord program is very
powerful in searching and cross referencing Greek, Hebrew, and other
Bible verses, so it would be a tremendous help to the visually impaired.
It is also free, and all the modules which I am formatting for theWord
will also be free.
I just thought you might be in a position to communicate this free Bible
resource to your people.
In Christ,
David Cox

In a second email Pastor Cox writes:
I have forwarded your message to Mr. Costas, the developer of TheWord
free Bible program so that he can see the needs of your group. He is
very helpful at adapting, modifying and changing his program for his
users. Perhaps he will very soon put out the help manual. Even though he
doesn't have the manual ready, I have a website dedicated to explaining
how to use TheWord.
http://www.thewordmodules.com/
I am interested in seeing what I can do about providing some of our
books for the blind. Are you familiar with the Microsoft Reader program?
There is a plugin for that program that will read the book out loud for
you. After thinking about it a bit, would it be better for your people
to have these book modules in this format? If so, I will work on
converting them to that format. We have about 1000 books in the e-Sword
format, and I am trying to work to put them all into TheWord Bible
program format. If this is a useful option for you, I will work on that
also. End of quotations.

Now then, Saints, those of you who use these kinds of programs, I
would be interested in your comments and suggestions once you
have check things out.

Listening for His shout!

Grant
Bartimaeus Alliance of the Blind, Inc
P.O. Box 572
South San Francisco, CA 94083-0572
Phone:  650-589-6890
Email:  thegems at dslextreme.com
Website:  http://bartimaeus.us/

Regards Steve
Email:  srp at internode.on.net
MSN Messenger:  internetuser383 at hotmail.com
Skype:  steve1963
Twitter:  steve9782