Translations and modules

A translation arrives as a module: one file holding a whole Bible. Modules live on this computer, so once installed they need no internet. Each one is stored sealed: encrypted under its own key, which the system keychain holds, and opened only in memory while BibleLook runs.

Install one

In Bible mode, open Bible Translations, the book button at the end of the translation picker. The list shows what is installed and what can be downloaded: pick a language on the left or search by name. Download fetches one, and it is ready when the download finishes.

Any computer connected to your church can download every translation in the list, for free.

Import a file

A .blbible or .zip file you were given, on a USB stick for example, goes in with Import at the top of Bible Translations. BibleLook seals it under a key made on this computer, so the installed copy works only here and is never uploaded anywhere: on another computer, import the file again. The list marks it Imported.

If a translation with the same code is already installed, BibleLook asks before replacing it. A translation from the list that you replace this way then exists only on this computer; remove the import to download the list’s copy again. A guest profile has no Import button.

Open texts

A translation under CC BY-SA, a licence that lets anyone copy and share the text, links to its open original. The link, Get the open text, is in the translation’s entry under Settings → Bible.

Choose what is offered

An install can hold more translations than any one church reads. Each installed translation has a switch in Bible Translations. Switched off, it disappears from the pickers while staying installed and still resolvable: a verse you showed last month does not break because the translation left the list. The bin beside the switch removes it from this computer, after asking.

Deuterocanonical books (Tobit, Sirach, 1-3 Maccabees and the rest) are hidden by default. If your church reads them, turn on Show deuterocanonical books under Settings → Bible.

When a book is missing

Not every translation carries every book. Ask for one that is missing and the app shows it from another installed translation and says so above the text. You get the passage rather than an error. If no installed translation has it, the app says that instead.

Keeping one screen in one translation

A screen can be fixed to a language and the translation it means by it. It then stays on that text whatever you navigate, which is what a stage monitor or a second-language overflow room is for, and the theme it shows is the same one everything else uses. See Screens.

Up to 10 verses at a time

A selection holds up to 10 verses. Select more and BibleLook keeps the first 10 and says so. Create slides, Copy and Show all work on the selection, so a longer passage goes on the screen verse by verse.

The phone remote opens one chapter at a time. After many in a row it waits a few seconds before the next one.