Freely-Given.org Sword Module Installation

Picture of the FG Logo

The Bible Drop Box converts USFM Bibles to OSIS XML, and from there to both uncompressed and compressed Sword Modules.

The produced Sword Modules can be used by many "front-end" applications on a wide range of desktop, laptop, netbook, phone, and tablet operating systems including Linux, Mac OS X, Windows, Android, and iOS. See here for a list of some of the possibilites.

Instructions for installing our modules onto Android devices are given on a separate page.

You may also be interested to read our Bibles on Phones page.

What is the SWORD engine?

The SWORD engine is a computer library (not a program itself, but used by a program) that contains all of the code for reading Bible and other modules. (The main program then needs to display the Bible or other text.)

There are two main variants of the SWORD engine:

  1. The main SWORD engine (written in C++) and used primarily on desktop computers.
  2. The Java Sword (jSword) engine (written in Java) and used primarily on handheld devices, especially now on Android.

The SWORD engine is produced by the Crosswire Bible Society. (See their FAQs).

What is a Sword Bible module?

The SWORD engine can read various kinds of modules but we are only discussing Bible modules here. (Others include dictionaries and commentaries, etc.)

A Sword Bible module consists of two sets of files that must be placed in separate folders for the program to work properly.

  1. conf file
  2. Bible data files.

Please use the Contact Page to let us know of any corrections or improvements to this information. Thanks.