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Biblelator editor is a desktop Bible display and editing program in ongoing development that handles the commonly-used standard USFM and forth-coming ESFM files as its native formats yet has access to other references including online versions when the Internet is available. It’s built on the foundation of our well-tested Bible Organisational System (BOS) software (that’s the foundation of the helpful Bible Drop Box web service).
It’s primarily aimed at Bible translators around the world who want to see the Scriptures translated into their own language or dialect but do not have access to UBS/SIL Paratext or who need access to the editor source code to make program modifications to handle a particular task, and/or want an alternative to Bibledit and translationStudio.
We currently have a prototype version (v0.43) working. We have been using it as a working editor since February 2016— originally for back-translating from one full-Bible project to another (both of which originated in Paratext), and now for working on the Open English Translation (OET) Old Testament. Biblelator doesn’t have original language Greek display working well yet (only Hebrew so far), so it’s not yet ideal for translating the NT from the original, nor are the parts for “native” projects (not shared with Paratext) well-developed yet.
It has a smallish main window from which you can open on-disk or online Bibles as viewable translation resources plus you can open one or more USFM Bible edit windows to work in. It currently includes approximately thirty built-in (downloadable) Bible resources (which are either freely licenced or for which permission has been granted) and can also display your own USFM and other local/on-disk Bible formats, some Sword (Bible and commentary) modules, and Digital Bible Platform (FCBH) online versions.
Documentation: You can look here to learn about the design philosophy behind the program.
Current status: Version 0.43 (or development version 0.44) can open reference Bible and lexicon resources in separate windows, and/or open a single window with a collection of resources inside, plus start or open one or more Paratext 7 (USFM) projects for editing. (Not fully tested yet for Paratext 8 interoperability, although it can certainly read and edit the USFM files.) This document explains the basic operating philosophy of the program. A few menu options still do nothing. We are still experimenting to change menu and window layouts around a little to give a sensible and logical user experience. Settings files between versions are not guaranteed to be compatible until v1.0, so at worst you may have to set-up your various windows again. Backup your work often. (Sorry, we’ll try not to lose your work, but do take care, especially with development versions.)
Test installation: If you’re interested enough to be a guinea pig and try the current test (unfinished) version on your Bible translation, you can find instructions here and then read this.
Feedback: We’d certainly like to hear about it if you’re trying out Biblelator—
either your successes/likes or failures and dislikes. Probably our
Contact Page is the easiest way to just informally let us know.
For more serious feedback, you can view our own ToDo list
here first,
and you can submit bug reports and feature requests on
GitHub (preferred, but requires an account),
or you can just use the Contact Page of this site.
Language: Python3 —see also this. This means that you get the program source code, and are even encouraged to learn, change, or extend how the program works.
GUI: Tkinter (usually automatically installed as part of Python). It’s not the prettiest GUI in the world but it’s powerful enough and reduces installation pain (dependencies).
Platforms: Aiming for anything that can run Python3. The program is developed and tested on a Linux desktop as well as Windows-10, but we eventually hope to aim for OS X desktops, as well as Chromebooks, and Android and other tablets.
Mode: Stand-alone program. Online (cloud) operation is planned, with a graceful fall-back to offline.
Dependencies: Not too many hopefully—we want to make it as easy as possible to install— there’s no compiling involved (but no fancy installer yet either).
Release date: The first basic (unfinished) test version (v0.30) was available in March 2016. Biblelator is used every day (and improved most weeks) by the developer. There is no target release date yet for v1.0. (Still a long way to go and the developer has an Old Testament to finish first, but Biblelator is being used on that Old Testament.)
Code availability: The foundation Bible Organisational System (BibleOrgSys) is available here.
The Biblelator source is available here.
These two repositories should be installed side-by-side in two folders.
You must also have Python3 installed on your system.
You can start the program by creating a desktop or similar link to run Biblelator.py in Python3.
Run it with --help to see all the available command line parameters.
(If there’s a problem, start it in debug mode with the --debug command line flag
in order to get more debugging information printed on the terminal.)
Any of our code which is still in proof-of-concept stage and not yet publicly released can be requested using the Contact Page.
Python developers familiar with Git might want to clone the
development
branch on GitHub.
General testing: We’d be very grateful for one or two people who could test the current version of Biblelator as a general Bible display program (i.e., like you might use Xiphos or Bibletime or e-Sword), and as a general text file editor. You don’t have to be a Bible translator to do this. Contact us here.
Licence: Open source (GPLv3) —see also this quick guide.
Icon: Yes, it’s a feather which hopefully will make the user think of a quill—an old-fashioned ink pen. Note, however, that they used reeds (not feathers) to make ink pens in Biblical times, but we didn’t feel that would work so well as an icon. So please excuse the anachronism. Thanks to Josh Hunt for the icon work.
The Biblelator preliminary releases can be used as a USFM editor (in unformatted mode—displaying the USFM markers and text fields line by line). New features are continually added to the development version (but still requiring testing and tweaking), and new alpha versions should be released every month or so.
As soon as the new USFM v3 is released (early 2018?) which will be used by Paratext 8.1, we plan to upgrade (the BOS and) Biblelator to handle the new USFM extensions.
The ultimate aim is to have a modular Bible translation editor that is capable of parallel display of multiple resources (in various languages and versification systems), while allowing a writable Bible translation project to be entered and edited (similar to the Paratext and Bibledit editors). Biblelator differs primarily by being designed from the start to be hackable (relatively easy for a programmer to extend or customise).
If you are testing the continuously developing Biblelator development versions, you can add bug reports and feature requests here, but meanwhile you can view our internal list of things to do here.
Another step is to see if BibleGateway.com (or other similar sites) will allow us to also access their online resources.
| Paratext | Paratext Lite | Bibledit-Desktop | Bibledit | translationStudio Android | translationStudio Desktop | Autographa Lite | Biblelator | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Primary platform | Windows & Linux desktops | Android tablet | Linux desktop | Any online device | Android | Windows & Linux desktops | Windows & Linux desktops | Linux & Windows desktops (or anything that runs Python3) |
| Target user | Expert/Professional | Less expert | Non-expert | Non-expert | Non-expert | Expert | ||
| Main features | Excellent editing and extensive checking built-in; excellent world languages support; training videos available; developed and supported by a team | Simplified interface designed for tablets; files easily sent to full desktop version | Free and open | Cloud based with clients on most platforms; free and open | Simplified interface; free and open; drafting software for the Bible, Open Bible Stories, translationNotes, translationWords, and translationQuestions; it provides the Bible translator lots of translation helps | Simplified interface; free and open; drafting software for the Bible, Open Bible Stories, translationNotes, translationWords, and translationQuestions; it provides the Bible translator lots of translation helps | Simplified interface; free and open; 5-app languages; show changes across versions; actively developed | Free and open, designed to be hackable |
| Main limitations | Large, complex (can be overwhelming); sluggish at times; users must agree with translation philosophy; restricted functionality without registration; very restricted access to resources | Individual developer offers limited support; limited/ancient open-licensed resources | Very limited functionality and feature set | Very limited functionality and feature set | Very limited functionality and feature set | No installer yet; limited/ancient open-licensed resources; still a test version; individual developer using rare spare time |
| Paratext | Paratext Lite | Bibledit-Desktop | Bibledit | translationStudio | Autographa Lite | Biblelator | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| File format | Full USFM (from PT 8.1 onwards) | USFM | USFM | USFM2 | USFM2 basic only (no section headings, paragraphs) | USFM basic only (no section headings, paragraphs) | USFM (with ESFM to come eventually) |
| View/Edit chunks | By chapter (also whole book but too slow to use) | Verses | 2-5 verses | By chapter | Verse with context, by section, by chapter, by book, or by verse | ||
| Find/Replace functionality | Sophisticated (incl. regex) | Current chapter / current book | Sophisticated (incl. regex) | ||||
| Style-sheets | Full nested styles | No (unformatted verse text only) | No (unformatted verse text only) | Limited style functionality | |||
| Switchable views/formats | Five views (Preview/Basic/Formatted/Unformatted/Standard but can be sluggish) | Two panes vs four panes | Three main options: ChapterUSFM, verse editor, formatted chapter | Unformatted only so far—more planned | |||
| Multiple panes/windows | Yes (panes) | Four (collapsable) panes | MANY view options | Up to four panes | Yes (windows) | ||
| Multiple EDIT panes/windows | Yes (panes) | Yes (windows) | |||||
| Able to show differences between panes/windows | Yes | No | Yes | No | |||
| Window model | Arranges panes inside one large window (which usually will need to be maximised) -- not ideal for multiple monitor setups | Multiple options, workspaces plus basic mode with tabs | Individual small windows which can be placed anywhere on multiple monitors (so that other apps can remain visible) | ||||
| Displays illustrations in-line | No | No | No | ||||
| Internationalised menus/interface | Yes | Yes | English, Arabic, Hindi, Portuguese, Spanish | Not yet | |||
| Fully internationalised editing (incl. RTL) | Best | LTR and RTL | Not yet | ||||
| Multi-user (handles file conflicts) | Excellent | Not yet | |||||
| Live multi-user | Yes | No | |||||
| Able to show changes made by other users | Yes | No | |||||
| Real-time spell check | Yes (causes slow start-up) | Not yet | |||||
| Real-time punctuation check | No | No | No | No | No | Yes, doubled spaces | Some |
| Real-time grammar check | No | No | No | No | No | No | Not yet |
| Real-time layout check | No | No | No | No | No | No | Not yet |
| Autocorrect | Yes, using CC table | Yes (but still set-up in program code) | |||||
| Autocomplete | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes (several options) |
| Auto-suggestions ("AI") | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Autosave | Defaults to off | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Cloud backup | Send/Receive to dedicated Paratext server | Send/Receive (WiFi) | Yes, central philosophy | Yes | Upcoming sync with Paratext Cloud and Door43 | Planned | |
| Other backups | Local zip file | ||||||
| Other sharing | USB Send/Receive, Chorus hub, networked folder (if careful) | If supported by device ports | No |
Note: Of course, most systems can access online resources in other apps/windows. However, having integrated resources usually enables helpful features like synchronised scrolling, original-to-translation word/phrase linking, etc.
| Paratext | Paratext Lite | Bibledit-Desktop | Bibledit | translationStudio | Autographa Lite | Biblelator editor | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Original language Bible resources | Yes, but separate encrypted download | No | Yes | No | No | Hebrew interlinear (Greek is also planned) | |
| Translated Bible and commentary resources | Lots, but separate encrypted downloads | Yes | English-ULT, UST, Hindi-IRV, Arabic-VDT | About thirty built-in (downloadable from our server) | |||
| Lexicon resources | Lots included | Yes | No | No | Strongs, BDB (better integration still planned) | ||
| Built-in access to other downloadable translations | Digital Bible Library (DBL) restricted online resources | No | No | About thirty built-in (downloadable from our server) | |||
| Import of local/on-disk resources | Yes, full USFM2 | Yes, USFM | Yes, basic USFM | Almost any unencrypted Bible on your system | |||
| Open-licenced resources | Some in DBL (but still have restricted use) | Some in DBL (but still have restricted use) | Yes | Exclusively | Yes | Exclusively | |
| Resources updated automatically | User must check from menu | Yes | Not yet |
| Paratext | Paratext Lite | Bibledit-Desktop | Bibledit | translationStudio | Autographa Lite | Biblelator editor | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Old Testament support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| New Testament support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Deuterocanon support | Yes | Yes | |||||
| Alternative book order support | No | Yes | |||||
| Front- and back-matter support | Yes | Yes | |||||
| Book introductions support | Yes, but with poor scrolling support | Yes | |||||
| Chapter introductions support | |||||||
| Section headings support | Yes | Yes | |||||
| Section references support | Yes | Yes | |||||
| Cross-references support | Yes | Yes | |||||
| Footnotes support | Yes | No | Yes | ||||
| Specialised glossary support | No | ||||||
| Translator/Consultant notes support | Excellent | No | |||||
| Full study-Bible support | Yes |
| Paratext | Paratext Lite | Bibledit-Desktop | Bibledit | translationStudio | Autographa Lite | Biblelator editor | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bridged verses | Yes | Yes | |||||
| Omitted verses | Yes | Yes | |||||
| Reordered verses | Not tested | ||||||
| Non-numeric verse "numbers" | Yes | Yes | |||||
| Non-numeric chapter "numbers" | Yes | ||||||
| Alternate versification schemes (incl. mapping) | Yes | Yes (mapping is coming) |
| Paratext | Paratext Lite | Bibledit-Desktop | Bibledit | translationStudio | Autographa Lite | Biblelator editor | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spell check support | Very powerful and integrated (approved wordlists, affixation rules, computer predictions) | No | Not yet | ||||
| Consistency of translated terms | Very powerful and integrated | via desktop version | See translationCore | No | Not yet | ||
| Link checking (section references and cross-references) | Very powerful and integrated | via desktop version | No | Not yet | |||
| Other tools | Very powerful and integrated | via desktop version | See translationCore | No | Not yet well integrated |
| Paratext | Paratext Lite | Bibledit-Desktop | Bibledit | translationStudio | Autographa Lite | Biblelator editor | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exports available | USX, HTML, others with SIL Pathway | via desktop version | Yes | USFM, HTML (1-column and 2-column) layout | Close to thirty different export formats (via the BOS) | ||
| Draft printing path | Yes | via desktop version | Through HTML (1-column and 2-column) export | Through LibreOffice export | |||
| Document export path (and on to PDFs) | With SIL Pathway | via desktop version | Through LibreOffice export | ||||
| Typeset publishing path (and on to PDFs) | Publishing Assistant (restricted distribution) with Adobe InDesign (expensive and can be sluggish) | via desktop version | Through SILE (evolving) | ||||
| Direct PDF publishing path | via desktop version | Built-in | |||||
| Website publishing path | Built-in export to HTML (but no provision for hosting it) | via desktop version | Yes, after save to Door43 Content Service (DCS), a webpage is automatically created, and a clickable link provided in the app | Via the Bible Drop Box | |||
| App publishing path | Via Scripture App Builder; also into YouVersion via the Digital Bible Library (DBL) | via desktop version | Through the Bible Drop Box and then the Bible Door app | ||||
| Path to full Bible-study software version |
Note: This is a bit of a changing field, because an increasing number of Windows programs can run on Linux using Wine or Mono, and Android apps might soon be able to run on standard ChromeOS and possibly on other operating systems also.
| Paratext | Paratext Lite | Bibledit-Desktop | Bibledit | translationStudio | Autographa Lite | Biblelator editor | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Status | v9.2 (released Nov 2021; some users still on v8) | v9.1 (released Nov 2021) | Deprecated (no longer being developed) | Regular new versions | v12.1.1 (Oct 2019) | v1.2.2 | v0.43 early-test release |
| Development | Programming team is continually improving PT (but has a large backlog of requests) | Regular new versions | Deprecated (no longer being developed) | Regular new versions | Stagnated? | Ongoing | Currently moved to low priority |
| Distribution | Program itself is less restricted now from v8 onwards, but online Biblical resources are very restricted and still somewhat limited (see other translations above) | Requires a Paratext registration code | Freely available | Freely available | Freely available | Freely available | Freely available |
| Installer available | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not yet | |||
| Available on Linux | Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty LTS (PT 7.5,7.6β), 16.04 Xenial LTS (PT 8) | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Available now (in development) |
| Available on Android tablet | No (See Paratext Lite) | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Hopefully |
| Available/usable on Android phone | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| Available natively on ChromeOS (possibly ChromeOS will run all Android apps soon???) | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | Need to use developer mode to install Python and/or to install a Linux using Crouton |
| Available on 64-bit Windows | Yes, 32-bit version | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Available now (in development) |
| Available on OS X | Maybe via Linux? | No | Difficult | Yes | Yes | No | Untested |
| Available on iOS | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | |
| Automatic program updates | Yes (although can be large which is not good in some internet-challenged areas; some new bugs get through; release notes not provided in advance) | Yes | No | No | No | Eventually | |
| Automatic bug report submission | Yes | Partial | |||||
| Openly documented and accessible verse synchronisation scheme | Copenhagen Alliance versification specification | Yes | |||||
| Verse synchronisation works across devices (network aware) | Planned | ||||||
| Programming language | C#/C++ with .NET/Mono | C++ | HTML/JS/CSS | Java (Android); NodeJS (desktop) | NodeJS, React.js | Python3/Tkinter | |
| Modular (for users) | No, but some ability to add Python functions | No | No | No | Planned | ||
| Planned new features | USFM3 support and more coming in v8.1 | Translation helps (host of open-licenced material); sync with ParatextCloud and Door43 | Many dreams but not enough time | ||||
| Source code available | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Hackable | No | No | Difficult (C++) | Yes | Yes | Yes | By design (Python) |
| Licence | N/A | N/A | GPL3 | GPL3+ | GPL2+ | MIT | GPL3+ |
This page last updated: 27-Oct-2022
Issued under a Creative Commons Attribution/Share-alike Licence, copyright © 2013-2022, RJH
