Biblesearch can overlook case+diacritics but not punctuation

[ErikJon]

PROBLEM: In "regular expression" mode, I typed "he gave some apostles" into the search window and began the search. No results appeared.

I went to Ephesians 4:11 manually and found "...he gave some, apostles" (KJV).

I tried the same search again, this time only with the words "he gave some", and without adjusting any other settings. The search worked perfectly, and I was taken automatically to Ephesians 4:11.

Conclusion: TheWord can overlook case and diacritics but not punctuation, such as a comma; one comma (between "some" and "apostles") is enough to confuse the search engine.

SUGGESTION: Include as a default (but optional) setting, that searches IGNORE all punctuation.

[JG]

In regular expression mode it is up to you to provide the search with the needed expression to ignore such things.

[DarrelW]

Also the regular expression help file is really quite good to help guide you.

Darrel

[ErikJon]

Thank you, gentlemen. Helpful, but a bit disappointing.

I suppose I was thinking, not only from my point of view, but more along the lines of how to make TheWord a little more "user friendly" for the millions out there who are unfamiliar with complex searches. I have lots of church friends here in Venezuela, where I work, who have computers, but who are a bit limited intelectually. They could still use and appreciate TheWord if it only simplified this detail a bit. But if something so basic as a Bible-search is going to cause them to stumble, I doubt that they will pursue its other functions either, in spite of my occasional recommendation.

Meanwhile, I myself am happy to continue learning how to use the program.

Thanks, again for your help.

[csterg]

I think a casual user would not even click on the 'regular expression' option to begin with. One is expected to click there only if he know what that means,
Costas

[ErikJon]

I have good news since my last post. I have just discovered that this problem that I mentioned had nothing to do with case or diacritics nor punctuation after all.

The problem was rather that, in spite of having my Spanish Bible window open, selected and active, TW was searching only the English KJV, every time. There was a menu item that I was unaware of, which forced TW to search only a previously-selected Bible translation, regardless of which windows were open and active. (See screenshot)

However, the strange thing is that I don't remember ever selecting this preference in this menu, during the two years that I have used the program, as I was not even aware that it existed.

(1) Is there another part of TW that I may have accidentally modified, resulting in the automatic selection of this menu item? (e.g. KJV) In other words, is there another spot, such as in the "preferences" which, when modified, automatically establishes the KJV as my default search text?

(2) Which menu item is selected by default when TW is first installed? KJV? If so, does KJV remain selected even after installing additional Bible translation modules? Maybe that is what happened in my case?

The last possibility is that, two years ago, I saw the menu item and selected it (I cannot imagine why), and had since completely forgotten about it.

[csterg]

The default value for this menu is 'Current Bible' so as the search is to follow the active Window!
I am 95% sure that you must have selected it at some point (the 5% goes to my bad memory )
Costas

[ErikJon]

You must be right.

I apologize for being at fault on this one.