How to load your external Bible notes into theWord

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CES
Posts: 10
Joined: Mon Apr 27, 2015 11:12 am

How to load your external Bible notes into theWord

Post by CES »

Here are the steps I followed for success with loading years of old Bible notes I had stored in an old version of LOGOS software (version 1).

1. Export all your notes into a file in such a way that the notes come after each Bible verse. In the case of my notes in Logos, this was easy: I just did an export to a .txt file of all my notes, and the Bible software put the relevant scripture reference in front of each group of notes.

2. Open the file and edit it as needed. To make it ready for conversion, at a minimum, you should a) Put a division sign ("÷") immediately in front of each verse reference (e.g. "÷1 Sam 5:1", more on this later) and b) make sure that each scripture verse is on a line of its own, with your Bible notes on subsequent lines. In my case, because I often had notes on the same line as a verse reference, I wrote a little MS Word macro that skipped past the verse and added a hard return to separate verse and notes onto separate lines. (See Appendix 1, below, for the macro). Beyond these two essentials, you may wish to add (or remove) line skips, or correct spelling, or do whatever you wish before loading.

3. Save the edited file in .RTF format

4. Download "T4". The real name is "e-sword tooltip". Google "e-sword tooltip download" to find the place to download it from. Install T4 and open the application. (T4 clearly will do a lot more than create a notes module, by the way.)

5. Open the .RTF file created in step 3 with T4, then click Module, and save it as a Notes file. Keep the "Reference only on marked line" checked -- this will prevent the verse references themselves from being added to the note, since you probably won't want it. It is at this step that the T4 software sees the division sign and interprets what follows as a verse reference for the notes that follow. (Note: I found that the division sign I selected with my word processor (MS Word) was not the same division sign that T4 is looking for (!). To be on the safe side and make sure you are using the "right" division sign, you can click on "Marks, Set Mark" in T4 a couple of times and it will insert the correct division sign. Then you can copy that symbol into a "replace all" or use it in whatever you decide in order to insert all the division signs into your .rtf file before conversion. )

6. Download the TheWord Importer tool. Google "theword importer tool download" to find the place to download it from. Install the Importer tool ("twimport.exe") and open it.

7. Open the .NOTX file created in step 5 with twimport.exe, and save the resulting .twm file in the path where TheWord will find it. Note: you might wish to add a new folder to store your personal scripture notes at this time (e.g. "extra.paths=C:\Users\<username>\Documents\TheWord") to TheWord's config.ini file (mine is at "C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\The Word\config.ini").

8. (Close and) Open TheWord. If you followed the steps above, and stored the .twm file where TheWord can find it, then TheWord should detect the presence of a new .twm file and invite you to include it in your layout. Say yes, and see your Bible notes in TheWord.



If you are like me and like a clean-looking interface, you may wish to create a "blank note" for all the verses where you don't have notes, in order to eliminate the "prompt text" that TheWord puts into an *empty* notes field. I was able to create thousands of "blank notes" by adding extra records to the .rtf file before conversion as follows

2b. Open TheWord, and click File, Copy Verses, Advanced Options, Copy Only Verse Reference. Set the range from Genesis to Revelation, then click copy.

2c. Paste the result in a file you can edit. Add a division sign ("÷") immediately in front of each verse reference from Genesis to Revelation (e.g. "÷1 Sam 5:1")

2d. Append the "complete Bible verse list" after your Bible notes into one big file. Note that it's important that your Bible notes come *first* and the complete list of "stub" verse references come *after*, in order for it to work.

2e. Go to Step 3 and continue as before.

Best Wishes!

CES
Northbrook, IL


Appendix 1 - Word Macro to add a hard return immediately after verse reference to ensure verse references are on their own lines:
Sub Macro1()
'
' Macro1 Macro
'
'
For Index = 1 To 10000
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
.Text = ChrW(61624)
.Replacement.Text = ""
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute
Selection.MoveRight Unit:=wdWord, Count:=5
Selection.TypeParagraph
Next
End Sub