PocketBible for your Windows Mobile Standard device allows you to read and study the Bible whenever and wherever you have your Windows Mobile Standard smartphone! This guide introduces PocketBible and its many helpful features.
If you're in a hurry to get started, start at the Quick Start Guide, which introduces the important concepts that you'll need to know.
Laridian PocketBible for Windows Mobile software works with all three kinds of Windows Mobile devices: Windows Mobile Classic, Windows Mobile Standard, and Windows Mobile Professional devices. Windows Mobile Classic and Windows Mobile Professional devices are also known as Pocket PCs. Windows Mobile Standard devices are also known as Windows Mobile Smartphones or simply Smartphones. Since features vary between the Classic/Professional and Standard devices, features vary between the versions of PocketBible designed for these devices.
This is the help information for the Windows Mobile Standard (aka Smartphone) version of PocketBible 4. This version of PocketBible is typically packaged with the Windows Mobile Classic and Professional (Pocket PC) version of PocketBible 4, and collectively referred to as PocketBible 4 for Windows Mobile. The PocketBible 4 for Windows Mobile setup program determines the appropriate version of PocketBible 4 to install to your specific device.
Here are some of the terms used by PocketBible:
Windows Mobile = Windows Mobile Classic, Windows Mobile Standard, and Windows Mobile Professional
Windows Mobile Standard = Smartphone, without a touch-screen
Windows Mobile Classic = Pocket PC, with a touch-screen, without a phone
Windows Mobile Professional = Pocket PC, with a touch-screen, with a phone
PocketBible = Lardian's Bible reading software program
PocketBible Book = a book or Bible for use with PocketBible
DPad = the direction pad with a left, right, up, down, and OK/Select button, included on many phones
Phonepad = the 10 or 12 key numeric keyboard found on many phones
Keyboard = the QWERTY keyboard found on many phones
Form = a dialog used to input information
Search and Find = the process of finding text with a specific word or combination of words
Notes = both notes that are published with your Bible and personal notes that you have written
Highlights = color markings that you've added to your Bibles
Bookmarks = placeholders in the text that you can return to
Reading Progress = a record of which articles in a devotional book that you have already read
Personal Data = your notes, highlights, bookmarks and reading progress
ActiveSync = software from Microsoft that connects your Windows Mobile device to your Windows XP computer
Mobile Device Center = software from Microsoft that connects your Windows Mobile device to your Windows Vista computer
PocketBible displays a page at a time; scroll through the Bible or book using the navigator pad on your phone. You can scroll by line or by page. Here are the default actions, which you can change by adjusting your PocketBible options.
| Tap | To Scroll |
| Left | Previous Page |
| Right | Next Page |
| Up | Previous link, or scroll up one line |
| Down | Next link, or scroll down one line |
If the page contains a hyperlink, then Up/Down will scroll to the previous or next hyperlink. When there is not a previous or next hyperlink, then the page will scroll by a line.
PocketBible only provides horizontal scrolling when an image is shown that is too wide for the screen. Otherwise, all text wraps to fit into the width of the screen. When an image that is wider than the screen is shown, then the DPad left and right buttons always scroll the image to the left and right. Your option settings for what these buttons do are ignored when a wide image is shown.
PocketBible provides two methods for jumping to a different verse in the Bible.
The left context button shows the abbreviation of the open Bible or book plus a snippet to help you identify your place in the book. For instance, if you are looking at a Bible, then the location in the Bible is also shown. As an example, it might display "NASB: Jn 1:1", indicating that you are looking at Jn 1:1 in the NASB. This button is called the Location Button. Press the location button to change to a different location in the Bible or book. The GoTo Form will be displayed.
The GoTo Form is customized based on the type of book that you are looking at.
When looking at a Bible, use keypad shortcuts to quickly jump to a different chapter or verse in the book of the Bible that you are currently reading. To jump to a different chapter and verse, press the chapter number(s), the # key, the verse number(s), and the OK/Action button. To jump to a different verse in the current chapter, press the verse number(s) and the OK/Action button. As you press the keypad, the new location is shown in the PocketBible title bar at the top of the screen. If you tap the wrong number, press the back button to erase the last number or key press.
For example, if you are currently reading John 3:16 and want to return to John 3:1, press 1 OK. To go to John 1:14, press 1 # 1 4 OK.
Keypad shortcuts have a timer, which will wait 2 seconds after you press a key and then attempt to jump to the location you specified. So, you can use the OK/Action button as mentioned above or just wait for the timer to expire. If you decide you don't want to change the location after you have entered a chapter or verse, repeatedly press the back key until the title bar returns to "PocketBible".
Keyboard Hint: Many of the phone keyboards overlay a numeric keypad on top of the alphabet. When you press one of these keys, your phone may treat the key as a number or as a letter. Most phones provide an on-screen indicator alerting you to whether the key will be a number or a letter. Use your keyboard controls to toggle between number and letter mode as appropriate.
Use Find to locate verses or articles that contain a specific word, phrase, or combination of words. To start:
Specify what you are looking for in the Find Form.
Phone Pad Hint: Remember, if you are using enhanced T9, after you enter at least two letters, a potential match for what you've tapped will be shown. Just keep writing letters until the word you are looking for is shown. Press 0 repeatedly to cycle through the possible matches.
"Back in the old days," Windows Mobile Standard devices all included a phone pad for data entry. Typing on a phone pad was tedious, but various shortcuts made it easier. One shortcut was called multitap, wherein a button on the phone pad was pressed multiple times to cycle through the possible letters assigned to that button. Another shortcut was called T9, wherein a button was pressed only once and the running program would determine the most likely match based on the combination of buttons that you'd pressed.
Now, many Windows Mobile Standard devices include a small or large (well, maybe not "large" exactly) QWERTY keyboard, with a number pad built into the keyboard. Some devices even include both a phone pad and a keyboard. Many of these keyboards have special keys that are unique to the particular brand and model of Windows Mobile device.
With the proliferation of devices and various keyboards, it is no longer feasible for us to teach you, or even know ourselves, how to best enter text on your phone. However, your phone likely includes a tutorial or other detailed information that will help you learn how to enter text.
Even though you can easily tell by looking at your phone whether it provides a phone pad or a keyboard, PocketBible does not know this information. Yet, PocketBible works best when it knows whether you are using a phone pad or a keyboard. (This is especially important if you turn on any of the enhanced options discussed below.)
When you start PocketBible for the first time, you'll be asked to select whether you have a phone pad or a keyboard. You can review your selection, or change it at a later time. To review or change the selection:
You'll notice additional options on this page that can affect how you enter text on two forms: the Find form and the GoTo form.
Enhanced T9: If you are using a phone pad, then you can use a T9-like entry method. This option is not available if you use a keyboard.
Enhanced Autocomplete: T9 always uses autocomplete, but if you are not using T9, you can choose to use PocketBible's autocomplete. Unlike the standard autocomplete on your phone, PocketBible's autocomplete will only suggest words that are in the book that you are searching.
If you have a phone pad and select this option, then PocketBible will use Multitap with autocompletion when you are entering text in the Find form or the GoTo form. If you do not select this option, then the text entry method will be whatever your phone provides.
If you have a keyboard and select this option, then PocketBible will use its own autocompletion when entering text in the Find form. (Autocomplete is not provided on the GoTo form. If you've selected the option to type text on the GoTo form, simply enter the full or abbreviated name of the desired book.) If your phone includes an autocomplete or an autofill feature, then it might conflict with this option. That is, you might see both your phone and PocketBible attempt the autcompletion. If so, you'll want to either turn off this option, or turn off your phone's autocompletion feature. If you do not select this option, then the text entry method will be whatever your phone provides.
NOTE: These two options are provided to allow you more control over how to enter text in some of the PocketBible forms. Due to the variations between the devices, these options may work swell on your phone. Or, they might simply conflict with other text input enhancements that your phone provides. If you encounter conflicts between these options and your phone, simply turn off both of these options. When these options are both turned off, then PocketBible will use the input method provided by your phone.
If your device has a phone pad that supports multitap for text entry, then the following hints may be helpful.
Multitap uses the phone's keypad to input text. Each digit on the keypad is used to choose between one or more letters, number or punctuation. For instance, the 2 key is used to select either a, b', c, or 2. Press 2 once to enter an a, twice to enter a b, three times to enter a c, or four times to enter a 2. Writing a five-letter word could take as few as five taps, or as many as 20 taps. For example, to write the word James, you would enter 5, 2, 6, 33, 7777.
Example 1: to enter "love" in the Find Form:
Example 2: to enter "lo*" in the Find Form:
If your device has a phone pad, then you may choose to use PocketBible enhanced T9 input, which uses the T9 method of text entry. If you'd like to try T9 enhanced input, then the following hints may be helpful.
Note that your phone may also provide other methods of enhanced text entry. If so, then the two methods may conflict with one another. Remember that you can turn on and off PocketBible T9 enhanced input by changing your PocketBible input options.
Like Multitap, T9 also uses the phone's keypad to input text. However, unlike Multitap, T9 attempts to use only one key press for each letter. As you tap keys, PocketBible determines the combination of letters that you could by entering, and then uses the vocabulary of the book to make a guess about the word that you are entering. The more numbers that you type, the smaller the list of possible matches becomes. The 0 key is used to cycle through the possible matches. For instance, if you press 2, 2, 8, you might be writing act, bat or cat. If T9 guesses act, but you intend to write cat, tap the 0 to cycle through the available matches until cat appears.
Example 1: to enter "love" in the Find Form:
Example 2: to enter "lo*" in the Find Form:
Example 3: to enter "John" in the GoTo Form, tap 5, 6, 4, 6.
| Press | You'll See |
| 5 | James |
| 6 | Jms |
| 4 | Jnh |
| 6 | John |
Hint: If "John" is not shown after entering 5, 6, 4, 6, press 0 repeatedly until "John" is shown.
Form: Find
Input: Keyboard
Enhanced T9: n/a
Enhanced Autocomplete: on
Applies PocketBible's autocomplete using vocabulary from the book. You may need to turn
off the phone-wide autocomplete to avoid having both PocketBible and the phone attempt
to provide autocompletion.
Form: Find
Input: Keyboard
Enhanced T9: n/a
Enhanced Autocomplete: off
PocketBible will use your phone's built-in features without any
additional enhancements.
Form: Find
Input: Phone Pad
Enhanced T9: on
Enhanced Autocomplete: n/a
PocketBible will use T9 to input the text. The Enhanced Autocomplete selection
has no effect.
Form: Find
Input: Phone Pad
Enhanced T9: off
Enhanced Autocomplete: on
PocketBible will multitap with autocompletion for text entry.
Form: Find
Input: Phone Pad
Enhanced T9: off
Enhanced Autocomplete: off
PocketBible will use your phone's built-in features (usually multitap)
without any additional enhancements.
Form: GoTo
Input: Keyboard
Enhanced T9: n/a
Enhanced Autocomplete: n/a
Use book list for input: off
PocketBible will use your phone's built-in features without any
additional enhancements. Remember, you can type the abbreviation
of the desired book, rather than the full name. PocketBible
recognizes hundreds of abbreviations for the books of the Bible.
Form: GoTo
Input: Phone Pad
Enhanced T9: on
Enhanced Autocomplete: n/a
Use book list for input: off
PocketBible will use T9 as you type the name of the desired book
of the Bible.
Form: GoTo
Input: Phone Pad
Enhanced T9: off
Enhanced Autocomplete: n/a
Use book list for input: off
PocketBible will use your phone's built-in features without any
additional enhancements.
To scroll to the previous or next page, press Left or Right.
To scroll up or down by one line, press Up or Down. If there is a hyperlink above or below the current hyperlink, then that link will be activated. Otherwise, the page will scroll by one line.
To scroll to the previous or next hyperlink on this page, press Up or Down. If there is not a previous or next hyperlink, then the page will scroll by a line.
Hint: You can change the default actions of the DPad buttons, such that left, right, up and down will cause different actions.
To view a different verse in a Bible:
To view a different article in a book:
To view a different devotional article in a devotional:
To jump to the next Find match:
To jump to the previous Find match:
To backup in the list of verses that have been viewed:
To move forward in the list of verses that have been viewed:
To return to a bookmarked verse:
To activate the GoTo feature, press the Location Button. The Location Button is the left context button. This button shows the abbreviation of the book and a snippet to help you identify your location in the book.
The GoTo form provides different choices based upon the kind of book that you are reading.
To navigate to a different verse in the Bible, enter or select the book of the Bible, the chapter, and a the verse. Then press Done.
The PocketBible Options settings allow you to specify whether you select a book of the Bible from a list of the books of the Bible, or whether you type the name of the book of the Bible. If you choose the list, you can also choose whether to show the books of the Bible in biblical order or in alphabetical order.
Remember, you can also jump to a different chapter or verse within the currently displayed book of the Bible using shortcuts.
Hint: If you've configured the options to show a list of the books of the Bible, then press the Action / OK button on the list to cause the list to expand to full-screen.
Keyboard Hint: Even though you might think that it's fastest to type in the name of the book that you're interested in, consider this alternate method. First, set the options to use a list. Next, set the list options to sort alphabetically. Then, to select a book, repeatedly press the first letter of the book until that book appears in the list. If you overshoot, just press left to backup. Or, press the first letter of the desired book once, then press right to quickly scroll through the books of the Bible that begin with that letter. You may find that this is a quick and convenient way to select a book.
Browse through the table of contents for the book, select an article, then press Done.
The table or contents is arranged in a tree structure, Press the action button to expand a selected item and see additional detail. A plus sign (+) next to the item name indicates that it can be expanded.
Note that as of the time when this guide was written, the Microsoft control does not act on the selection with the Action button. Your phone may have improved upon this behavior, but if not, press the Done button to make your selection.
Select the month and day of the month for the article that you'd like to read. Press Done.
The PocketBible menu is available when you are viewing a Bible or a book. Press the Menu button to access the following menu choices.
Shows the list of installed Bibles and books, organized by the type of book. Select the type of book that you'd like to see, such as Bibles or Commentaries. Press the Action button to expand the category to see the available Bibles or books of that type. Select the book that you'd like to view, then press Done.
After selecting the Bible or book that you'd like to see, you may try to act on it with the Action button. However, at the time that this guide was written, the Action button does not select the item and close the form. (Your phone may have improved upon this.) Therefore, press the Done button to act on the selection and close the form.
PocketBible for your Windows Mobile Standard device can be used with Bibles and books from Laridian. Visit the Laridian Web site (www.laridian.com) to learn more about the many available Bibles and other resources for your phone.
PocketBible maintains a list of your activities, and lets you "backup" to another verse, article, or book that you've previously looked at. After you've backed up, you can go forward again to return to what you backed up from. Use Forward and Back to navigate through this history.
Verses (and articles) are added to the list anytime that you jump to a new verse (or article):
Verses are not added to the list when you scroll by verse or page.
A simple example will help clarify how Forward and Back behave.
Of course, this is a silly example. However, imagine that you are studying the Bible, following links, and jumping to related verses. As you move through the Bible, you can use Forward and Back to return to your original starting place, or to explore other related verses without losing your place.
Shows the Find Form. Use Find to locate verses that contain a specific word, phrase or combination of words. More details
Shows the results of the previous Find. Use the navigation pad (up, down, left, and right) to navigate through the list of verses that contain a match. Then press OK to view the selected verse in context. To return to the list of matches, simply select Find | Show Find Results from the menu again.
Turns to the next verse, after the verse that you are currently looking at, that contains a match.
Turns to the previous verse, before the verse that you are currently looking at, that contains a match.
When selected, PocketBible will highlight the matching word or phrase so that you can more easily see it within the verse. When not selected, PocketBible will not highlight the matching word or phrase.
Shows the Lookup Form. Enter the word or phrase that you'd like to lookup in a dictionary, then press Done. If you are looking at a dictionary already, then PocketBible will first check that dictionary for a matching article. If you're not looking at a dictionary already, then PocketBible will try your preferred dictionary (if you've selected on in the Options settings). If you've not specified a preferred dictionary, or it doesn't contain an article matching what you're looking for, then PocketBible will try your other dictionaries. When an article is found, it will be shown.
Hint: Return to what you were previously looking at by using Back.
Shows the Bookmarks Form, where you can manage your bookmarks or jump to a bookmarked verse. More details
Shows the Bookmarks Form, where you can manage your notes. More details
Shows the Bookmarks Form, where you can highlight a verse of the Bible in a variety of colors. More details
Checked to indicate that you've completed the particular reading.
Opens the preferred devotional (if you have selected on in the Options). This is a shortcut that allows you to easily open the devotional that you are using on a daily basis.
Turns your devotional to the article to be read today.
Turns your devotional to the first article that you have not yet marked as having been completed.
Printed devotionals are often keyed to a start on a specific day of the year. For instance, many devotionals start on January 1 and continue for a full year. Others start on the first day of a quarter or month, and continue for a quarter or a month. PocketBible improves upon this by allowing you to choose which day of the year you want to start the devotional book on.
Rearranges the start date of your devotional so that you aren't behind in your daily reading schedule.
Erases the reading progress for this book and prepares it to be read again.
Shows statistics about your devotional and reading progress.
Shows the Options Form, where you can configure PocketBible to best match your preferences. More details
Shows information about the Bible or book, including the version and copyright information.
Shows the PocketBible program version and copyright information.
Shows this help information.
Closes PocketBible.
Windows Mobile automatically manages your running programs. When you run a program such as PocketBible, then start another program, PocketBible may still be running in the background even though you don't see it. To ensure that PocketBible has really exited (for instance, when you want to install a program update), select Quit.
Note that this menu item can be removed (or added) to the menu. If you don't see it, adjust your Options settings.
Use Find to locate verses (or articles) that contain a specific word, phrase or combination of words. To start a find, choose Find | Find from the menu.
You can search the text of any Bible or book, including your commentaries and dictionaries and devotionals. The examples and language in this articles will refer to Bibles and verses, but most of these same principles apply to other books and articles.
Remember, if you are using a phone keypad and enhanced T9, after you enter at least two letters, a potential match for what you've tapped will be shown. Just keep writing letters until the word you are looking for is shown. Press 0 to cycle through the possible matches.
The best way to understand how to enter searches is by example:
Results will be displayed in the "Find Results." Select a verse containing a match to view the verse in context. Matching words will be highlighted on the screen as long as Find | Highlight Find Hits is checked.
To find a word or phrase, just enter it in the Find Form. Examples:
Note that capitalization is ignored, as is punctuation.
PocketBible supports AND, OR, NOT and XOR (exclusive OR) searches, as described below. Note that you can substitute phrases for any of the words used in the examples below.
AND (&)
To find all the verses in which the words "love" and "husband" appear, enter:
It's important to enter AND in all uppercase. If you enter "love and husband" PocketBible will look for the phrase "love and husband." You can substitute the ampersand character (&) for AND.
OR (+)
To find all the verses in which either "love", "husband" or both appear, enter:
Again, make sure OR is in uppercase. You can substitute the plus character (+) for OR.
XOR (^)
To find all the verses in which either "love" or "husband" but not both appear, enter:
You can substitute the caret character (^) for XOR.
NOT (#)
To find all the verses in which "love" appears but not "husband", enter:
You can substitute the number sign (or 'pound' or 'sharp') character (#) for NOT. Note that you cannot do a "unary NOT" operation (as in "NOT love" to find all verses that do not contain "love").
AND, OR, XOR and NOT can be combined in one search. They are evaluated left to right. Example:
In this case, every verse containing "Jesus" or "Christ" is found, then those verses are searched for those that contain the word "spirit".
Parenthesis can be used to change the order of evaluation:
This search finds all verses containing the word "Jesus" or both the words "Christ" and "spirit". In the non-parenthesized version of this search, every resulting verse must contain the word "spirit" but in by adding the parenthesis it's possible that some verses containing "Jesus" will not contain "spirit".
An asterisk (*) can be used anywhere in a word to match any number of letters. So:
A question mark (?) matches any single character. So:
Wildcard words can be used anywhere a word is used in any search, including within phrases.
Some programs require quotation marks around the phrase or entering a special "phrase search" mode; PocketBible does not. You can use phrases (any sequence of words) anywhere without any special punctuation. You can use wild card characters in phrases.
You can limit searches to a simple or complex range of verses by entering references in the In verses box on the Find Form. Search limits can be as simple as "John" to find your word(s) or phrase(s) in the Gospel of John or as complex as "Mat 5-7;John 15,16" to search only these five chapters in Matthew and John.
Note that Bibles published for PocketBible contain the full "Front Matter" and "Back Matter" that are included in printed Bibles (such as a preface or introduction from the translators). Your searches will include these sections of the Bible unless you explicitly exclude them (generally by limiting your searches to "Gen-Rev").
Also note that the In Verses field always uses Multitap. Press the keypad multiple times as needed to enter a specific letter or number.
For simplicity of searching, certain verse ranges are predefined in every Bible. The Predefined field lists "OT" (Old Testament), "NT" (New Testament) and "Bible" (entire Bible, excluding Front Matter and Back Matter). Some Bibles may give you other predefined search limit options.
PocketBible allows you to bookmark and categorize your favorite passages from the Bible or articles from another book. Access the bookmark features by selecting Personal Data | Bookmarks from the menu. Note that Bible bookmarks are shared by all Bibles. When you add a bookmark in one Bible, such as the NIV, that bookmark will also be available in your other Bibles, such as the NKJV and the NASB.
You can bookmark verses in Bibles or articles in books. Although these examples and terminology used in these instructions relate to verses of the Bible, the same concepts apply to articles in books.
Select Personal Data | Bookmarks from the menu to view the list of bookmarks. The resulting list will show either all bookmarks, or only those bookmarks in a selected category. To show only the bookmarks in a specific category, press the Menu button, then select Categories.
To view the verse in context, select the verse, then press Done.
To add a bookmark:
To remove a previously added bookmark:
Each bookmark can be assigned a specific category. Use categories to help organize your bookmarks. Here are some examples.
If you are memorizing Scripture and want to review different verses on different days of the week, create categories named for days of the week (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc.). For verses that you'd like to review Monday, add a bookmark in the Monday category.
If you are studying the fruits of the Spirit, and want to refer to other verses related to the characteristic, create categories Love, Joy, Peace, etc. As you find a related verse, add a bookmark with the appropriate category.
To add a bookmark category:
To delete an existing category.
Deleting a category does not delete the bookmarks in that category. Any bookmark in that category is recategorized into "No Category".
PocketBible provides a full-featured note-taking facility, allowing you to annotate your PocketBible books and Bibles. Access the note features by selecting Personal Data | Notes from the menu.
PocketBible notes uses the popular HTML for formatting. If you know HTML (such as you might use when creating a Web page, for instance), then you can use many of the standard HTML codes within your note.
Your PocketBible notes are also compatible with other PocketBible programs, such as PocketBible for Windows. If you also use PocketBible for Windows (as we hope you do), then you may find it easier and more convenient to add and edit your notes in PocketBible for Windows, and then synchronize your notes with this version of PocketBible. Or, you may take quick notes on your phone, and then synchronize the notes to PocketBible for Windows for final editing and formatting. See synchronization for more details.
PocketBible adds a link to Bible verses and articles that have a note. Tap the link to view the note.
If a note already exists, then start by viewing the note. Once you are looking at the note that you'd like to edit, press the Menu button and select Edit. You'll then be editing the plain text, where you can see the HTML codes.
If a note does not yet exist - that is, if you'd like to add a new note - then position the article or verse at the top of the screen, then select Personal Data | Notes from the menu. If a note does already exist, it will be shown. Otherwise, you'll be put into edit mode so that you can enter the note.
While you are editing the note, the Menu button will provide assistance with some common HTML format codes, such as bold and italic.
Activate the NOTE link for the note that you'd like to delete, or select Personal Data | Notes from the menu. Verify that you are looking at the note that you'd like to remove, then select Delete from the menu.
You may be in the habit of highlighting portions of your Bible, perhaps in one color or perhaps in many colors. PocketBible allows you to do the same thing with your electronic Bibles.
To highlight any verse with a particular color, position the desired verse at the top of your screen (such that the desired verse is shown in the Location button), then select Personal Data | Highlights from the menu. In the resulting menu, simply select the color or style (such as underline) that you'd like to use. Press Done to apply your choice. It's as simple as that!
To remove a highlight that you've previously added, simply return to that verse, choose Personal Data | Highlights from the menu, and select <none> from the available list of highlights.
Your PocketBible library of books may include books intended to be read on a daily basis, such as devotional and "read through the Bible" reading schedules. These are both sometimes referred to as daily reading books.
Since these books are intended to be read on a daily basis, they contain daily readings. A daily reading is the reading to be read on any given day. Most devotionals have a reading for each day of the year, though some are published monthly or quarterly and have fewer readings.
Devotional books have a starting date, which is the date you associate with the first article or entry in the book. Unlike a printed book, which is usually published with a date at the top of the page, you can change the date for the first reading in your book. This allows you to start a devotional at any point in the year.
You can keep track of your reading progress through the book. PocketBible can then help you with your reading goals by showing you the first unread reading, the first reading in the book that you have not yet marked as completed. If you happen to fall far behind, you can catch up to adjust your reading plan back to one reading per day.
Many devotional books are printed with a day of the year at the top of the page. The first reading in the book is often labeled "January 1".
PocketBible also assigns dates to your readings. However, unlike a printed edition, you can easily change the date for the first reading in the book. The date associated with the first reading of the book is called the start date. To set the start date for any devotional, first open that devotional, then select Devotional Reading | Set Start Date from the menu.
When you read a printed devotional or use a "through-the-Bible" reading schedule, you may check off the readings that you have completed. These checks help you keep on track and remind you of what you need to read next.
PocketBible calls this keeping track of your reading progress. You can mark any reading in any book as "complete", meaning that you've completed reading it.
To mark a reading as complete, choose Devotional Reading | Reading Complete from the menu.
When you use this feature, then PocketBible can then help you keep up with your reading plan. You'll be able to use:
You may occasionally fall behind in your reading. If you do, PocketBible can help you get caught back up. In fact, PocketBible offers a few different ways to help you get caught up.
First, you can read more than one reading each day. If you're just a few days behind, you may want to just read a little more each day to get back on schedule. As you read each reading, be sure to mark that you've completed the reading. Continue this process until you've read as many readings as you'd like to ready today. Continue over the next few days (or weeks) until you're back on schedule.
Second, continue reading one reading a day, but adjust the reading schedule. You may prefer to continue reading only one reading per day, but adjust the schedule so that you finish later in the year than you would have otherwise. You can tell PocketBible to find the first reading that you haven't yet marked as completely read, and then make that the reading for today. All other reading will be adjusted so that you continue reading only one reading per day. (PocketBible does this by changing the starting date of your book.)
It may be helpful to think of this option as telling PocketBible to pretend that you haven't fallen behind, but that you still want to read all of the book. PocketBible will ignore the days that you didn't read and present you with the next reading that you should read.
To catch up in this fashion, select Devotional Reading | Catch Up from the menu.
If you are keeping track of your progress through a book, and want to start reading that book again from the first reading, then you may want to erase your progress and start over. To start over, select Devotional Reading | Start Over.
Some Laridian Bibles include Strong's numbers embedded into the text. These numbers appear as links. When you activate a link, then the associated dictionary opens and shows the article for the Strong's number.
Examples of Laridian Bibles that include embedded Strong's numbers are the King James Version Bible with Strong's Concordance and the New American Standard Exhaustive Concordance.
To scroll to a link for a particular Strong's number, use Line Up and Line Down to move the cursor to the previous or next link. By default, these are the up and down buttons on your phone's DPad (if your phone has a DPad, that is).
Once the desired link is selected, activate it by pressing the OK or Select button on your DPad.
Hints:
You can toggle whether the Strong's numbers are shown or not. To change this setting, open Options from the menu, then select Appearance.
Since each verse of the Bible will contain numerous Strong's number links, you may find that scrolling by page is the faster way to scroll through the Bible when you are reading it. You may want to configure the right button on your DPad to scroll to the next page.
After following a link to a Strong's Number, the Bible will be replaced with the associated dictionary. Use Back to return to the Bible. You may find it convenient to configure the left button on your DPad to be a shortcut for Back.
Select Options from the menu to adjust the PocketBible options.
Select the font that you'd like to use.
Select the size of the text. 1 is smallest and 7 is largest. The default size is 3.
Check the Red Letters box to display the words of Christ in red. Red Letters is checked by default.
Check the Indent box to indent poetry, formatting the poetry as it appears in many printed Bibles. Indent is checked by default.
Check the Show when available box to show Strong's Numbers amidst the Bible text, when the Bible provides this additional information. Examples of Bibles that provide Strong's Numbers with the Bible text are the King James Version Bible with Strong's Exhaustive Concordance and the New American Standard Exhaustive Concordance. To turn off the Strong's Numbers, so that the Bible text looks like, well, Bible text without Strong's Numbers, remove the check from this box.
Check the scale images box to shrink images to be no wider than the screen. Uncheck this option to show the images in full-size. When an image that is wider than the screen is shown, then the DPad left and right buttons always scroll the image to the left and right. Your option settings for what these buttons do are ignored when a wide image is shown.
Select how you want footnotes to be handled. The default setting is On.
Some Bibles contain translator's notes and cross references to other passages. These are included as notes. Select from the following options.
Check Use book list for input if you'd like to select a book of the Bible from a list. Do not check this box if you'd rather enter the name of the book of the Bible using your phone pad or keyboard.
Even if you have a keyboard, you may prefer to select the book of the Bible from a list. Just repeatedly press the first letter of the book that you want until that book appears in the list. For instance, to turn to James in the list, press the J key repeatedly until James is shown. For most books, this requires just a few key presses.
When enhanced T9 is turned on (from the input options), and when you've not selected to use the book list, then checking Use abbreviations causes common abbreviations for books of the Bible, such as Jn for John and Ex for Exodus, to be recognized when entering a book of the Bible. In other words, this expands the number of items that are in the T9 dictionary.
This option affects whether the book list in the GoTo Form sorts the books of the Bible alphabetically or in biblical order. Check Alphabetical to sort the books of the Bible alphabetically, instead of in biblical order. Alphabetical is not checked by default.
Select whether your device includes a full QWERTY keyboard, or whether is provides a phone pad for input.
Check Enhanced T9 if your device provides a phone pad instead of a QWERTY keyboard, and if you'd like PocketBible to try to simplify your data entry using a T9-like entry method when entering text in the Find and GoTo forms. Other forms are not affected.
Check Enhanced Autocomplete if you want to use PocketBible's own autocompletion when entering text on the Find form, and, if you have a phone pad instead of a keyboard, also on the GoTo forms. (This option has not affect when Enhanced T9 is checked.)
To use your phone's own built-in text entry methods, do not check either of the above options.
See Entering Text for more details.
Most phones include a direction pad with five buttons: left, right, up, down, and Action or OK. This is called the DPad for short.
You can customize the behavior of four of these buttons: left, right, up and down. Simply select the button that you'd like to customize, then select the action that you'd like it to perform. Some of the available actions may be appropriate only for certain kinds of books, such as Bibles.
When an image that is wider than the screen is shown, then the DPad left and right buttons always scroll the image to the left and right. Your option settings for what these buttons do are ignored when a wide image is shown.
Select your preferred Bible, dictionary and devotional from the provided lists. The preferred book is used when a book needs to be opened in order to service a link, a lookup, or other activity.
Check Abbreviation if, when you are selecting a different book or Bible to view, you prefer to select a Bible or book by its common abbreviation (such as NIV) instead of its full name (such as The Holy Bible: New International Version). Since the screen on your phone is not typically very wide, book abbreviations are used by default.
Your Windows Mobile Standard phone provides advanced memory management features to automatically close programs in the background when more resources are needed by the program you are currently using. Therefore, Microsoft recommends that programs not include Exit or Quit in the menu. However, we at Laridian prefer being able to exit whenever we want. You may prefer that also. If so, check the Show quit box.
This is also advantageous when you know that you need to actually, really, totally exit PocketBible, such as when you plan to install an update. In that case, it's best to use this option and then select Quit from the menu.
Some devices contain power management features that dim the screen, turn off the screen, and reduce or turn off power to other electronic components. When the phone resumes from this idle state, some external flash memory cards (such as SD cards) do not power-up as quickly as the phone. If PocketBible immediately tries to read data from a book stored on a card, it may appear that the card is not available when in fact it simply has not returned to complete operating status yet. The Delay for flash power-up option attempts to compensate for this power-up delay. If you return to using PocketBible after your phone has been idle and you receive an error, try checking the Delay for power-up box.
If the problem persists even with this box checked, simply exit PocketBible (press *0) and restart it. PocketBible will restart at your previous location.
The Debug options are used to control the built-in diagnostic features of PocketBible. You will typically only need to change these if instructed by Laridian technical support staff.
Check Show Diagnostics to turn on the diagnostic features of PocketBible. When checked, PocketBible will include diagnostic information when showing the book's properties. Select Book Properties from the menu to view the diagnostic information. Diagnostics is off by default.
PocketBible can create a log file containing information about its operation. The log file is named PocketBible Smartphone_log.txt and is stored in the folder that contains the PocketBible program. This is typically Program Files \ PocketBible in the appropriate memory card.
Several logging settings are available. The default setting is Off.
Each setting includes the setting listed above it. For instance, the Warn+ setting includes warnings, errors, and fatal errors. The All setting is the most verbose.
Note that the log file is erased each time that PocketBible starts. This prevents the file from growing to an unreasonable size, but also means that you must make a copy of a log file that you'd like to keep before you restart PocketBible.
Finally, the logging setting does not take effect until you exit PocketBible and restart it. After saving your changes, press *0 to exit PocketBible.
Use the following keypad shortcuts when reading the Bible. Remember, the actions for up, down, left and right may be customized.
| Press | Action |
| Up | Previous hyperlink or line up |
| Down | Next hyperlink or line down |
| Left | Page up |
| Right | Page down |
| * Up | Previous chapter |
| * Down | Next chapter |
| * Left | Back |
| * Right | Forward |
| * 1 | Previous Find match |
| * 2 | Next Find match |
| * 0 | Exit |
Use the keypad to jump to a different location in the displayed book of the Bible.
| 0-9 | Enter chapter or verse |
| # | Separate chapter and verse |
| OK | GoTo entered chapter : verse |
| Back | Erase the previous entry |
For example, if you are currently reading John 3:16 and want to return to John 3:1, press 1 OK. To go to John 1:14, press 1 # 1 4 OK.
If your phone has a keyboard, and you've selected the keyboard (instead of phone pad) in your PocketBible input settings, then the following shortcuts are also available. You can type uppercase (capitalized) or lowercase, and do not need to press a prefix key (such as control or alt) as you often do on other Windows computers.
| B | Back |
| F | Find |
| G | Go To |
| H | Highlights |
| K | Bookmarks |
| L | Lookup |
| M | Next find match |
| N | Notes |
| O | Select (open) book |
| P | Previous find match |
| R | Show find results |
| ? | Help |
You can share your personal data with other compatible PocketBible programs, such as PocketBible for Windows. Sharing this data is called synchronization.
PocketBible allows you to synchronize your personal data, including your notes, highlights and bookmarks, between two or more compatible PocketBible products. You can then have your same personal data with you, regardless of which compatible PocketBible product you are using. And when you change your personal data and later synchronize, those changes are reflected in your other products.
To synchronize your personal PocketBible data from your phone, you'll need the following installed on your Windows computer:
Synchronization is then started and managed from within PocketBible for Windows. Refer to the PocketBible for Windows help for additional information regarding synchronization.
PocketBible and most of the Bibles and related reference material available for PocketBible are protected by US and International copyright laws. To find complete copyright information on any Bible or book, activate the book, then select More Info | Book Properties from the menu.
For information about the copyright of PocketBible, select More Info | About from the menu. Since PocketBible and the PocketBible books are copyrighted, you cannot sell or give away copies of PocketBible or PocketBible books. (You can, however, transfer your license to another person.) See our No-Nonsense License Agreement for additional details about your license to use PocketBible.
If you copy text out of any of the copyrighted books that are sold with PocketBible, you may be subject to limits that are set by the copyright holders. If you have any doubts, contact the copyright holder named in the copyright statement. Do not contact Laridian for permission to quote from Bible or book text. You must contact the copyright holder directly.
Some publishers include a "permission to quote" statement near the beginning of their books. You may (or may not) find such as a statement in the books that you are using.
Generally, you can use any copyrighted material for your own personal use and for certain educational uses. But even educational use does not permit unlimited copying. Contact the copyright holder if you need to quote extensively from copyrighted material.
We're not lawyers and neither are most of you. By installing this software, you agree to the following no-nonsense agreement.
You understand that you're not purchasing any rights in the software itself but rather a license for your personal use of the software. For your convenience, you may install the software on as many compatible computers or devices as you own or control, as long as you are the sole user of the software on all of the computers or devices.
You agree not to give away, sell or otherwise transfer copies of this software to any other party for any reason. When you upgrade this product, your license to use all older versions terminates. You can not legally give old copies of the software away.
The previous paragraph is not intended to prevent you from transferring the ownership of your single copy of the software to another individual, as long as you destroy all your copies of the software and the new owner agrees with the terms of this agreement and notifies Laridian of the transfer of ownership.
We acknowledge your right to keep a backup copy of the software for archival purposes only.
You agree that using software of any kind from any company is a risky activity. You will not hold us liable for any loss of time, money, data files, etc. that might be caused by using this software. This is not to say that we expect this to happen; just that you're responsible for backing up your important files and operating your computer with care. Our obligation to you under any and all circumstances is limited to replacing products you've purchased from us that become damaged or lost because of something we did, or refunding your purchase price at our discretion.
If you need additional assistance, visit the Support Helpdesk at the Laridian Web site, www.laridian.com. Follow the Technical Support or Helpdesk links. The Support Helpdesk allows you to browse and search the KnowledgeBase of questions and answers related to Laridian products. If you don't find what you're looking for in the KnowledgeBase, you can also use the Helpdesk to submit a trouble ticket, allowing our support technicians to answer your question or help resolve your problem.
The PocketBible for Windows Mobile Standard application, Bibles, and documentation are copyright © 2005-2008 by Laridian, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
PocketBible and Laridian are registered trademarks of Laridian, Inc.
Windows Mobile is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.