PocketBible for your Windows Mobile Smartphone allows you to read and study the Bible whenever and wherever you have your phone! 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.
PocketBible consists of:
You must have PocketBible and at least one Bible installed in order to use PocketBible. To install PocketBible or a PocketBible Bible:
Important note: your Smartphone contains volatile and non-volatile memory. Volatile memory is erased when you turn off your phone (or when the battery is drained). Non-volatile memory is not erased when your phone is turned off. On many phones, the volatile (non-permanent) memory is called Main Memory and the non-volatile (permanent) memory is called Storage or IPSM. When installing a PocketBible Bible, you may be asked to choose whether to install to Main Memory, Storage, or an external media card (such as an SD card) if one is inserted. If you install to Main Memory, then the Bible will be erased when your phone is turned off. Therefore, we recommend that you do not install to the volatile Main Memory.
PocketBible provides two different methods for data entry: Multitap and T9. The input method that you select affects the GoTo Form and the Find Form. Multitap is selected by default, but you can change to T9 if you prefer. To choose the method that you'd like to use:
PocketBible displays a page at a time; scroll through the Bible using the navigator pad on your phone. You can scroll by line or by page.
| 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 provides two methods for jumping to a different verse in the Bible.
The left context button shows the abbreviation of the open Bible and the location in the Bible. For instance, 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. The GoTo Form will be displayed. Select the book, chapter and verse to view, then press Done.
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".
Use Find to locate verses that contain a specific word, phrase, or combination of words. To start:
Specify what you are looking for in the Find Form.
Remember, if you are using 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.
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.
To view a different verse:
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, used to show the current location in the Bible. The GoTo Form behaves differently depending upon whether you have selected Multitap or T9.
If you use Multitap input:
If you use T9 input:
Remember, you can also jump to a different chapter or verse within the currently displayed book of the Bible using keypad shortcuts.
The Bible menu is available when you are viewing a Bible. Press the Menu button to access the following menu choices.
Shows the list of installed Bibles. Select the Bible that you'd like to view.
PocketBible for your Windows Mobile Smartphone can be used with Bibles from Laridian. Visit the Laridian Web site (www.laridian.com) to learn more about the many available Bibles and other resources for your Smartphone.
PocketBible maintains a list of verses that you have recently viewed; you can navigate through this list using Forward and Back.
Verses are added to the list anytime that you jump to a new verse:
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 Bookmarks Form, where you can manage your bookmarks or jump to a bookmarked verse. More details
Shows the Options Form, where you can configure PocketBible to best match your preferences. More details
Shows information about the Bible, including the version and copyright information.
Shows the PocketBible program version and copyright information.
Shows this help information.
Use Find to locate verses that contain a specific word, phrase or combination of words. To start a find, choose Find | Find from the menu.
Remember, if you are using 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.
The Find Form supports two different methods of entering letters with your phone's keypad: Multitap and T9. Change the input method from T9 to Multitap, or from Multitap to T9, by selecting Options | Navigation from the menu.
To enter a word:
To enter a space:
To enter capital letters:
To enter an asterisk (*):
To enter a question mark (?):
To enter an operator (such as AND or OR):
To enter parenthesis:
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. Access the bookmark features by selecting Bookmarks from the menu. Note that 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.
Select Bookmarks from the menu to view the list of bookmarks. The resulting will 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 OK or the Done button.
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".
Select Options from the menu to adjust the PocketBible options.
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.
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 T9 for Input if you prefer to use T9. Uncheck to use Multitap. This setting affects input in the GoTo Form and the Find Form. Multitap is selected by default. More T9 and Multitap details
Check Use abbreviations to use common abbreviations for books of the Bible, such as Jn for John and Ex for Exodus, when entering a book in the GoTo Form using T9. This option doesn't have any affect if the T9 box (above) is not checked. Use abbreviations is checked by default.
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.
Check Abbreviation if you prefer to select a Bible 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 Smartphone is not very wide, book abbreviations are used by default.
Your Windows Mobile Smartphone 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 exit box.
Some Smartphones 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.
PocketBible supports both Multitap and T9. To select either Multitap or T9 as your preferred choice, choose Options | Navigation from the menu.
Multitap uses the phone's keypad to input text. Each digit on the keypad is used to choose between one or more letters, number of 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:
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.
Use the following keypad shortcuts when reading the Bible.
| 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.
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:
First and most important, you cannot give or sell copies of PocketBible or any of its copyrighted books to other people; nor can you install PocketBible or any of its copyrighted books on more than one computer at a time. You can keep a backup copy of the setup and installation files on your desktop computer.
Second, 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 text. You must contact the copyright holder directly.
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 to use the software on one and only one computer. Additional installations require the purchase of additional copies of the program and/or data files.
You agree not to give away, sell or otherwise transfer copies of this program or its associated data files to any other party for any reason. When you upgrade the program or the data files, your license to use the older versions terminates. You can not legally give old copies of the program away.
The previous paragraph is not intended to prevent you from transferring your ownership of your single copy of the program to another individual, as long as you destroy all your copies of the program and/or data 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 these files 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 program. 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.
Telephone support is also available. To contact us by phone, go to the Support Helpdesk and search the Knowledge Base for "phone number". The resulting article will provide our phone number and hours of operation.
The PocketBible for Windows Mobile Smartphone application, Bibles, and documentation are copyright © 2005 by Laridian, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
PocketBible and Laridian are registered trademarks of Laridian, Inc.
Windows Mobile is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.