In the previous section, you learned how to find, open, and read your Bible in Verbum. In this article, I’ll show you some of the ways Verbum makes the other resources in your library readily available as you read your Bible.
Note: Available in all subscriptions and in the former Starter Feature Set and above.
Open a Commentary, Study Bible, or Lexicon
If you want to quickly open a Bible, Study Bible, and linked Commentary, you can open the Personal Study layout from the Get Started card. This will open your Top Bible, top Study Bible, and your highest prioritized commentary, linked together.
To pick a specific resource, open the Library. If you know the title of the resource you want to open, enter it in the library find box. If you want to see all your resources of a particular type, you can use the type filter in the library find box - such as:
type:commentary
type:study bible
type:lexicon
You can also filter your library by author, resource type, and other categories using the Library sidebar. Click the filters you want to apply. Every resource that matches your selected filters will be displayed.
When you click a resource in the Library, it will open in a new panel. Depending on what resources you already had open, you may have to click and drag your panels around to arrange them in the way that works best for you.
Linking Resources Together
In Verbum, you can keep two or more resources in sync using link sets. For example, if you scroll down in your Bible, your linked commentary will also scroll down so that your commentary covers the same passage.
Note: Link sets only work between resources that have overlapping milestone types. For example, Bibles and commentaries are both arranged by verse number, so they can be linked together. You couldn’t link a Bible to a monograph, because monographs typically have page numbers as milestones rather than verse numbers.
Create a Link Set
Open the Home tab on your Bible's toolbar, then select Link Set: A (You can have up to six different link sets at once – each designated by a different letter – but we recommend you start with just one). Next, do the same for the resource you want to link to your Bible.
Now, when you scroll in one linked resource, the other will follow it.
Note: Linking a Bible with a lexicon works a little differently. Instead of scrolling as you scroll down your Bible, your lexicon will open to the entry for whatever word you click. Learn more.
You can also link your Bible to various guides and tools in Verbum. Try linking your Bible to the Passage Guide, the Text Comparison tool, and other passage-based features.
Don’t Forget – if you’ve arranged Verbum in a way you’d like to revisit in the future, save your current layout. Select Layouts and select Save as named layout.
Learn more about using Link Sets.
Add parallel text
It can often be helpful to view resources side by side and you can do this by adding a parallel text. This doesn’t require you to define link sets. It is especially useful when you want to see several Bible versions side-by-side.
With multiple books display enabled, the secondary resources follow when you scroll in the primary (or “host”) book. However, the converse is not true – scrolling in a secondary book will not change the location of the primary book.
To add a parallel text:
- Open the View tab on the toolbar and click
Add parallel text.
- Check the box(es) beside the book(s) you’d like to display.
- Use the slider at the upper right to toggle the view on or off.
Note: Verbum will remember your settings when you view a book. When you close a panel with an active multiple book view, it will open in the same way the next time you open that book.
Learn more about multiple resource view.
Using the Insights Panel
Another way of seeing additional texts linked to your Bible is by using the Insights Panel (1). This provides access to your Study Bible and Commentaries, showing a snippet from the top of the relevant section. You can expand the snippet by clicking More (2).
You can select a different Study Bible or Commentary from the Change dropdown, and you can click the title of the Commentary to open it in a separate tab so you can read the entire section on the verse or passage you are studying.