With the Verbum Bible mobile app, you can run a range of searches on your preferred Bible, open books, various collections, your entire library, items you have flagged as Favorites, the Factbook tool and more.
There are three different search methods:
While you can configure any of these to fit any search need (see search options below), their defaults create specific search parameters.
This article will demonstrate how to search using all three methods.
Search Tool
Note: The Search Tool, described in this section, may be invoked by either of the other two search options. This is one of the reasons it is described first.
- Tap the menu icon at the bottom right of the screen
- Tap the search icon
- A new search tab opens which shows you an abbreviated list of search helps.
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Tap the search box
- Enter a search term/phrase in the search field at which point there are two main options:
- Press Search on your keyboard to search for the search term. You can determine which books are searched and - within Bibles - which passage range is used to focus your searches. This is described in the section on search options below.
- Select from one of the options presented in the list below the search field to search for different variants on the search terms. Options that show a clock icon indicate recent searches you have carried out.
- Search results will be displayed taking into account the search term used and the search options selected
Display Results
If you are searching within the biblical text, your search results are displayed in three different ways.
- The passages view is the default and shows results within the passages of scripture in order.
- The aligned view shows in order like the passage view, but the passages are shifted so that you see the result in the same place in each passage.
- The fuzzy view will show you results that almost match your search. This is most helpful when searching for a phrase in the Bible but can’t remember the exact wording. It will also lead to other passages that may have a similar idea but different words.
Search Options
Set Searched Resource(s)
Depending on the search method you selected, a search resource selection will display at the top of your search (with the options being All, Bible, Books, Factbook). Tap the current resource selection to see a range of options.
Note that the Search Parameters window has two sections. The top section identifies the type of resource you’d like to search. The bottom section clarifies different kinds of searches within that type of resource. For example, if you are searching in a Bible (as in the example above), you can specify your top Bible, top Bibles, all Bibles, all open Bibles, a specific Bible, or a collection of Bibles.
An All Search doesn't have any options to select from, it simply searches all resources you have access to.
If you select a Books Search, you can choose from a range of options to define the set of books that will be searched:
If you select the Factbook option, you will see a list of related Factbook entries, click one to open the Factbook Tool to that article in another tab.
Set Bible Passage Range
When searching a Bible or selection of Bibles, you can also set a passage range by tapping All Passages. Select a predefined range or tap the plus icon and add a biblical book or group of biblical books.
Use Search Operators
- Find a phrase containing all of the words: add multiple words with spaces between each (e.g., faith hope love)
- Find a phrase containing any of the words: add multiple words with commas between each (e.g., faith, hope, love)
- Find exact wording: surround any phrase with quotation marks to return only results with your precise phrase (e.g., “faith and hope”)
- Exclude a term from the search: add a hyphen before any word to exclude it from your search (e.g., faith AND hope AND glory NOT charity)
- Find references to a verse: a search data label and a verse reference with quotes (e.g., bible:“John 3:16”)
- Find word combinations: use operators like AND, OR, and AFTER (e.g., joy AND peace) to locate specific word combinations
Note: For more information on using search operators, check out the Advanced Searching section of the Verbum help file.
Text Selection Menu
Searching from the Text Selection menu gives you several search options from within the specific resource you are working in. This is helpful, for example, when you are studying a particular passage of scripture or book and want to dig deeper into a word or idea without having to leave that resource to find it!
To open the text selection menu, tap and hold a specific word or tap and drag over a phrase.
There are three ways to search from the Text Selection: Inline Search, using the search tool, and using the Info Cards.
Search Inline
Select “Search Inline” to see where else that word or phrase shows up in this specific resource.
You can modify some of the search parameters - such as the passage range - as when using the Search Tool, though the results will be confined to the current resource.
You can also change the "Display Range" affecting how much context is shown around the search results.
Search Tool
Tap Search to open the search tool preloaded with the term or phrase you’ve selected.
See above for more information about the Search Tool.
Note: If you are searching for a biblical word, using the search tool from the Text Selection menu will show results that correspond to the English word used, not the original language.
Search via Info Cards
The Text Selection menu shows a series of info cards that correspond to data about the selected word or phrase. For example, if you select a word in the New Testament, you will see a Word Info card that shows the English gloss, the MSS, lemma, morphology, and Strong's number.
Tap the actions menu icon on the top right of the info card.
Multiple search options will show in a new window. The exact number depends on the resource you are searching within. From this action menu, you will be able to search for the word - either in its original language or the translation - or open a Bible Word Study on the word.
The Search Button at the Top of a Book
You can also access search functionality by tapping the search icon at the top of an open resource - this will open a search panel, pre-populated with the current verse.
Once you enter a search term, you will see a number of search options including:
- Searching for items in your Favorites that match the search term
- Performing a range of searches on the search term
- Looking up relevant Factbook articles