Get Started with the Verbum Mobile App

Welcome to the Verbum mobile app! In this article, we’ll briefly walk through the basic features of the app. For more detailed help, visit the Verbum Support center.

Note: Some features below require a Verbum 10 license.

Skip ahead to:

Initial Setup

Get Oriented

Navigate Your Resources

Engage in Study

 

1. Initial Setup

The first time you open the Verbum mobile app, you’ll be presented with three options.

Note: If you’ve already logged in, skip ahead to get oriented.

1. Create my free account for brand new Verbum users who want to create an account.
2. Sign in for existing users (If you’ve forgotten your password, you choose to sign in and then tap Forgot your password?).
3. No thanks, I just want to read the Bible for now! is for users who want to dive into the Bible without signing up or signing in. This option also appears on the Sign-up and Sign-in screens.

Note: Tapping either of the first two options will advance you to a screen where you can enter your account information. If you select option 3, the initial login screen will open every time you open the app.

2. Get Oriented

When opened, the app opens to your last-viewed resource in the central tabs view. If you have multiple resources open, swipe to switch between them.

 

Did you know? You can change the default font size, spacing, and theme (i.e., light or dark mode) of the app from the panel menu settings. Learn more.

A navigation bar at the bottom of the screen provides quick access to the major sections of the app. If you can’t see these options, tap the center of the screen to bring up the navigation bar. Tap any icon to view the respective area.

• Home gives you quick access to your reading plans, quickstart layouts, lectionaries, prayer lists, and more. It also displays featured Faithlife content and links to popular resources and media. To close the Home Page, tap Done on the upper right of your screen.
  Learn more about the mobile Home Page.
• The Library holds all your books. By default, all your books stay in the cloud, though you can tap the download icon to place a book on your phone or tablet for offline use.
  Learn more about the mobile library.
• The Tab view is the default view for the app. Each tab represents an open resource, search, guide, or any other feature. You can split tabs between two items, link tabs to scroll together, save tab layouts for use later, and more. Tap the icon to open an overview of all opened tabs.
• The Search icon provides quick access to a blank search tab. Limit your search by resource, range, or many parameters. Note that of the many ways to search in Verbum, this is the most generic and open-ended.
  Learn more about searching.
• The Navigation menu expands a menu with access to all of the areas and features available within the Verbum app. It’s a great place to go if you can’t remember where to find a specific feature.

 

Verbum Mobile on iPad offers additional options on the navigation bar at the bottom.

• The Bible will open your preffered Bible in a new tab.
• Documents will open up a window showing all your recent documents.
• Tools and Guides will give you easy access to all tools and guides available on iPad.
• Factbook will give you quick access to the Factbook tool.
• Store will allow you to access the Verbum store to purchase new resources.
• Layouts will allow you to choose from 8 preset layouts for a single tab.

 

Did you know? You can set a preferred Bible as the default Bible for any opened passage, guide, or tool. Learn more.

 

3. Navigate Resources

While reading any resources, you have access to additional tools and menus to help you get the most out of your study.

 

Highlighting Tool

To highlight any phrase, press and immediately drag to apply your most recently used highlight. To change or delete any highlight, tap the highlight to show the highlighting panel.

 

Selection Menu

Tap and hold until blue handles appear. To select a larger selection drag one of the blue handles to complete your selection. Depending on your resource and selection, a variety of options will appear:

• Highlighting Options will appear across the top of the text selection menu.
• Copy: copy the selection to your clipboard
• Share: share the selection via your system’s share menu
• Note: make a note on the selection
• Search: run a search on your entire library for the selection
• Bible Word Study: Open a word study for the selected word

 

Info Card

Smaller selections (typically four words or less) show Info Cards, which help you study individual words more closely. A card appears for each word in your selection; swipe to switch between them. If you’re studying a reverse-interlinear Bible, Verbum shows the underlying original language term with essential translation, morph, and lexical information. Tap the actions icon to:

• Look up: open the full lexical entry for your selection
• Search: search for the selected word in your top Bibles
• Study: open a Bible Word Study on your selected word

 

Navigation bar

The top navigation bar provides helpful navigation options and study tools.

• Tap to return to your last position in the current resource.
• Use the search bar to navigate to a new location in the resource (e.g., “John 1:1”).
• Tap the Table of Contents icon to visually navigate to any section of your current resource.
• The Panel Menu holds a variety of view settings (where you can adjust the font size, change to a dark theme, and more). Also, create Link Sets with other resources so they all move in coordination with one another.

 

4. Engage in Study

The Verbum Bible mobile app flexes and adjusts to each user. As you study, you’ll find paths that work best for you. Because everything syncs between devices and platforms, you’ll always have access to your latest notes and resources. Here are a few of the most popular study methods and tools.

Skip ahead to:

• Split screens, linked tabs, and saved layouts
• Notes, clippings, and highlights
• Reading plans
• Reference Scanner
• Original language study
• Four ways to search

Note: For more detailed help, visit the Verbum Support center.

Split screens, Linked Tabs, and Saved Layouts

You can set any tab to show two resources and then link them to scroll together. Not only does this take advantage of your screen space, but it also enhances your study by making more information visible at a time.

Note: If you need some help setting up layouts, go to the mobile home screen and choose a default Quickstart layout. Learn more about split screens, linked tabs, or saved layouts.

Notes, Clippings, and Highlights

There are several ways to mark important details in your study. Knowing which tools are available to you can help you choose the best tool for each portion of your study.

• Notes: Notes are your personal comments on any book in your library. Tap and hold until blue handles appear and the word is selected. Drag the handles to complete your selection and then tap Note in the selection menu. This anchors your personal comments to your selected text and inserts a small note icon by default so you can quickly view your note. The notes tool makes it easy to sort, filter, and search to find previous notes. You can also group individual notes by notebooks for further organization. Learn more about the notes tool.
• Clippings: Clippings are personal collections of saved quotations. They help you pull together important quotes and insights on any theme, passage, or topic. To add any selection to a clippings document, tap and hold on a book until blue handles appear and the word is selected. Drag the handles to complete your selection and then tap Clipping in the selection menu. Learn more about the clippings tool.
• Highlights: You can quickly highlight any word or phrase by tapping and immediately dragging. This applies to your most recent highlight. Learn more about the highlighting tool. Easily edit your highlights and notebooks in the Text Selection menu that automatically opens when you make a highlight.

 

Reading plans

You can set aside books to read, create reading plans for nearly any book in your library, and receive daily reminders to engage in your reading plans.

 

The Reading tab in the Library holds your saved books for reading later and any reading plan—those shared with a group, personal plans, and plans you’ve already completed.

• Save books to Read Later: Verbum mobile lets you mark books you’d like to read later. Tap the more options icon for any non-reference work in your Library Tap Add to Read Later to save a book to your Read Later area. You can find all these books under the new Reading tab in the Library.
• Create a reading plan: Tap the more options icon for any non-reference work in your Library and choose Start a reading plan. Verbum breaks your book into manageable reading sessions, so you can focus on reading. Tap Start to begin! If available, you can even listen to the audio Bible.
• Set up notifications: In the Settings menu you can set up a reading reminder to be notified to read each day. Tapping the notification opens the app.

Note: Learn more about reading plans in the Verbum mobile app.

Print Library ISBN Scanner

From the Navigation window, tap the to open the ISBN Scanner. Verbum will now let you upload books from your Print library and show that you have access to that particular resource. This will help further join your digital and print libraries.
Learn more about Print Library ISBN Scanner.

 

Reference Scanner

Snap a photo of a Bible reference in a book, bulletin, and more, and the Verbum mobile app will open your Bible to that reference. You can use an existing photo on your device or scan a document live.

1. Open the navigation drawer and tap Reference Scanner.
2. Tap Scan to take a picture of your references. Verbum will identify any references in the photo.

The reference scanner returns a list of biblical references from your preferred Bible. Tap a reference to expand it and view the entire verse. You can even save the list of references as a passage list.

Note: Learn more about the Reference Scanner.

Original language study

The mobile app includes several ways to study original languages.

1. Info Cards: The easiest way to study original languages is with the Info Cards. Press and hold or double-tap to open the Text Selection menu. Tap Search to open a new search tab pre-populated with a lemma (the dictionary form of your word) query. Tap Bible Word Study to open a new Bible Word Study on that word’s original language lemma.
   
2. Exegetical Guide: Tap the app drawer  and tap Exegetical Guide. This guide provides a detailed analysis of the underlying Greek or Hebrew text in any Bible passage to help you understand and interpret it accurately. It includes entries from your apparatuses, grammars, and includes a word-by-word lexical analysis of individual words in your passage.
   Learn more about the Exegetical Guide.

 

Search on Mobile

With the Verbum Bible mobile app, you can run basic and intermediate searches to scan through your open resources or search within your entire library for words or phrases.

There are two primary methods to search: the Search Tool and the Text Selection menu. While you can configure either method to fit any search need (see search options below), their defaults create specific search parameters.

While you can configure any of the methods to fit any search need, their defaults help you run the distinct search types listed above. Here are a few customizations you can add to any search:

 

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 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.