28 The Verse List Manager |
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This button opens the Verse List Manager (VLM). This is a
utility that allows you to compile, save, and manipulate lists of verses. The
VLM can also be opened up via the Command Line Utility Button or by
selecting Tools | Verse List Manager from the Main Menu.
Opening the Verse List Manager
Overview
BibleWorks excels at permitting you to perform complex searches to find just the right verse or set of verses. Often you will want to save these verses for another day. The Verse List Manager (VLM) permits you to do this. You can create lists by entering them manually, or by capturing Search Window verses or verse lists. Lists can be sorted, merged, save to disk and loaded from disk. You can even save short descriptions of the lists.
The lists created with the Verse List Manager will all have the extension *.VLS. These lists are in the same format as the lists used by the Graphical Search Engine (GSE). This means that you can import these verses into the GSE and perform searches on them. See the Graphical Search Engine for details. These files are standard ASCII text files and can be edited with any word processor as well.
Please note that beginning with Version 4.0 the format of the Reference List files changed and the extension has changed accordingly (from LST to VLS). You can read in old lists but all new files will be saved in the new format. The reason for the change is so that the files can be compatible with the verse list files produced by the new Graphical Search Engine.
When verses are saved in the Verse List Manager a version name is saved with each verse. The reason for this is that there are variations in numbering schemes among some versions, between the English, Greek and Hebrew Old Testaments for example. This ensures that you really get the verse you want and eliminates a lot of confusion.
Opening the Verse List Manager
There are several ways to open the VLM:
· You can select Tools | Verse List Manager from the main menu.
·
You can select Verse List Manager from the Utility
Button menu 
next to the Command Line.
·
You can click the button on the Buttonbar across the top
of the main window of BibleWorks.
The VLM lets you manipulate and create two different Verse Lists at the same time. The Verse Lists are independent of each other, but they can be compared and combined. The menu in the VLM lets you create, select, compare, copy, export, and manipulate each Verse List.
Creating a Verse List
When the VLM is first opened, both Verse Lists will be empty. To fill a Verse List, select Import from the VLM menu. From this menu you choose the source from which the Verse List will be created. The verse or verses will be added to the current active Verse List.
The Import | From File option lets you load a saved Verse List file. The VLM uses files in the *.VLS format. Verse Lists that are saved from the VLM are written to a *.VLS file. When you save the results of a GSE search (under File | Save Verse list to file in the Query Browse Window in the GSE), the references are also written to a file in the *.VLS format.
The Import | Current Search Window Verse option adds the currently displayed Search Window verse to the active Verse List. This is the first verse in the active Browse Window. The Import | Entire Search Window Verse List option loads the entire Verse List currently displayed in the Search Window. Finally, If you want to type in entries by hand and add them to a Verse List, you can enter them in the Enter a verse to add to Active List edit control at the bottom of the VLM. When you enter a reference here and click the Add button, the reference will be added to the active Verse List. For all three of these options, the verses will be appended to the current Verse List. If you select Edit | Sort List from the VLM Menu, the list will be sorted and duplicates removed. You can change the sort order via the File | Change Book Sort Order menu item.
When you enter verse entries manually you can use a verse range instead of just a single verse reference (like Eph 2:8-10). But ranges cannot span books. You can also use custom book names but we discourage you from doing so since this may hamper the transportability of the lists (i.e. to other users).
Comparing Two Verse Lists
When comparing two Verse Lists, the VLM lets you find all unique references and all common references between the two lists. To find all references in common, select Selection | Select verses common to both lists from the VLM menu. The verses that are present in both lists will be highlighted in the active list.
To find all verses that are unique to each Verse List, you would select Selection | Select all verses not in other list. Note that at this point you can trim down the list by deleting the selected words (Edit | Delete selected). You can also invert the selection (select all words that are unselected and unselect the words that are selected) by selecting Selection | Invert selections, and then delete the selected words.
The Verse List Manager lets you work with two Verse Lists at a time. The Main
Verse List is on the left side of the window, and the Secondary Verse
List is on the right side of the window. You can compare and merge these
two Verse Lists. When you click on a reference in one of these Verse Lists, the
reference will be displayed in the BibleWorks main window. This allows you to
browse through the contents of your Verse Lists.
When you manipulate the Verse List using the menus and buttons, only the active Verse List is affected. The Active List | Main and Active List | Secondary radio buttons let you pick which Verse List should be active. When you are working with two Verse Lists, you can switch back and forth between the main Verse List and secondary Verse List using these buttons. When you select an action from the VLM menu, the action will be performed on the currently active Verse List.
Each Verse List has a Description text area. You can enter a description of the Verse List and save it with the Verse List. When the Verse List is loaded again, the description will be loaded and displayed in this text area.
In the text area labeled Enter a verse to add to Active List, you can manually enter a verse reference. When you click the Add button, the reference will be appended to the currently active Verse List. The Add Search Window Verse button adds the verse reference currently displayed in the Browse Window (in the main window of BibleWorks) to the current active Verse List.
The Verse List Manager Menu
The Verse List Manager provides a range of useful tools for maintaining and using the lists. Keep in mind that the actions you select from the menu will be applied to the currently active Verse List.
File
· New - Creates a new, empty Verse List in the active Verse List window.
· Open - Opens a previously created Verse List in the active Verse List window.
· Save - Saves the active Verse List to a file.
· Save as - Saves the active Verse List to a file using a new filename.
· Change book sort order - Allows you to customize the sorting order to use in displaying the Verse Lists. By default, the VLM will sort references using the standard Bible book ordering, but if you need to have the references sorted using a custom book ordering, this is possible. See The Book Sort Order Window for more information.
Edit
· Sort list - Sorts the active Verse List. This will sort the verse list by book and remove any duplicates. The default book sort ordering can be changed under File | Change book sort order.
· Clear list - Clears all verses from the current active Verse List.
· Copy selected items in active list into inactive list - Merge the selected references in the active Verse List into the inactive Verse List window.
· Delete selected - Delete the selected items from the active Word List.
· Remap selected verses to another version - Converts the references in the active Verse List to the equivalent reference in the Bible version you select. When you select this menu item, a window allowing you to select the new Bible version opens.
Export
· Export to Search Window - Copies all references in the active Verse List into the Search Window Verse List. To copy a Verse List in the VLM to the clipboard, you should first export the Verse List to the Search Window using this option. From the Search Window you can then use The Copy Center to copy the list to the clipboard.
· Copy to Editor - Copies all references in the active Verse List into the BibleWorks Editor.
Import
· From file - Loads a Verse List from a file (*.VLS) and merges it into the active Verse List.
· Current Search Window verse - Inserts the current reference shown in the Browse Window into the active Verse List.
· Entire Search Window Verse List - Merges all of the verses in the Search Window's Verse List into the active Verse List in the VLM.
·
From document - This option will search a
specified file for Verse References and extract the verses to a verse list. When
prompted browse to an HTML, RTF or Text file. After the list is loaded you
can sort the list to place verses in canonical order. Sorting the list also
removes duplicate verses from the list (see the Edit Menu above).
Selection
· Select all - Selects all references in the active Verse List.
· Unselect all - Unselects all references in the active Verse List.
· Invert selections - Selects all references in the active Verse List that are not selected and unselects all references that are selected.
· Select verses common to both lists - Selects all references that are contained in both the active Verse List and in the inactive Verse List.
· Select verses not common to both lists - Selects all references that are contained in only one of the two Verse Lists. If a reference appears only in the active Verse List, but not in the inactive Verse List, it will be selected. If a reference appears only in the inactive Verse List, but not in the active Verse List, it will be selected. This option shows you the references that are unique to the Verse List when compared to the other Verse List in the VLM.
The Book Sort Order Window
This window is opened from the Verse List Manager menu
option File | Change Book Sort Order or from the Main Menu Tools |
Change Verse List Sort Order option. It lets you configure the sort order
for the Verse Lists in the Verse List Manager (VLM) and Search Window Verse
List. By default, the VLM and Search Window will sort references based on the
standard Bible book ordering. If you need to have your references sorted with a
custom book ordering, this window will let you set a book sort ordering for
each Bible version.
Versions - Pick the Bible version whose book sort order you want to change. For each Bible version, you can set a different book sort order.
Book Names - This list displays the current book sort order being used for the currently selected Bible version in the Versions list above. To move a book up or down in the list select it with the left mouse button and click on the detached up and down arrows to the right of the Book Names list. You can select a range of books by clicking and dragging with the mouse button.
Save - Commits your book sort ordering changes to a file so that your custom ordering will be retained after you shut down BibleWorks.
Enable – The Enable button allows you to enable or disable sorting on a per-version basis. It is off by default for all versions. This means that the internal sort order with which the version was built will be used.
The Add Verse to VLM Button
Clicking on this button will add the current Browse Window
verse to the current Verse List Manager list. If the Verse List
Manager is not open, it will be opened and the verse will be added. This is
useful for adding a lot of verses to the VLM manually.