5 Things you should know about the ESV Online
We’re humbled and excited by the fantastic response we’re receiving from our ESV Online users. Thanks to the many of you who have written in with your encouragement and feedback.
Today we wanted to highlight a few things about this new online study tool, so here’s our “Top Five” list.
- It’s a process. We’ve been working on the site for nearly a year—researching and listening to our customer comments, and we haven’t stopped. We love working closely with you so please continue to give us feedback.
- There are many features and more to come. We’ve included reading plans/devotionals, the ability to take personal notes, advanced Bible searching, Bible audio, as well as the ESV Study Bible content and we’re growing the list.
- There’s a lot of free. Most of the features are available to anyone and everyone for free. They can register for a new account at: http://esvonline.org/account/register. Please spread the word!
- Study notes and resources are available. We created an interface where the ESV Study Bible notes and resources can be viewed alongside the Bible text, continually tracking as you scroll. We’ve found that this layout seems most conducive for in-depth study of God’s Word. The idea was to keep our users from navigating away from the Bible to access these notes and resources.
- Future content. A very big reason why we created this new online Bible tool was to also create a platform where we could provide a wealth of extra-biblical content to help deepen your study of God’s Word. We hope to bring you many more content modules to help accomplish that goal, so please stay tuned!
May 21st, 2010 at 12:45 pm
But TELL US what this new content will be! Pretty Please :)
The site is really nice and incredibly helpful. Something that would be of use (I’d think) would maybe be to add Matthew Henry’s commentary (as a payable module with hyperlinks).
I know I’d like it, but just an idea.
I’d also like to see, somehow, a view of ALL my study notes I’ve entered. Since sometimes I may want a note but can’t remember it. I know you can search but I can’t do a ‘*’ wildcard all search.
May 21st, 2010 at 1:30 pm
I want to offer a little feedback. I love the site, but at this point I’ve discovered one thing that I don’t like. There are times after I’ve done a search that I just want to return to the default page at http://www.esvonline.org/. I can’t do that. Even if I type that default home page address directly into my address bar, the site automatically takes me back to my last search. Is that by design? I’m using Firefox, if that has any bearing on my question. Thanks.
May 21st, 2010 at 1:54 pm
I just made the jump from the ESV online study bible to the esv online. The new platform looks great! My suggestion would be to get rid of the gray frame around the content. I want my full window to be for reading, not blank space. Keep up the great work!
May 22nd, 2010 at 12:14 am
Thank you again! Even though this is an early stage of being in the process — its great stuff!! I really like the approach, the layout, and the future of esvonline! Thank you also for migrating my account over!!
One question: I think with the old site, I could highlight text within the ESV Study Bible Notes….is that a feature that might be enabled in the future?
May 22nd, 2010 at 8:28 am
Just a few suggestions:
1. Some extra space between the lines of the Bible’s text (see, e.g., the ESV Study Bible site) would greatly improve readability.
2. The text of the Bible should be a little larger, and the text of the study notes a good bit smaller. (Incidentally, the text of the study notes is presently larger than the text of the Bible, which is rather awkward.)
3. The “Add Note” form does not mesh well with a small sidebar. It would be nice if that could be tweaked.
May 22nd, 2010 at 2:48 pm
I think the text is fine; if I want it bigger I can use the browser based facility to enlarge text.
Being able to highlight any text as Ken Z said would be good
Being able to export/print personal notes along with the text it relates to might be something to look into. I’ll leave that with your good selves :-)
It is a brilliant tool because I can log on anywhere and pick up where I left off, fantastic. Thank you so much.
I look forward to the additional modules/add ons.
May 24th, 2010 at 9:10 am
Another observation:
Advance search in ESV and My Notes, would be very handy if it could list any notes, just so that I could peruse through my notes…what if, for example, I cannot remember what I wrote, but need a way to skim through my notes (like we can do in wide margin Bibles)? Seems like it would be handy.
Also, the color highlights, if there was an option to see where they are, without needing to actually recall the verse…is there a way to search for all verses that contain underlined words (for example) or purple highlights?
Those functions in the search would be most helpful to me…
Thanks for listening :)
May 24th, 2010 at 9:37 am
“I think the text is fine; if I want it bigger I can use the browser based facility to enlarge text.”
Unless I’m mistaken, on Chrome this can be done only by making everything else larger, too. Likewise, I don’t believe there is any way to adjust the spacing between lines using the browser.
Perhaps these things could be made customizable under the “Options” tab? In my opinion, the text the designers used for the Study Bible introductions is superior (http://www.esvonline.org/resources/introduction-to-john/).
One last thing before I silence myself: “Passage mode” does not handle single-chapter books well. “Jude 1,” for example, is what precedes “Revelation 1″ on the navigation bar. But presently a request for Jude 1 pulls up only the first verse of Jude.
These reservations aside (which I intend only as feedback—not complaints), I very much like the new site. Excellent work.
June 13th, 2010 at 5:32 pm
The new site is outstanding. I love the way that I can customize the page with 2, 3, or 4 areas and decide for myself what will appear in them. Thanks for all of your hard work and for your faithfulness to the Gospel.
June 14th, 2010 at 9:49 am
I LOVE the ESV Study Bible and all the online features. One thing that I know would be extremely convenient is if there was the ESV Study Bible app for the iPhone/iPod Touch. If there was a way to sync my notes from a mobile version of this Bible with my online version, that would be fantastic! I really hope something of that sort will be released soon!
June 22nd, 2010 at 1:06 am
Q. Will the contents of the ESV Literary SB also be ported to the ESV Online? I love the ESBLSB and value its comments too.
July 2nd, 2010 at 10:09 am
Yes, they will be added to the ESV Online as an added module in the future.
July 7th, 2010 at 7:11 am
I agree with Roman. I am grateful for the ESV Study Bible online website, but now that I use the iPad I am unable to enjoy its features because flash is not supported. The Study Bible app with the same feautres and content as the website would be a great addition even if offered at a premium. Thank you for your awesome ministry!