Many of us have a Bible somewhere that is full of underlining, circles, and a multitude of colorful highlights. Over time, these notations begin to tell a story of how we’ve learned to understand and interact with Scripture, as well as the passages that have held the most meaning to us. If you’re a serial Bible notetaker, you’ve likely even got a specially curated selection of pens, pencils, and highlighters that you’ve come to rely on.
But, even if you’ve turned every page of your Bible into a rainbow of colors, if you haven’t tried highlighting in Accordance, you’re missing out. Let's look at five key advantages of Accordance when it comes to Bible mark-up.
#1 Define Your Styles
In a print Bible, you’re stuck with whatever colors of highlighter or pen you happen to own. But in Accordance, you get to build your own custom styles. Want bold neon yellow? Soft pastel blue? A dotted underline with a bright red border? No problem. You can mix and match color, intensity, shapes, and even patterns to create styles that fit exactly how you like to study. And the options are near endless. Each theme or topic of interest can have its own unique style of mark-up to allow you to quickly visualize large sections of the Bible at a glance.
You can define your highlight styles by selecting "Define Highlight Styles" under the "Highlights" menu.
#2 Create Multiple Highlight Files
One of the most helpful things Accordance does is let you create more than one highlight file. That means you can organize your styles into different sets and switch between them with just a click. For example, you might have one set for theological themes, another for personal devotion, and another for teaching prep. In a print Bible, you’d run out of room fast, stacking notes and colors on top of each other until the page is an incomprehensible mess. But in Accordance, you can highlight the same verse in several different ways without any clutter. You simply decide which set you want to see, and the others stay tucked away until you need them. Simply select "New Highlight File" from the "Highlights" menu to start.
#3 Highlight Verses in Every Bible at Once
Here’s where Accordance really pulls ahead of a print Bible. When you highlight a verse by selecting its reference, that highlight isn’t tied to just one translation, it shows up in all of them. So, whether you’re in the ESV, NIV, NASB, or any other version, your highlights are right there waiting for you. That means you don’t have to redo your work if you decide to study from a different translation. In other words, marking up one Bible in Accordance is like marking up your entire library at once.
#4 Search Your Highlights
Let’s say you’ve come up with a great highlighting scheme. You’ve marked up your entire Bible and now every theme and topic is easily distinguishable at a glance. But what happens if you want to quickly explore a particular topic in Scripture? In a paper Bible, you’d have to flip through every page to find every particular instance of, say, a red underline or yellow highlight.
In Accordance, you can skip the hunt. Just use the [STYLE] command when performing a word search, and you can instantly pull up every verse that matches a particular highlight style. Want to see all the places you marked promises of God, or every warning you underlined in red? They’ll show up in a neat list with one quick search. It’s like having an instant index of your highlights, something no print Bible could ever give you.
#5 Change Your Mind and Erase Mistakes
Made a mistake? Changed your mind? No problem. In Accordance, highlights aren’t permanent like ink on paper. You can erase them, adjust them, or start over completely with a couple of clicks. That means you can experiment freely without worrying about “ruining” your Bible. It’s flexibility you just don’t get with a print page.
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