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e-Sword Module Creation Help Page
This page revised on May 16, 2008
 

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 Preliminaries   - This is a preliminary considerations page for going through the process of creating an e-Sword module. Please read and study this page before actually making any pages.

 Copyright Problems  

The prime market for Christian book publishers is Bibles, and in order to "corner the market", book publishers must have a copyright over a translation or version. This has caused a lot of book publishing resources to be spent in producing new (not necessarily needed) Bible versions that can have a copyright on them. Because of this, we have an abundance of Bible versions. The primary problem here is that of copyright. This issue is a difficult one, because on the one side, if a company or individual has a copyright on a work (Bible version) then others cannot duplicate that work and put it out into the market (neither for purchase nor for free). From that simple interpretation of the copyright situation, only older versions and translations out of copyright should be allowed to be made into e-Sword modules.

But on the other hand, there is an interpretation of the law that says that once you purchase a book or literary work (in any format) that with that purchase, you also have the right to photocopy, rerecord it, or even burn digital copies of it. So if you own a legitimate copy of a Bible (like a hard bound paper copy), then you have the right to have it in other formats. The argument goes that if you go to a used book store and buy an old beat up hard copy of the NIV, then you have the right to own it in a digital format. Under this thinking, it is right or wrong on an individual basis, whether the person downloading already owns (i.e. purchased for any amount) a paper copy or not. I would comment here that technically I think that is acceptable, but here the problem is not in owning it but in how you got it, i.e. somebody else put a copy up on the Internet where others can download it, which is probably illegal if the work is under copyright and no permission is given.

According to the copyright laws today (May 2008) as I understand them, the law protects owners of a purchased work in making the amount or form of copies they desire. Here the idea is that you bought a book, and you want to photocopy a page to read in the pulpit, that is okay. It is legal to copy the page and here even from a library that is accepted by the law. Book publishers have pressed that even in sermons, you cannot quote anything, especially not a commentary or illustration. Under the law, any work no matter the copyright status can be briefly quoted. But I see Pastors pulling their sermons off of the Internet because of this.

Hollywood and book publishing companies want that part of the copyright law changed so that just about every time you open a book you will have to pay (like paying even time you go to a movie theater or hear a song). If they have their way, you will pay to purchase the book, and then pay every time you read it or open, and then you will pay again (much more) if you ever use it in any way whatsoever. We are not there yet, but that is where all things are headed.

I would just like to kick in some opinions about all this. First, there is very little "new" material being produced out there. Mostly it is impossible to produce in quantity because of the type of situation most sciences exist in. In other words a new book on electricity will simply be a repacking of the old material in a new presentation. Therefore anybody who writes a new book (i.e. and publishes it with the book publishers) got 95% of his material from his studies of other books. In most cases it is 100%. This is not illegal as long as the exact wording does not amount to a substantial part of any one book, i.e. you cannot quote word for word an entire book if it is under copyright.

Here is where this gets muddy. Book publishers have for years and years simply gone to old libraries, grab an old book out of copyright, type it and edit it, and print it under their name. This makes their edition of the book under copyright, but the original material is not. Their edition may have slight changes which they will reveal in court in a fight. So just copying somebody's else digital version is not without its hazards.

It is my recommendation to be very careful about what you do in regard to books and especially Bibles. On the one hand, this links may disappear tomorrow as the law changes, so burn a disk copy of all you can get your hands on. On the other hand, there is the thought that what can you do with a stolen copy of a Bible that will really please the Lord? Nothing. Everything is cursed that touches a stolen (illegal) resource. Another thought here is before the just Judge of all men, how can somebody "own" a Bible version to block others from using or make financial gain from God's Word? It is confusing.

My position is the following. I only host what I think and believe to be free of copyright restrictions, but I will link to other sites that have works available. In the area of Bibles, I have a hard time believing that people can justly hold a copyright over God's word. Maybe legally, but justly no. I tend to interpret things that legally, we need to own paper copies, and that would allow us the right to own the work in a different format (digital). I am not a lawyer nor a police officer, and as such, some websites actually do get permission from the copyright owners to post Bibles on the Internet (Crosswalk.com for example). It is not my business to be the Internet Copyright Police, so until somebody squawks, I will post what I believe is free, and the rest I will link to. The linking is upheld in court cases as I understand it, as not being legally obligating on those who link to something.

I will make a point here that it would seem absolutely legal to take any resource you have in any format and make it more useable for yourself, i.e. it is legal to scan a book into the computer for your own personal use. Do not let those resources leave your personal possession though. The illegal activity would be on he who offers it, not on he who downloads it.

So your first question to answer is whether it is legal and moral to make the resource into a module.

 What kind of Module should my material be put into?  

First thing you want to know is which kind of module is best for the material you have.

 Bibles - This is exclusively for translations of the Bible. Do not put other stuff here because e-Sword is not made for that kind of stuff, and it will just not work out. Basically, you have some options here that I will explain.

You have the Old Testament, the New Testament, the Apocrypha. e-Sword uses system of numbering for each book, so it includes the apocrypha for comparison purposes. Think here a number field for each book (OT/NT/Apocrypha) and a number field for each chapter, and a number field for each verse. There should be around 31,102 verses in a standard Bible BBL.

Options here are Strongs numbers and Apocrypha included. (two logical fields in the Details table). The Strongs number means that the number after a word is in the format G#### or H#### for a Greek word or a Hebrew word. In a recent revision of e-Sword, Rick has made it mandatory to have the G and H before the numbers.

There is also a new option for selecting which Strong's structured (using #### instead of a dictionary word entry) to use for the OT and the NT.

 Commentaries  - If you have material that is order according to Bible books, chapters, and verses, but it is not actual Bible text, then the best option would be to put it in a commentary.

 Dictionaries  - This module type is best for individual words or short phrases. The advantage here is that in the Bibles, Commentaries, Study Notes (personal Bible commentary), or Topics, a click on word will make e-Sword automatically look that word up in the dictionaries and mark with a bubble all the tabs that have that word in it.

 Topics  - This is more free form material that frankly has no form. If it is not a Bible, a commentary, or a dictionary, then it goes here. There is no lookup function for the topic notes.

 Devotionals  - This format is found on Tools, Devotionals, and it is basically a year reading format.

 Illustrations  - This is a new format and it is basically arranged by topics called "Categories" and by verses of the Bible but in free form style, not Genesis through Revelation style. Tooltips doesn't work in this though.

  Maps and Graphics  - None of the e-Sword module types will allow graphics except for the MAP modules. This has images, but basically think one image per chapter, where it is like a map, large. Frankly I would go for a Adobe Acrobat PDF instead.

 None of the Above - In searching and using material it is best to keep a focus on what is best and not put things into containers that really have no benefit. Some material is just better kept in MSWord Docs, Adobe PDFs, or something else entirely. Just because you can do it, doesn't mean that is best.

 The Tools of Module Creation

Basically you need to know what is out there as far as module creation and use the right tool for the specific job you want.

 Microsoft Access  - Microsoft Access is the program to use to manipulate these modules on the most lowest "ground level". Basically you will not do anything with a module if you do not have a password access for it, and I will assume "module creation" means that, creating a new module and now ripping off somebody else's material already made in a module, so I will assume you are creating a new module. Here is the program for doing import, export, record level manipulation, and probably for writing your own Microsoft Visual Basic Macros.

 E-Sword Med  - This utility by Craig White (www.craigwhite.net) is basically a gem that you cannot do without. For touching up a module after you have created it there isn't anything else better. Also he has the ability to create a new module of any of the standard types, so that is another good use. He has versify and search and replace, which truthfully is slow. If you are going to replace a lot (like adding a G or H to a strong's bbl) then go to Access because it will literally take hours using MED.

To Update a BBL with Strongs for the new format - Open the bbl in Access. Select the Bible table, click in the Scripture column. Go down to record number ID = 23146 (beginning of the NT) and Menu - Edit - Replace, and then substitute "\super " and replace with "\superG " and "Find in" should be "Scripture", and click "Find:" (down). Click replace all. Go to the top of the database and do it again now replacing "\super " with "\super H" and click "Find: all". Now one more time from the top finding "\superG " with "\super G". Space after G with space before G.

Note that this will only work on a database that has the Strong's numbers superscript and green, and the superscript RTF code is immediately before the Strong's number.

 BeST  - Best is a full fledged import and export tool for e-Sword. I haven't had time to study this tool in depth so I will update this part when I do. Basically you will use BeST when you have a Bible, Commentary, or large Dictionary to import. I will give you more information about BeSt in my Creation of a Bible Module page.