In last year's survey, Accordance Bible Software was used by the largest number of survey respondents, but it was by no means a clear winner. Many of those surveyed last year did not even seem to be aware of Accordance, while those who were familiar with it tended to have some pretty serious criticisms. Accordance was sharply criticized for its interface, which was beginning to strain beneath the weight of numerous feature additions and an early transition to OS X. It was also widely regarded as too expensive and confusing to buy. While Accordance was certainly praised as often as it was panned, last year's survey revealed some serious issues which needed to be addressed.

At the time of last year's survey, the developers of Accordance (of whom, you'll remember, I am one) were already well into the development of a major new upgrade. Among the improvements already planned were a tabbed Workspace window which would help reduce window clutter, and some minor tweaks to the program's interface. But the survey made it clear that we needed to go beyond incremental improvements to give the interface a complete overhaul. We therefore set aside some of the new features we had planned to add, and focused instead on making Accordance easier to use and more pleasing to the eye. We did our best to question everything, from the organization of menus to the necessity of each floating palette to the layout of each and every dialog box. Accordance 6 was released just six months later.

We made changes, but were we successful? From the reaction of this year's survey respondents, it would appear that we were. Here are just a few of the comments made about the new interface:

The new interface and design have streamlined its use considerably.

New OSX UI is a great improvement—enough to make me buy Accordance.

the user interface is so simple to learn, but powerful in its depth of use.

user interface + breadth of content from Accordance = unbeatable

I always recommend Accordance. The slick user interface and large library of useful modules are what I mention as being most important.

… after trying the Accordance demo on an emulator on an older PC, I was hooked. By using workspaces in Accordance, everything is clean. Amplifying is brilliant. Just simply the best. Were it not for Accordance, I'd still be using a PC.

In addition to the glowing comments, there is some statistical evidence that the newest version of Accordance is helping to address people's concerns. One remarkable statistic is that more than 63% of the Accordance users who responded to the survey indicated that they had already upgraded to version 6. That's a pretty encouraging rate of adoption!

Another aspect of Accordance which was widely criticized last year was price, and here too my company took steps to address the complaints. We began by making the upgrade to version 6 available as a download, so that users no longer have to buy certain CD-ROMs just to get the latest version of the program. We also reduced our upgrade prices substantially.

For new customers, we've added much more value to our main Bible study packages, packing each level of our Library CD-ROM with more Bible texts, commentaries, dictionaries, and other resources. In addition to the Bible texts included in each package, we also now give users their choice of one, two, or three modern English Bibles (depending on which package they buy). By letting users choose which translations they want, we actually take a hit on some of the more popular, higher-royalty Bibles, but we decided that was preferable to forcing our users to get Bible texts they might not necessarily want.

Another way we've made Accordance more affordable is by offering new discounts to ministers, students, and overseas missionaries (as well as to CMUG members). Finally, we've begun offering a free, downloadable "Starter Package" of modules to anyone who purchases and downloads Accordance 6. Thus, it is now possible to get a basic Accordance Bible study package for just $39. Best of all, that $39 gets credited toward the purchase of one of our larger CD-ROM packages, so new users aren't penalized for starting small.

Were all these changes successful in changing people's perceptions that Accordance is expensive? The answer is yes, no, and maybe. Yes, many of those who responded to this year's survey saw Accordance as being more reasonably priced; but no, not everyone did. With most people's interface concerns now addressed, price became the number one complaint about Accordance this year. But in many cases, it was unclear whether those who complained about price were aware of the recent changes. Next year's survey may give a clearer indication of whether these pricing changes have really addressed most people's concerns.

I have much more to say about price-related issues, but that discussion is probably better suited to the Bully Pulpit (opinion) section of the CMUG web-site. For more, see my companion article entitled, "Bible Study Software: Business or Ministry?"

All in all, this has been a year of significant changes for Accordance Bible Software. The interface has been overhauled, the prices have been adjusted, the web-site has been redesigned, and more content has been made available. For the most part, reaction to these changes has been positive. Accordance users made up a larger percentage of this year's survey respondents, and their mood was decidely more upbeat than last year. Major criticisms have largely given way to minor ones, and that's a very good sign. We certainly haven't satisfied everyone yet—a few people still had interface complaints and many still felt Accordance was confusing to buy—but overall, the changes we've made appear to have been well received.

Online Bible: Changes in Attitudes

Last year, the major complaint about Online Bible was that it had not yet been ported to OS X, requiring OS X users to run it in Classic mode. Most felt that the transition to OS X had already taken too long, but they were generally hopeful that an OS X-native version would be coming soon. A year later, an OS X-native version of Online Bible is still nowhere in sight, and the only thing that appears to be changing is the attitude of Online Bible's users, who tended to be much more vocal in their frustration:

OS X Native NOW!

OS X native is a must!

OSX version - long awaited. The author has been most dilatory in responding to OSX's availability. We have been waiting about 2 years now for him to get going. He throws tidbits to his constituency but never seems to do anything to move forward. He is probably losing followers to Accordance because of his poor response time. Not a very good witness to Christianity!

An update every five years or so, whether it needs it or not. . . . Online Bible: Please donate or sell your program to someone who will properly support it before it becomes irrelevent.

Online Bible is my first choice. I have purchased the Deluxe CD, but still waiting on even a BETA version for OSX. They have been very slow in providing it. VERY slow.

It goes without saying, but OSX NOW!

Ken Hamel works on this project alone and it is taking him a lot of time to get the OSX native product ready for the market.

I am waiting to see what the OS X version is like. I understand the F-key feature has not been incorporated in the new version which will be sorely missed.

This would actually be my program of choice if they would ever jump to OS X. Running it in Classic Mode causes problems on my system.

The only reason I don't use it everyday is that it is not in OSX yet, and I rarely want to take the overhead of a classic application... this is ONLY reason I still have Classic on my machine, at all.

Online Bible has never had a particularly rapid development cycle, but then, it hasn't really needed one. It has long offered most of the features people want in Bible software, and has done so for free (if you download it) or at little cost (if you buy it on CD-ROM). Online Bible users have therefore generally been quite satisfied and loyal, and do not seem to have pushed for frequent updates. But now, the widespread—and growing—migration of Mac users to OS X has created an urgent need for an update, and many users' patience seems to be wearing thin.

In June of 2002, Ken Hamel, the developer of Online Bible, remarked in an e-mail to the Mac Ministry list that he anticipated an OS X version being ready "by no later than year's end." He did release a significant update to the Classic version in January of 2003, but explained that work on an OS X native version had taken "longer than initially anticipated." There were rumors that the Carbon version would be ready in March, then May, then by the end of the summer, and finally, in late 2003. This last projection had appeared on the Online Bible web-site until January of this year, at which time it was changed to read simply "this year."

About that time, the Online Bible Info e-mail newsletter reported that Ken Hamel was now planning to "get the programming into the hands of some other developers" who had offered to help. In March, another installment of that newsletter reported:

the source has been sent to some programmers who have experience in carbonizing large Macintosh applications. We are hoping to have an estimate later this month of how long they expect it will take and we will let you know.

To my knowledge, there have been no more reports on the progress of the OS X version since then.

At this point, it seems to me that the lack of reliable information is as much a part of users' frustration as the long wait. After more than a year of being given the impression that an OS X native version was nearing completion, they are now being told that the source code has only recently been given to other programmers who are evaluating how long it will take to port. That's confusing, and for those who have eagerly been awaiting Online Bible for OS X, it's frustrating. Though many are still holding out hope, others are switching to programs like Accordance or MacSword. And the longer it takes to Carbonize, the more Online Bible runs the risk of becoming irrelevant.

In spite of this, Online Bible has engendered a tremendous amount of goodwill and user loyalty over the years, and apart from having to be run in Classic, it still boasts more features and modules than any of the other freeware/shareware options. If an OS X version of Online Bible were finally to be made available, it could easily win back both its users and their enthusiasm. Even if a Carbon version is still a long way away, I think many Online Bible users would continue to hang on if they were finally given more than the occasional "tidbits" and vague projections they've had to try to interpret for the past few years.