The Reader's Guide

Bible-StudyGuide is a study that looks the way a study should: your work lives in bound volumes on a shelf. A volume holds two kinds of pages — sources you lay in (scripture, notes, books, articles, scans) and insights written from them: some in your hand, some written for you.

The shelf

Take a volume down by tapping its spine — it flies to you, the cover swings open, and the volume lies open at its spread. Bind a new volume with the button under the shelf; give it a title, and it takes its place on the shelf with the title tooled on its spine. To rearrange, hold a spine a moment — you'll feel it lift — then slide it along the shelf and set it down.

The open volume

The left page lists sources laid in; the right page lists insights written. Tap any line to turn to its leaf and read it in full — a source still being laid in waits until its text is ready. Press and hold a line to retitle it or take it out of the volume. The volume itself is retitled — or retired — from the mark beside its title. (A sample volume cannot be retired; it isn't yours to keep.)

Laying in a source

The button on the sources page opens four doors:

• Write — type or paste a passage, sermon notes, a quotation.
• Link — paste a web address; the page's text is fetched and laid in.
• File — bring a PDF, EPUB, Word, Markdown or plain text file.
• Scan — point the camera at printed pages. The words are read on your device. Only the finished text is laid into your volume — the pictures never leave it.

A new source shows "being laid in…" while its text is extracted — usually seconds; long documents take longer.

The study margin

At the end of every source's leaf is its Study margin — and the pen beside the leaf's own title opens the same thing directly. Choose one way of study, or several — Study & Exegesis, Devotional & Application, Teaching Prep, Key Insights, and more — and they are written one after another, each arriving on the leaf as it is finished. When one arrives, read it, then decide: write it into the book (it becomes a page of the volume, listed on the insights page) or discard it. An insight left in the margin stays there; you can write it in any time.

The subscription

Bible-StudyGuide is $9.99 a month, or $79.99 a year, after seven days free. One subscription opens the study on iPhone, iPad, and the web at app.cribinc.com — subscribe on any one of them and sign in on the rest. Reading, scanning, laying in sources, and writing in your own hand need no key of your own. Insights are written by the provider you connect — you bring your own key, and pay that provider directly for what you use.

Questions

Where did "Write an insight" go?

Beside the title on a source's leaf — the pen mark on iPhone, the words on iPad — and again at the end of the leaf, in the study margin where the insight lands. Insights are always written from a source, so that's where the pen is kept; a leaf that is itself an insight has no pen.

Why does my shelf say "sample volumes"?

The app couldn't reach your library — usually you haven't signed in, or there's no connection. The samples let you learn the rooms anyway; nothing you do to them is kept. Sign in and your own shelf takes their place.

Can I undo a removal?

A retired volume can be brought back — it's archived, not destroyed. A torn-out insight or taken-out source is gone, which is why the app always asks first and says exactly what will be lost.

What do "In your hand" and "Written for you" mean under insights?

In your hand marks a note you wrote yourself. Written for you marks one written by a way of study — its name is shown on the insight itself, in the source's study margin.

Is my study private?

Your volumes live in your own account, and only your account can open them. Scanned pages are read into text on your device. Sharing a leaf shares only that leaf's text, and only where you send it.