PocketPC Bible Wiki

by Pastor-Missionary David Cox

Purpose of this Wiki

The purpose of this wiki is to provide free resources for those wanting to use a PocketPC. Note that I highly recommend that you download e-Sword Pocket PC version to begin with from the www.e-Sword.net site. This program is totally free, and although there are resources for this Bible program in the PocketPC format (hereafter on this website abbreviated to PPC), they are somewhat limited. My plan is to put resources on this website for the Bible student.

Who this Wiki is designed to Serve

I am designing this wiki for a specific group of people. If you are in this group, you will get the most from it.

(1) Those who have a pda running a version of Windows Mobile (Pocket PC)

(2) Those who have or are willing to download and use the freeware program e-Sword (optional but not mandatory)

(3) Bible students, preachers, pastors, who do a lot of Bible study, or want references and resources at their finger tips.

Cost of these Resources

As always, freely you have received, freely give. That is my conviction as far as charging for things in the ministry. Please note that even though I do not charge anything, those who are mature Christians should understand that services of any nature cost. It costs me time and energy, and since this wiki is only free for webpages, it is not free for hosting files. So the files will have to be hosted elsewhere. I have my own site, which is where I do the primary hosting, and I also do some secondary hosting off of my site at free hosting sites. The problem with these free hosting sites is that if you do not generate traffic for them, they can you (erase your files and site completely!). So if my site is down, these free hosting sites are fine. But if people don't visit them, then eventually they will get erased and I will have to open them anew and remake them, reupload, etc.

Please note that you can send me a donation either directly to my home church (I am a missionary), or through Paypal. Go to this page to see the details. http://www.davidcox.com.mx/personal_information.htm

Format of these Resources

I have a HP iPaq 1950. As I understand it there are literally hundreds of different pdfs running various versions of Mobile Windows, and therefore compatibility is a real problem. You will have to see the e-Sword website (www.e-Sword.net) to get compatability information for the program. I have a very large (almost 1000 books) for the e-Sword program that I offer or offer links to on my e-sword website and in addition to that, I have a lot of help pages on using the program, setting it up, etc. Visit my website for help with that on the desktop.

I needed to tell you that (above) in order for you to understand where I am coming from as far as the format of the files for the PPC. E-Sword has Bibles, commentaries, and Bible dictionaries for the PPC and desktop version. But when it comes to just good books, the desktop version of e-Sword uses a format for the desktop version, but the PPC is basically just a regular old RTF file. I uploaded some RTF pages and there apparently are converted to a PPC version of Word Mobile. The conversion on my PPC didn't complete the entire work even after several attempts. I tried Word Mobile format (also needs conversion) and Adobe Acrobat pdf format. The problem I have with PDF files is that they retain their page characteristics, there you have to pan left to right on every line to read it. The native Pocket format sfw is great but also did not convert the entire file.

So at this point I am abandoning the e-Sword structure for viewing books (it is just RTF and there is no reason to open e-Sword to read an RTF file when the system will do it automatically). What I found was a real pain is that you cannot jump by pages in any of these formats except PDF. When I am reading a book, seldom do I have time to read a 200 page book at one setting. I am new to pdas but it would seem to me that the real use and advantage of a PDA over a laptop or desktop computer is that you easily carry it with you. In the car waiting for your wife, a few minutes you are waiting for something, in the line at the bank, etc. This is when you can redeem the time.

That being the case, it is not acceptable to scroll 50 pages to where you last left off to start reading if there is no page scrolling. Likewise you cannot tell what page you are on or were on when you stopped last. (I know that you can shut the thing off, and turn it back on and it is there. My problem is that anything I upload anything I have to do a hard reset, and that closes out all running programs).

So at this point I have decided to go with PDFs as the format for books. Note that on my website I have probably close to a 1000 pdf books in my library. I uploaded them onto my pda, and found that they do not reformat text to eliminate the panning problem. So I am going through and using OpenOffice to make the PDFs and that program apparently makes the PDF correctly. So for books that is what I am doing. I will try to make a KJV bible pdf in the future so that those who do not want the e-Sword Bible program, but just pdfs can do so. But I would highly recommend the program, because it is very handy, and it is completely free. Donate something to Rick Meyers also so that he updates the thing and puts out new resources from time to time.

Structure of the Files Here and on Your PDA

Please note that I am still learning how to use my own pda, so I am not so expert at that part of this. I have probably 3000 religious files in various formats on my own computer and I am writing 1-2 short books per month in Spanish that one day I would like to translate into English, so I have a lot of material. What I would envision for my pda is systematic theology books, and other good reading material for when I am "killing time" waiting somewhere. I am working on a workable structure (folders and subfolders) so that I can access easily these files.

I would recommend if you have a Pocket PC to also download a free program called Total Commander by a Ghisler. The program is also free but is shareware. It is 100% functional without paying, but you have a nag screen if you don't register (the desktop Windows XP version). The Pocket Version is Freeware, so it has no nag screen. It appears to be available for a very large number of pda devices. Download the Pocket version here.

I recommend Total Commander because in itself it is an excellent program well worth the $30 dollars or so to get rid of the nag screen (on the XP desktop verison). The freeware PocketPC version is very handy for selecting the file you want to read on your pocket PC. It is a Swiss army knife kind of program that basically allows you to find, move, and handle files, but is just excellent. Check out the Desktop renaming feature which is head and shoulders above anything out there (select some files Ctrl M search and replace among the files NAMES you selected, also lets you put a progressively increasing number after each file, etc).

Anyway, I will be uploading the files here in the structure of folders and such as I have them on my pda.

stop Jan 16, 2008

Note this wiki is being constructed. Please check back.

Pastor Missionary David Cox