Paratext 9.2 Beta is Now Available

It is our great privilege to announce to you the availability of the Beta version of Paratext 9.2!  On behalf of the entire development team, we hope that this software is a blessing to you in your work.

Today, you can download Paratext 9.2 Beta from the download page!

What’s New?

• Paratext 9.2 includes major feature upgrades for Study Bible Authoring.  Older Study Bible projects can be migrated to the new, greatly improved, Study Bible Additions (SBA) project type.  The new improvements add  greater versatility, fix many old bugs, and provide much greater performance than the older Study Bible project format.  We think you will love it!  Detailed SBA improvements are linked below.
• The Interlinearizer has been improved to make it easier to set up and reopen interlinear projects.  You may now choose to create an interlinear project using a translation project or resource as the model text, or you can create an interlinear project without a model text.
• Paratext 9.2 includes an XML Resource Viewer.  This is a new capability to display XML based Biblical resources such as lexicons and commentaries.  The main advantages of XML resources is that they can break out of the confines of USFM markup and book-chapter-verse navigation.  Paratext 9.2 includes access to two XML resources, Liddel Scott Jones, Abbot-Smith, and more to come in the future.  Instructions to download and view these Greek lexicons are below.  An XML-based resource editor is currently in development, and will be offered as a Paratext plugin.
• Paratext 9.2 includes a brand new Paratext Plugin API 2.0 that can be used to create new plugins to extend the functionality of Paratext in new ways.  As this API gets out into the hands of our partners’ development teams, we expect to see many new plugins become available for the Paratext community.  This offering of the plugin API includes Developer Documentation, the Paratext Plugin API 2.0 Wiki describing how to use the API, and Reference Plugins that demonstrate how to use the API in working code.
• Paratext 9.2 includes a completely new Paratext Live backend support capability.  Paratext Live allows for real time collaborative editing of Bible translation projects, similar to Google Docs.  The new infrastructure provides greater reliability and performance in collaboration sessions.  If your team uses Paratext Live, please note that Paratext Live in 9.2 is not compatible with Paratext Live in 9.1.

Thank you for your support!

We hope that you can take the time to try out this beta offering.  Please let us know how it goes for you.  From within Paratext, you can go to the Paratext menu → Help → Give Feedback  menu option, fill out the form, and click “Send” to let us know how we are doing.  Your feedback is invaluable in identifying and fixing bugs.  Positive feedback is also very valuable for team morale and for partnership development.  So, please share your thoughts.

We are grateful to the many translation teams who work hard to make the Word of God available to all people throughout the world. We hope this software will bless your work.

Yours in Christ,

The Paratext Development Team

(UBS/SIL)

Summary of Study Bible improvements in Paratext 9.2

1. Significant improvements to performance.
2. Many bug fixes, including fixes for all known data loss issues.
3. Study Bible project data now separated by book.
4. Added non-editable “Preview” view.
5. Buttons which Add/Hide/Replace content are enabled and disabled predictably.
6. Sidebars, added paragraphs and extended notes appear in more predictable locations.
7. Content is clearly formatted to distinguish editable study content from base text content.
8. Improvements to formatting make it easier to see what content is currently being edited.
9. A Study Bible Additions project may be merged with its base project to create a read-only Study Bible Publication project for print or digital publication.
10. It is now easier to move existing Study Bible content to a new location.
11. Improvements to Find and Replace: Search in specific types of location, such as “Study Bible text only”, “Sidebars only”, and more!
12. Study Bible projects now inherit settings and inventories from their base text.
13. Wordlist inherits the spelling status of words from the base text; also allows spelling status of words in the Study Bible project to be different from the base text.
14. Copy books tool ensures valid choices when trying to copy from one project to another.
15. Improvements to suggestions of available USFM markers according to which type of content is being edited.
16. Improved navigation and handling of disconnected Study Bible content.
17. Send/receive summarizes changes that all team members have made to the project.
18. Categories for sidebars and footnotes can be defined and selected within the UI.

Footnotes and Cross References

1. It is possible to carefully control where callers for extended notes appear in the text.
2. More than one extended footnote/cross reference can be attached to a single word or phrase.
3. Project settings allow an administrator to specify whether base text footnotes and cross references can be replaced.
4. Footnotes and cross references from base text and from SBA can each be shown or hidden independently.

Sidebars

1. Automatically display the sidebar pane when content is present.
2. Sidebars now support insertion of tables.
3. Sidebar previews in the base text have been replaced by a more discreet sidebar caller.

How to download and view the new XML Resources

1. Select Download/Install resources… from the main Paratext menu
2. Type ‘English’ in the Filter Text box
3. Select ‘LSJ’ for Liddell-Scott-Jones Greek Lexicon
4. Select ‘MGLAS’ for Abbott-Smith Manual Greek Lexicon
5. Click on Download/Install to obtain the selected resources
6. Select Open from the main Paratext menu and filter for Dictionaries
7. Select the LSJ and/or the MGLAS resources to try them out

Important information for Paratext Live users:

Paratext 9.2 includes improvements to Paratext Live which make it incompatible with Paratext Live in earlier versions of Paratext. If your team uses Paratext Live, please ensure that everyone on the team upgrades to Paratext 9.2 before using this feature. Note: this does not affect Send/Receive which still functions normally between all versions of Paratext.