We are pleased to announce that the Paratext 9 final release is now available on the Paratext download page. Paratext 9 will help translators work more efficiently through improved menus and window layouts, and by providing easier access to reference materials through Enhanced Resources. The Paratext 9 beta has been available since mid-June, and has been used in active translation projects and translator’s workshops, where it has been well-received.

Why switch to Paratext 9?

Paratext 9 is the current released version, which will be continuously improved. Some people upgrade simply because they like to use the latest and greatest software, others prefer to wait. You should try Paratext 9 now if you:

• want to try the new, improved, user interface.
• want to organize your work environment flexibly, making it easier to put the
  tools you need wherever you want them to be.
• want to try Enhanced Resources, which turn gateway language translations into source texts with direct links to the source language text, source language dictionaries, encyclopedia-length articles, and images.
• want to be able to find resources more easily using filters and search criteria.
• want to use Paratext on more than one screen.
• want to use a powerful and flexible new Parallel Passages tool.

How hard is it to learn Paratext 9?

The user experience of Paratext 9 is quite different from Paratext 8, with a new approach to menus and window layout. Most users who have learned Paratext 9 find it more logical than Paratext 8. Most of the tools in Paratext 9 are unchanged, so the core experience should remain familiar. Based on our usability testing, field testing, workshops, and user feedback, we expect experienced users to be able to learn the differences in an hour or two, whereas users who usually require support will be able to learn the differences in less than a day of active use. Please take the time to review the following guide to help you get started:

Introducing Paratext 9

Can I keep using Paratext 8?

As long as Paratext 8 is still supported, you do not have to switch to Paratext 9. We know that some teams are slow to adopt new versions, so we will continue to support Paratext 8 for a long period after Paratext 9 is fully released, giving people time to adapt and learn the new version.

You can also continue to use Paratext 8 while you try out Paratext 9. Just don’t open them both at the same time. If you already have Paratext 8 on your computer, the installer does not remove it.

If other members of your project are using Paratext 8, you can do Send/Receive with Paratext 9 on the same project.

Thanks to our translators!

We hope that Paratext 9 will be a blessing to translators worldwide. Many of you have helped us design and test Paratext 9, trying out early versions on your translation projects to help us create a tool that will work in the real world. We believe in the work you are doing, and everything we do is motivated by our desire to support you in that work. Paratext 9 is our gift to you for the work you are doing.

The Paratext development team

Applying a Project Plan to an existing project is one of the biggest frustrations for teams that are starting to use the Project Plan to manage assignments and keep track of their progress.  You may have a dozen books that are already consultant checked and some that have already been printed.  Yet, when you or your administrator applies a new plan to your project, you find that you are unable to mark tasks as done for work that is already completed.  The Stages Table provides a simple grid (below) that is supposed to make this easy, but as you will soon see, it doesn’t work as expected.

With a single click, the administrator can check off all the tasks in a stage as being complete.  Let’s suppose that Genesis has already been consultant checked and printed.  We want to mark all six stages as having been completed.  We start by marking Drafting as complete:

Now all the tasks in the drafting stage have been marked as complete for the book of Genesis. Next, we can mark Team Checking as complete (At the time of this writing there seems to be a bug.  You may have to click outside of the Assignments and Progress window and then back inside the window before you can mark the next stage as complete). After we do this for the first three stages in our sample project, we are suddenly blocked.  In the image below, Paratext says that we have over 4,000 issues to resolve in Genesis before we can mark the consultant check as being completed!

This is where the frustration begins.  Genesis has already been checked and completed in Paratext 7 a while ago, and the team does not have the time to go back over everything. What can they do?!

Fortunately, we have recently discovered a workaround to resolve this problem. It is the perfect solution for applying a project plan to a project that has existing text.

How to mark tasks complete for previous work

The reason that Paratext won’t let you proceed is that the automatic checks have discovered problems that are supposed to be resolved before the stage can be marked complete.  Often these are things like missing Biblical term renderings or unknown spelling status for words.  You may, in fact, want to revisit these before your final publication, but not now!  You just want Paratext to show the correct status for the book of Genesis, and any others that have been completed.  The project administrator can bypass these error messages and correctly mark the completed stages in three simple steps:

1. Temporarily turn off automated checks
2. Use the Stages Table to mark the completed stages for existing books
3. Turn the automated checks back on

Temporarily turn off automated checks

Go to the Project Plan on the menu.

Paratext 8: Project -> Project Plan -> Checks tab
Paratext 9: Project -> Project Settings -> Project Plan -> Checks tab

Make a note of each check and the stage at which it is set to run.  You can take a screenshot using PrtScn (Print Screen) and paste it into a Word document, or you can write it down on paper.

Once you have made note of all the settings there, set them all to “None”:

Save the new settings by clicking the OK button.

Use the Stages Table to mark the completed stages for existing books

The stages table is found by clicking on the blue icon for Assignments and Progress and selecting Stages Table from the dropdown menu. You will now be able to use the Stages table to mark the actual stage of completed books.  You will not receive any messages about errors in the text that need to be resolved.

Turn the automated checks back on

You must now set the automated checks back the way they were.  Although the checks will continue to signal errors in the books that you have marked as complete, it will not undo the progress that you have marked.  This is important.  We don’t want to hide any issues that may need to be resolved in the future.  For now, your project’s progress will be correctly indicated and you can address things like global spelling issues before the next publication.

We are pleased to announce that Paratext 9 is now available as a beta version. Paratext 9 will help translators work more efficiently, creating better layouts, and providing easier access to reference materials through Enhanced Resources. It has already gone through a lot of testing and users have been very happy with it. You may encounter some minor problems that we aren’t aware of yet, so there will continue to be some minor changes over the next couple months as we work towards the official release. However, we are confident that it is stable enough for everyday use.

Should you use the Paratext 9 Beta?

Yes, if you:

• want to try new UI features that let you organize your work environment to simplify your work.
• want to try Enhanced Resources for easier access to Greek and Hebrew, encyclopedia-length articles, images, and media from a gateway language translation.
• have good computer skills or support from people who do.
• are willing to take the time to report bugs promptly.
• are connected to the Internet frequently to receive updates.

You can download the Paratext beta from the Paratext 9 download page. Double click the downloaded file to launch the installer. The installer will then guide you through a short installation procedure.

You can continue to use Paratext 8 while you try out Paratext 9. Just don’t open them both at the same time. If you already have Paratext 8 on your computer, the installer does not remove it. If other members of your project are using Paratext 8, you can do Send/Receive with Paratext 9 on the same project. We know that some teams are slow to adopt new versions, so we will continue to support Paratext 8 for a long period after Paratext 9 is fully released, giving people time to adapt and learn the new version.

The user experience of Paratext 9 is quite different from Paratext 8, with a new approach to menus and window layout. Based on our user interface testing and user feedback, we expect experienced users to be able to learn the differences in an hour or two, whereas users who usually require support will be able to learn the differences in less than a day of active use. Please take the time to review the following guide to help you get started:

Introducing Paratext 9

We hope you enjoy it!

The Paratext development team

Introduction

Have you ever discovered quoted text in a footnote, but can’t find that text in the verse? This happens when the verse text is updated and the footnote is no longer relevant.   Have you ever struggled to verify the references cited in a footnote, or had trouble keeping book abbreviations consistent?  This article will show you how to make your footnotes in a way that Paratext can help you check them for problems like these.

Quoted Text in a Footnote

Any time you quote words from the translated text in your footnote, you should mark them with the quoted text marker “fq”.  This will let Paratext know that the word or phrase is a quotation and the quoted text check will alert you when the verse and footnote no longer match. During the life of a project, it is very common to change the renderings of biblical terms of modify the spellings, causing footnotes to be out of date.  Running the Basic Checks on your project will ensure that the quoted text always matches what is in the verse.

How to Mark Text with fq Marker

There are two main ways to apply the quoted text marker.  The first is insert the footnote while the word or phrase you wish to comment on is highlighted.  This method copies the text from the verse, and pastes it into the footnote with the appropriate fq markers.  The second is to manually insert the markers and type the text into the footnote. We will show the first method below:

Insert Footnote after Highlighting Text

1. Highlight the text you want to appear in the footnote:
2. Right-click on the selection and choose Insert Footnote:
   
   Paratext creates the footnote inserting the reference, the fq marker and the word or phrase from the text.
3. Type what you want to say about the text. If the footnote will include an alternative to the text as it appears in the verse, use the Quoted Text Alternative marker fqa.  Because fqa  text is different, Paratext will not compare it with the verse text.
   
   When you use fq markers for footnote text, Paratext will ensure that the quoted text matches what is in the verse and will alert you if they are out of sync.
   

Don’t like how Footnotes Look?

A common objection to using the fq marker is that it  produces italicized text, and many users want the word or phrases cited to appear in bold.  The key-term marker fk produces a bold text so it is often used in this context.  You can change the default appearance of a style by creating a custom stylesheet for your project.   Find information about customizing stylesheets in the Paratext Help.  Of course, when publishing your text you can ask the typesetter to use the style of your choice for the fq marked text.

When Not to Use the fq Marker

In certain places, the quotation in the footnote is of an alternate rendering.  It follows the same pattern as the Scripture text, but is an alternate text.  Because this text will not be found in the verse, it must be marked with fqa.  Paratext will format it the same as fq but will not check to see if it matches the verse text.

Scripture References in a Footnote

Footnotes sometimes cite other verses in the Bible.  These references should use the same book abbreviations as the rest of your Bible, and they should not refer to verses that do not exist (e.g. 1 John 20:4).  Checking these references is very tedious work but Paratext will do it automatically if you mark the references in your footnotes with the Target Reference marker xt.

The example below shows a footnote that refers to a Psalm that supports an alternate reading of the text.

You’ll notice that the xt marker activated the Scripture reference check. (Note: The Scripture reference check will only work if the Scripture Reference Settings have been configured.  See Paratext Help for more information on Scripture Reference settings.)  The red x on the book icon indicates that there is a problem with the reference.  In the Scripture reference settings for the project, Psa is indicated as the short name for Psalms. Correcting Ps to Psa will remove the red x as the reference now passes the automatic Scripture Reference check:

Conclusion

By using the fq and fqa markers, you can more easily keep the contents of my footnotes up-to-date.  Finding all the places where the footnotes need changes after a  ten-year project would be vary hard.  Consider using these markers if you are not doing so already and see how much they can help you.

Keeping book abbreviations and the format of references consistent and correct throughout an entire project is a big challenge.  Consider using the cross reference-target reference marker xt in footnotes that cite another reference.  I think you will find that you will be able to correct many errors in your footnotes.